赤西仁 | en

Jin Akanishi (赤西仁) (b. July 4, 1984 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese singer-songwriter, actor, seiyū, television personality and former radio host. Akanishi became a member of the popular J-pop group, KAT-TUN, in 2001 and shared lead vocal duty with 亀梨和也 before he left the group in 2010. Since the group's debut in 2006, it has achieved 18 consecutive number ones (including studio albums) on the Oricon charts.

He is also the lead vocalist of LANDS, a temporary band assembled to promote his film, Bandage. The band's single, BANDAGE, and subsequent album, OLYMPOS, both reached number 1 on the Oricon charts.

Akanishi moved to Tokyo, Japan in the first grade. His interest was piqued in the entertainment industry and his parents sent his application to Johnny & Associates on his behalf in 1998. Though he technically failed his audition, he was told to stay by Johnny Kitagawa himself when he tried to return his number plate. Before being part of KAT-TUN, he was in a number of ジャニーズJr. groups like M.A.D., J2000 and B.A.D..

Besides his work in music, Akanishi is also a budding actor with roles in the second season of popular NTV school drama, Gokusen, Anego and Yukan Club, for which he was voted Best Actor in the 11th Nikkan Sports Grand Prix. He made his silver screen debut in 2010 in the award-winning film "Bandage", directed by Mr.Children producer, Takeshi Kobayashi. He was also a co-host of KAT-TUN's own variety show, Cartoon KAT-TUN until it ended in February 2010, and used to host a radio program called "KAT-TUN Style" with bandmate 田口淳之介 (Junnosuke Taguchi) from October 2007 to March 2008.

Akanishi went on a sabbatical from KAT-TUN from October 2006 to April 2007 to study English in Los Angeles. He has since used his increasing fluency in the language to pen many all English tracks, "Lovejuice" and "Wonder" being two of them and the latter being a duet with Crystal Kay. He has also collaborated with her on another track entitled "Helpless Night". He also collaborated with fellow JE artist and best friend, 山下智久 (Tomohisa Yamashita), on a song called "Eternal" which was composed entirely by him for a mutual friend's wedding. The song was first performed at Yamashita's concert at Yokohama Arena on November 23, 2009.

Akanishi embarked on a month-long solo series of concerts in Tokyo entitled You & Jin in February 2010. This solo tour was later expanded to include three shows in Los Angeles in June 2010. The opportunity to perform overseas came at a cost - he could not join KAT-TUN on their national arena tour and subsequent Asia tour, due to a clash of schedules. In July 2010, he announced on his blog that he would be leaving KAT-TUN to pursue a solo career.

His other known solo songs are "Care", "Aisareru Yori Aishitai", "Girisha", "ha-ha", "Kimi wo Omou Toki", "Murasaki", "Ooki na Furudokei", "Pinky" and "Zutto Dakishimetai". .