Aska, (born on February 24, 1958 in Ono, Onojō, Fukuoka) is a Japanese singer-songwriter. Aska is best known for work as part of the music duo

Chage and Aska were a Japanese popular music duo composed of male singer-songwriters from Fukuoka Prefecture: and . To date they have sold over 31 million albums and singles in Japan. History They were formed in the late 1970s at the suggestion of the A&R ...

. As a composer, he wrote most of the duo's hit songs, including "Morning Moon", "Love Song", " Say Yes", and "Meguriai". He has also written for many other singers and groups, including

Hikaru Genji is the protagonist of Murasaki Shikibu's important Heian-era Japanese novel '' The Tale of Genji''. The story describes him as a superbly handsome man and a genius. Genji is the second son of a Japanese emperor, but he is relegated to civilia ...

. He began a solo career in 1987, and was highly successful in the early 1990s. His most well-known song as a solo singer is "Hajimari wa Itsumo Ame" (The Start Is Always Rain), which was a single from his second solo album. The song reached No. 2 on

oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

and sold over 1,160,000 copies. The song led him to prominence across East Asia. He was arrested in May 2014 for possession of the illegal

stimulant Stimulants (also often referred to as psychostimulants or colloquially as uppers) is an overarching term that covers many drugs including those that increase activity of the central nervous system and the body, drugs that are pleasurable and inv ...

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. On September 12, 2014, he was sentenced to three years in prison suspended for four years. He restarted his career in 2017. In 2019, Aska announced he would leave Chage and Aska.

Stage name origin

Initially, it was thought that his stage name was derived from the Ryo Asuka character of the ''

Devilman is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Go Nagai. The manga focuses on a high school student named Akira Fudo who absorbs the powers of the demon called " Amon" with help of his friend Ryo Asuka in order to batt ...

'' manga series by

Go Nagai , better known by the pen name , is a Japanese manga artist and a prolific author of science fiction, fantasy, horror and erotica. He made his professional debut in 1967 with ''Meakashi Polikichi'', but is best known for creating popular 1970s ...

. Aska later denied this, explaining that his name was derived from "Asuka", the name of female radio DJ in

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

on whom he had a crush in college. When he thought about his stage name, he used Aska to get back at the DJ. At first, the English notation of his name was Ryo Asuka, but this was often mispronounced, so Asuka was changed to Aska.

Discography

Singles

* "My Mr. Lonely Heart" / "Otona ja Nakute ii" (1987, #16) * "Midnight 2 Call"/ "Yume Haruka" (1988, #22) * "Hajimari wa Itsumo Ame"/"Kimi ga Ai o Katare" (1991, #2) * "Seiten o Homerunara Yugure o Mate" / "Only Lonely" / "Seiten o Homerunara Yugure o Mate (Original Karaoke)" (1995, #1) * "Every Day of Your Life (

Richard Marx Richard Noel Marx (born September 16, 1963) is an American adult contemporary music, adult contemporary and pop rock singer-songwriter. He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Marx's Richard Marx (album), self-titled debut album went tri ...

and Aska)" / " Can't Help Falling in Love (Marx)" / " Take It to the Limit (Marx and

Randy Meisner Randall Herman Meisner (born March 8, 1946) is a retired American musician, singer, songwriter and founding member of the Eagles. Throughout his professional musical career, Meisner's main role was that of bassist and backing high-harmony vocal ...

)" (1997) * "ID" / "Kaze no Inryoku" (1997, #4) * "One" / "Chakuchiten" / "Konnafuuni" (1997, #19) * "Girl" / "Hana wa Saitaka" (1998, #6) * "good time" / "judge by myself" (2000, #14) * "Kokoro ni Hana no Saku Hou e" (2003, #5) * "UNI-VERSE" / "Shougen Ni Sofa Wo Oite (Live Ver.)" / "Tsuki Ga Chikazukeba Sukoshi Ha Mashidaro (Live Ver.)" / "Please (Live Ver.)" (2008) * "Anataga Nakukotowanai" / "L&R" (2009) * "Utani Naritai / Breath of Bless -Subeteno Athlete Tachi e" (2019) * "Waratte Arukou yo" (2021) * "PRIDE" (2021) * "地球という名の都" from Sawano Hiroyuki's fifth album called "V" (2023)

Albums

Studio albums

* ''Scene'' (1988, #3) * ''Scene II'' (1991, #1) * ''Never End'' (1995, #1) * ''One'' (1997, #4) * ''Kicks'' (1998, #4) * ''Scene III'' (2005, #6) * ''SCRAMBLE''(2012, #4) * ''Too many people''(2017, #7) * ''Black & White''(2017, #6) * ''Breath of Bless''(2020, #14) * ''Wonderful world''(2022, #7)

Cover album

* ''Standard'' (2009) * ''12'' (2010) * ''Kimi no Shiranai Kimi no Uta'' (2010) * ''Bookend'' ( ja) (2011) * ''Boku ni Dekirukoto'' (2013)

Compilation album

* ''Aska the Best'' (1999, #8) * ''Scene I & II'' (2005, #32) * ''Scene of Scene: Selected 6 Songs from Scene I,II,III'' (2006, #23) * ''We are the Fellows'' (2018, #28) * ''Made in ASKA'' (2018, #7) * ''SCENE -Remix ver.-'' (2018, #42) * ''SCENE II -Remix ver.-'' (2018, #47)

Videography

* ''good time'' (2000) * ''My Game Is ASKA Concert tour 05>>06'' (2006) * ''ASKA SYMPHONIC CONCERT TOUR 2008 "SCENE"'' (2009) * ''ASKA WALK Concert tour 2009'' (2009) * ''The Melody You Heard That Night Shouwa Ga Miteita Christmas'' (2010) * ''Concert Tour 10>>11 Faces'' (2011) * ''ASKA CONCERT 2012 Shouwa Ga Miteita Christmas!? Prelude to The Bookend''(2012) * ''Too many people Music Video + Iroiro'' (2017) * ''Black&White Music Video'' (2018) * ''ASKA PREMIUM SYMPHONIC CONCERT 2018 -THE PRIDE-'' (2019) * ''ASKA CONCERT TOUR 2019 Made in ASKA – 40 Nen no Arittake – in Nippon Budokan'' (2019) * ''ASKA premium ensemble concert -higher ground- 2019>>2020'' (2020) * ''ASKA CONCERT TOUR 12>>13 ROCKET'' (2021) * ''ASKA premium concert tour -higher ground- encore stage 2022'' (2022)

Contributions for other artists

Songwriting

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– Hajimari wa Itsumo Ame (The Start Is Always Rain) *

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– "Teku Teku" *

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– "Dear -Cobalt no Kanata e" (music only) *

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– "Sonna Mon darou" * Yuki Katsuragi – "Bohemian" (lyrics only), "Midori no Bara" (lyrics only) *

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– "Step" (music only)., "Yume" (music only) *

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– "Kaze Fuiteru", "cry" *

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– "Ichioku no Smile -Please your smile-" (music only), "Fight!", "Madogiwa no Koihikou", "Listen to Me" * Kojiro Shimizu – "Crescent Mystery" (music only), "Love Affair" *

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– "Tatta Hitotsu no Tonight" (music only) *

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– "Futari", "My Girl" *

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– "No Credit" *

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– "Arukutabi ni Sukitoru Kaze" (music only) "Otonatachi no Niwa" (co-songwriting), "Asuka" (co-songwriting) * Mariko Takahashi – "Izayoi", "Tokai no Sora" *

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– "Image", "Tsutawarimasuka" *

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– "Imademo...", "Elegy" *

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– "Kimi ga Ai o Katare", "Shiroi Enogu to Orchestra" *

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– "Kokoro no Ball" *

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– "Hana o Kudasai" *

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– "Kaze no Sumu Machi" *

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– "Ame ni Sarawarete", "Tomatta Tokei" * Miho Nakayama – "Honkidemo...", "Midnight Taxi" *

– "A Ki Su To Ze Ne Ko", "Itsuka Kitto...". "Glass no Judai", "Graduation" (lyrics only), "Long Run" (lyrics only), "Koya no Megalopolis", "The Windy", "Starlight", "Paradise Ginga", "Hurry Up", "Please", "Little Birthday", "Rainy Girl" *

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– "I Miss You" (music only), "Leven It to the Future" (lyrics only) *

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– "Yokan", "Nocturne", "Yume no Fuchi" (lyrics only) *

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– "Film no Mukougawa", "Maria" *

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– "Onna ni Naare" *

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– "Hoshi ni Kizuite" *

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– "哭過之後 Weep No More" (music only) *

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– "讓我歡喜讓我憂 You Make Me Happy And Sad" (music only) *

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– "離開情人的日子 The Day Lovers Split" (music only) *

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– "两心知" Both Heart Knows (music only) *

Hiroyuki Sawano is a Japanese composer, arranger, lyricist, pianist, and Music Producer best known for his work on many anime series, video games, Japanese television drama, television dramas, and movies. His works include the Soundtrack, musical scores for ' ...

– " 地球という名の都" (lit. "A City Called Earth") (lyrics only) * Fei Yu-ching – “你是我永遠的鄉愁 You're My Forever Nostalgia” (music only)

References

External links

Shigeaki Miyazaki known as Ask

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aska 1958 births Living people People from Ōnojō Japanese male singer-songwriters Japanese singer-songwriters Japanese people convicted of drug offenses Musicians from Fukuoka Prefecture Universal Music Japan artists