(born September 23, 1964 in

Tsuyama, Okayama is a city in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 102,294 and a population density of 200 persons per km². The total area was 185.73 km². The area increased in 2005 as the result of a merger with adjacent to ...

) is a Japanese vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. He is best known as the singer and lyricist of the

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

duo B'z, the best-selling music act in their native Japan. He has also had a successful solo career, with five studio albums and five singles topping the Japanese music charts. He collaborated with

Slash Slash may refer to: * Slash (punctuation), the "/" character Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Slash (Marvel Comics) * Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'') Music * Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band * Nash ...

on single " Sahara" which was released in 2009. In 2017, he released a collaborative album, '' Chubby Groove'', with

Stevie Salas Stevie Salas (born November 17, 1964) is a Native American guitarist, author, television host, music director, record producer, film composer, and former advisor of contemporary music at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. ...

under the name "Inaba/Salas".

Early life

Koshi Inaba was born and raised in

, and enrolled in

Yokohama National University , abbreviated to or YNU, is a national university located in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Founded in 1876, it became a national university in 1949, and currently comprises five graduate schools and four undergraduate faculties. The univ ...

's Faculty for Education in 1983 to become a qualified mathematics teacher. Inaba made his musical debut in 1985 whilst still a student, contributing vocals to Toshiya "Ran" Matsukawa's album ''Burning ~Dedication to Randy Rhoads~'' under the stage name Mr. Crazy Tiger. He graduated in 1987 when he also formed a short-lived band.

B'z and solo career

Beginning with '' B'z'' in 1988, Inaba has, together with guitarist

Tak Matsumoto is a Japanese musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist and main composer of the Rock music, rock duo B'z, the List of best-selling music artists in Japan, best-selling music act in their native Japan. He also ...

, continued to release new material and tour as part of B'z almost every year since. He has also periodically released solo material, starting in 1997 with the album ''Magma'', produced whilst B'z were on a brief hiatus. It was one of the albums to receive the "Best Rock Album of the Year" award at the 12th Japan Gold Disc Awards. Unlike in B'z, where he contributes only lyrics, Inaba has composed the music for his solo releases. All his studio albums and singles until now have topped the

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 ...

music charts. Additionally, the first studio album with 1,001,160 sold copies was the 21st best-selling album of the year, second ''Shian'' with 438,930 copies was the 39th in 2002, third ''Peace of Mind'' with 297,103 copies was 48th in 2004, fourth ''Hadou'' with 177,984 was 38th in 2010, and ''

Singing Bird ''Singing Bird'' is the fifth solo studio album by Japanese singer Koshi Inaba, of B'z fame. It was released by Vermillion Records on May 21, 2014 in Japan. The album debuted at #1 at the Japanese Oricon weekly album charts and at #2 at the '' B ...

'' with 107,551 was certified Gold by RIAJ. As for singles, "Tooku Made" with 663,660 sold copies was the 28th best-selling single of the year 1999, "Ki" with 275,957 copies was 25th in 2003, "Wonderland" with 225,229 copies was 36th in 2004, "Okay" with 134,381 copies was 45th in 2010, and "Hane" was certified Gold and was 51st in 2016. His live video recordings also topped the charts, hence cumulatively, according to reported yearly sales and certifications he sold over 3.4 million records. Inaba has also sung on other artists' releases, such as the

Steve Vai Steven Siro Vai (; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, composer, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a transcriptionist f ...

song "Asian Sky" from the album ''

The Ultra Zone ''The Ultra Zone'' is the sixth studio album by guitarist Steve Vai, released on September 7, 1999 through Epic Records. ''The Ultra Zone'' is structurally similar to Vai's previous album, '' Fire Garden'', in that the first half of the album c ...

'' in 1999. On September 29, 2009, it was announced that Inaba would be featured in

's 2010 solo album, ''

''. Inaba sang on the first single, " Sahara", released on November 11, 2009, in Japan. The song, for which Inaba wrote the lyrics, was featured as the 15th track of the Japanese edition of the album. The single charted at #4 on the Oricon weekly singles chart. On February 24, 2010, it was announced that single "Sahara" won the Western "Single of the Year" award at Japan Gold Disc Award held by RIAJ. In 2017, Inaba released a collaborative album with

under the name "Inaba/Salas". The album, '' Chubby Groove'', went to #2 in the Japanese album charts and was certified Gold by RIAJ. Hiroshi Inaba takes care of his physical condition by not drinking alcohol and not using the air conditioning much during the tour to protect his throat. Marty Friedman once listed Hiroshi Inaba as the best vocalist in the whole world. The reason for this, he says, is that his voice hasn't faded after more than 20 years of singing hard rock songs. He performed the Japanese dubbing voice for Clay Calloway in ''

Sing 2 ''Sing 2'' is a 2021 American computer-animated jukebox musical comedy film produced by Illumination and distributed by Universal Pictures. The sequel to ''Sing'' (2016) and the second film in the franchise, it was again written and directed ...

''.

Discography

Albums

* ''Magma (マグマ)'' (January 29, 1997)

ranking: #1 * ''Shian (志庵)'' (October 9, 2002) #1 * ''Peace of Mind'' (September 22, 2004) #1 * ''Hadou (ハドウ)'' (August 18, 2010) #1 * ''

'' (May 21, 2014) #1

Singles

* Tooku Made (遠くまで) (December 16, 1998) #1 * Ki (June 11, 2003) #1 * Wonderland (July 14, 2004) #1 * Okay (June 23, 2010) #1 * Hane (羽) (January 13, 2016) #1

Digital Exclusive Singles

* Nensho (February 26, 2014) * Nakinagara (March 26, 2014) * Stay Free (April 23, 2014) * Saturday (July 30, 2014) * Yellow (August 24, 2016)

Inaba/Salas

*'' Chubby Groove'' (January 18, 2017) #2 *''

Maximum Huavo In mathematical analysis, the maxima and minima (the respective plurals of maximum and minimum) of a function, known collectively as extrema (the plural of extremum), are the largest and smallest value of the function, either within a given ran ...

'' (April 15, 2020) #1

Guest Appearances

* ''Burning'' – "Ran", 1985 (as Mr. Crazy Tiger) * ''

'' (on "Asian Sky") –

, 1999 * ''

'' (" Sahara") –

, 2010

Videography

*''Live 2004 ~en~'' (2004.12.22) #1 *''Live 2010 ~en II~'' (2011.02.16) #1 *''Live 2014 ~en-ball~'' (2015.11.18) #2 *''Live 2016 ~enIII~'' (2016.08.03) #1

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Inaba, Koshi B'z Japanese male rock singers Japanese male pop singers Japanese male singer-songwriters English-language singers from Japan 1964 births Living people Being Inc. artists People from Okayama Prefecture Musicians from Okayama Prefecture Yokohama National University alumni 20th-century Japanese male singers 21st-century Japanese male singers