is a Japanese singer-songwriter who debuted under

Sony Music Entertainment Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is opera ...

in 2010.

Biography

Rake was born in Sendai, Japan. He began an interest in music by playing an antique guitar at his family home, and in high school, was a member of a

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band. In university, Rake considered singing for the first time, and began steps to becoming a professional musician. Rake performed as the opening act to Japanese band Kimaguren's 2009 tour ''Kid in the Sky,'' and the following January debuted under Sony Music Japan, with the single " Fly Away." The song was used as the theme song for the

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...

drama ''Taxmen'', and while few copies were sold, the song received such extremely heavy airplay across Japan that it topped ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Japan Hot 100 The ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100 is a record chart in Japan for songs. It has been compiled by ''Billboard Japan'' and '' Hanshin Contents Link'' since February 2008. The chart is updated every Wednesday at Billboard-japan.com ( JST) and every Thur ...

chart for two weeks. Rake, after releasing his debut extended play '' All You Need Is'', performed his first solo concert in July, followed by performances at summer festival

Summer Sonic The , also known as Supersonic, is an annual two- or three-day rock festival held at the same time in Osaka and Chiba, Japan. The majority of the bands playing in Osaka the first day go to Chiba the following day and vice versa. The line-up cont ...

in August. In 2011, Rake had his first hit single, " Hyakuman-kai no 'I Love You'," which was used in a television commercial campaign for

Yokohama Tire is a tire company based in Tokyo, Japan. The company was founded and began on October 13, 1917, in a joint venture between Yokohama Cable Manufacturing and B.F. Goodrich. In 1969, the company expanded to the United States as Yokohama Tire C ...

. The song was successful on the

RIAJ Digital Track Chart The was a record chart that ranks the best selling digital singles in Japan, with data provided by the Recording Industry Association of Japan from April 2009. The chart measures cellphone downloads (着うたフル ''Chaku-Uta Full'') (not downlo ...

in its first week, debuting at number six. However, due to the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

occurring several days after the single's physical release in Rake's hometown, many promotional events for the song were cancelled. Rake was at his home in Sendai at the time of the earthquake. In 2015 he went into retirement as a singer-songwriter until 2018 when he resumed under a new project called "Samurai Japan Project".

Discography

Album

Extended play

Singles

Other charted songs

References

External links

Official site

Official Sony Music Japan label site

Official blog
Living people Japanese male musicians Japanese male pop singers Japanese male singer-songwriters Japanese singer-songwriters Japanese-language singers People from Sendai Sony Music Entertainment Japan artists 1979 births Musicians from Miyagi Prefecture 21st-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese male singers {{japan-musician-stub