Kenshi Yonezu

Kenshi Yonezu is a Japanese singer-songwriter, producer, and illustrator from Tokushima who started out in the online Vocaloid scene. Posting to Niconico as Hachi from 2009, he gained a following with songs such as ‘Matryoshka’ and ‘Panda Hero’, drawing the artwork for their videos himself. On ‘diorama’, his 2012 debut under his own name, he handled the writing, arranging, programming, instruments, vocals, and mixing himself, and drew its cover art.

After his major-label debut with ‘Santa Maria’ in 2013, Yonezu released ‘YANKEE’ (2014), ‘Bremen’ (2015), ‘BOOTLEG’ (2017), ‘STRAY SHEEP’ (2020), and ‘LOST CORNER’ (2024). ‘Lemon’, written for the 2018 TV drama Unnatural, topped Billboard JAPAN’s year-end Hot 100 in both 2018 and 2019, and ‘STRAY SHEEP’ was Oricon’s best-selling album of 2020.

Songs he has written and produced for others include Foorin’s ‘Paprika’, winner of the grand prize at the 2019 Japan Record Awards, and Masaki Suda’s ‘Machigai Sagashi’. He returned to the Hachi name in 2017 for ‘Suna no Wakusei’, the theme for Hatsune Miku’s Magical Mirai concerts that year.

Theme songs have become a major part of his career, from ‘Peace Sign’ for My Hero Academia (2017) and ‘KICK BACK’ for Chainsaw Man (2022) to ‘Spinning Globe’ for Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron and ‘Tsuki Wo Miteita – Moongazing’ for FINAL FANTASY XVI (both 2023). ‘KICK BACK’ became the first Japanese-language song certified Gold by the RIAA in 2023 and the first to go Platinum in 2025, with ‘Peace Sign’ reaching Gold in 2026. His 2025 theme for Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, ‘IRIS OUT’, reached No. 5 on the Billboard Global 200, setting a record for a Japanese-language song.

In 2025, his JUNK world tour took him to Europe and the US for the first time, with shows in London, Paris, New York, and Los Angeles. Illustration has run alongside the music from the start. He draws the artwork for many of his releases, and his ROCKIN’ON JAPAN series of imaginary monsters was collected in the 2016 book Kaiju Zukan.