Crypton Future Media has asked fans of “each KAITO” to respect one another after King & Prince’s Kaito Takahashi began a solo career under the same name as the virtual singer, first released 20 years ago. The company’s statement on October 5th accepts that the two will keep turning up together in searches and on social media, but doesn’t ask Takahashi to change his name or hashtag.
Takahashi announced the project, named after his given name, on October 3rd and released his first digital single ‘swim?’ two days later. Official launch posts from King & Prince and Universal Music Japan have carried #KAITO, a tag Vocaloid fans have used for years, and it’s the shared hashtag that has upset many of those fans most.
KAITO was released on February 17th 2006 as the first Japanese-language male VOCALOID voice library, and he is now one of Crypton’s Piapro Characters alongside Hatsune Miku, MEIKO, Kagamine Rin and Len, and Megurine Luka. His name came from a public naming competition held between December 2005 and January 2006.
Songs made with KAITO come from independent producers and are spread across video and social platforms, so fans rely on his name and hashtag to find new work. Crypton itself describes the culture around its characters as a “chain of creation”.
Naoto Fuga, the singer whose voice KAITO is based on, ran into the problem himself. In a post on October 5th, he said he was laid up with illness and that searching for KAITO’s merchandise, illustrations, and new songs had become a comfort and his only source of enjoyment.
“But somehow it’s suddenly become hard to search, and I don’t really know what’s going on. I wonder if something has happened to KAITO-kun”, he wrote.
Crypton’s statement went up on the official Hatsune Miku X (formerly Twitter) account later that day.
Notice from Crypton Future Media
We have received a range of comments from everyone about the name “KAITO” and hashtags.
Because of the way the systems work, it is difficult to completely prevent hashtags and the like from overlapping when the same name is used, and we expect there will continue to be times when information about both is mixed together in searches and on social media.
We hope that everyone supporting each “KAITO” can enjoy content comfortably while respecting one another’s existence and activities.
We will also continue to share information about the virtual singer “KAITO” through our announcements and social media, as before.
While cherishing the “KAITO” culture we have developed together with you, we would be grateful if you could watch over us so we can remain a kind community where people accept one another.
Thank you for your continued support of our products and characters.
Crypton Future Media, October 5th 2026
The statement names neither Takahashi, King & Prince, nor Universal, and makes no claim of infringement. Crypton does hold a Japanese trademark for a KAITO logo, registered in 2015 and covering CDs and downloadable music files, but didn’t mention it. With replies limited, the post has passed 21 million views and 217,000 likes.
Takahashi was aware of the Vocaloid before his debut. During livestreams on the eve of the release, he said choosing a name had been a struggle because there are plenty of Takahashis and plenty of Kaitos, and called KAITO a “legend”. Some fans took that as respect, while others asked why the project still launched with the same all-caps spelling and hashtag if he already knew.
On social media, Vocaloid fans stressed that nobody wanted Takahashi to give up his name, and many of their posts were aimed at idol fans who had assumed KAITO was a single performer, much like a VTuber. Their worry was that years of fan works under #KAITO can’t be retagged, and that a major-label launch promoted to King & Prince’s 1.2 million X followers could push independent producers’ uploads down search results and leave fewer producers using KAITO. A logged-out YouTube search for KAITO from the UK on October 7th already returned the ‘swim?’ video as the top result.
Takahashi’s fans, known as Tiara, were divided. Some began leaving #KAITO out of their own posts, while others argued that Kaito is his real name and no fandom can claim an ordinary name. One widely shared compromise was to always pair #KAITO with his full name as a hashtag, so Vocaloid fans could mute it.
Overseas Vocaloid fans pointed out that #KAITO is used worldwide, though several also admitted they had been lucky to have the tag to themselves for so long and asked people not to attack Takahashi personally. Producers and fans have kept posting new KAITO art and covers under the tag, and some are among the most-liked #KAITO posts since the launch.
Many praised Crypton’s response, though some felt the company had been left to calm things down while Takahashi’s side stayed silent. As of October 8th, his team still hasn’t responded publicly, and Universal Music Japan’s post celebrating two million YouTube views for ‘swim?’ on October 6th was again tagged #KAITO.
Crypton, meanwhile, is continuing KAITO’s 20th anniversary programme, which has so far included a fan song and illustration contest and new merchandise collaborations.
