Current members:

YOSHIKI (November 20, 1965) drums amp; piano

ZEN (ゼン) guitar [1985-1986]

HIKARU (ヒカル) BASS [1985-1986]: Now MEPHISTOPHELES

KERRY (ケリー) Guitar [1986]

SATORU (サトル) Guitar [1986]

ISAO (イサオ) Guitar [1987]: Withdrew after a traffic accident, and then PATA, who supported temporarily, officially joined.

Underground Period

After arriving in Tokyo, the two of them searched for band members and a performance venue (LIVE HOUSE) without any connections. A year later, in 1985, they basically explored Learn how to manage a band. In June of the same year, the first single "I'll kill you" was published and sold by DADA RECORDS. After that, YOSHIKI's mother invested 3 million yen to establish her own label, EXTASY RECORDS Co., Ltd., and then independently produced and sold the single "EXASY RECORDS" in April 1986. At this time,

At this time, X starred in the Japanese TV genius Yuan Yunruo and wore costumes to participate in the "Heavy Metal Games", which caused considerable topics. This program group also planned the "やしろ食堂ライブ" program. TAIJI breathed fire on the sidewalk in front of the store, YOSHIKI played the drums in the narrow store, HIDE played the guitar, TOSHI shouted "Eat~" to the customers eating in the store, and the members played at high speed With オルガスム. The shopkeeper with a troubled expression and the female customers eating silently were completely destroyed in less than a minute after the newly renovated shop. By the way, this is HIDE’s first performance since joining X. In fact, during every performance, YOSHIKI will perform various destructive and violent behaviors such as breathing fire in the LIVE HOUSE. During the performance, he poured gasoline on the drum cymbals and set them on fire. After the performance, he constantly rushed into the audience to fight among the fans. He was banned from entering many live houses and pubs. At that time, when a rock-and-roll guy entered a tavern, it got to the point where the store clerk had to confirm whether YOSHIKI was inside. Because of such idiosyncratic behavior, SAVER TAIGER (SAVER TAIGER) led by X and HIDE, and ディメンシAS led by TAIJI were ridiculed as "the three major garbage bands in Kanto".

In the music industry at that time, especially in various rock genres, "appearing on TV" was regarded as a taboo practice, and they had to maintain their hardcore image and worldview. However, X's practice of both appearing on TV shows and performing in live houses attracted disdain and ridicule from industry insiders and other bands. This period of disapproval was described in X's later masterpiece "Red".

However, after the turning point of appearing on TV, X's popularity spread widely across the country. At the same time, at this time, Compared with other bands, It has lost its meaning" and came to the judgment that "famousness is necessary".

Around this period, the band members gradually became fixed. TAIJI, who once joined and quit, joined again at the end of 1986 .

PATA supported and joined when recording the SKULL THRASH ZONE Vol.1 album. Then, in early 1987, HIDE, who decided to return to his hometown to work as a beautician after the disbandment of サーベルタイガー, was persuaded by YOSHIKI to join the band and join X, replacing the band members who had to quit due to a traffic accident. PATA officially joined the team, thus forming the lineup for MAJOR.

In April 1988, the self-produced underground album VANISHING VISION was released and sold 10,000 copies within a week. This was a jaw-dropping event in the Japanese underground music industry at the time. Then, after discussing contracts with a number of major labels, in the summer of 1988, he signed a contract with the newly established CBS Entertainment (now CBS Entertainment).

Contract with CBS ソニー

When approaching MAJOR, multiple major recording companies started fighting to sign a contract with X. There is a possibility that VANISHING VISION will be released after MAJOR, but YOSHIKI decided that "it wants to leave a mark on the underground era" and insisted on releasing it under its own label, Ekususu. As a result, among the companies that competed with X to sign the contract, CBS ソニー, which had the worst conditions at the time, won. The reason why X signed a contract with SONY was because of the arrogant attitude of other companies. The conditions offered by other companies were "buy a BMW" and "dye your hair black and I will release a CD for you." This arrogant and arrogant attitude of interfering intensified the antipathy among the team members towards mainstream companies. During the negotiations, YOSHIKI played the role of calm handling.

In fact, the SONY company that signed a contract with A special planning team "STAFF ROOM 3rd." was established, with Tsuda as the general manager.

Cancellation of the contract with SONY and heading towards the world

There are many opinions on the cancellation of the contract with SONY. One theory is that in March 1992, X refused to renew the contract with SONY ENTERTAINMENT on the grounds that "YOSHIKI cannot accept such a contract." When recording the album Jealousy released in 1991, due to YOSHIKI's cervical spine injury, the recording time was greatly increased and the recording cost was also astonishingly high. There was a big difference between the band and the company in terms of funding for the global expansion. Considering X's popularity , SONY MUSIC’s patience has reached its limit. Another theory is that the person involved said that SONY unilaterally wanted to continue signing the contract with X, but X refused to sign a new contract because SONY had intervened in the internal problems of the team members. The true circumstances surrounding this incident remain hidden. From the time the contract expired, X had a period without a recording company or a management company.

When X, whose contract with SONY expired, signed a new label contract, the audition work for the new bass player was also going on at the same time. In the summer of 1992, he finally signed a contract with Warner to enter the world. On August 24, a press conference was held at Rockefeller Center in New York. The works are distributed overseas by Atlantic Recording Corporation and in Japan by MMG (now Warner Music Japan). At the same time, Bass player HEATH, who announced that Yuan Matsutaru has joined the band, joined the band. When they entered the world, they changed their name to X JAPAN (originally it was X FROM JAPAN) to distinguish them from the American band of the same name.

Long-term recording and activities outside the band

After signing with WARNER, he started recording ART OF LIFE, which was supposed to be included in Jealousy. Since the DEMO TYPE in the summer of 1990, it has become difficult to record TOSHI's vocal part.

ART OF LIFE was finally released in August 1993.

In parallel with the band's activities, each member's solo activities were announced one after another, which gradually came into conflict with X Band's own plans. YOSHIKI, who was responsible for the management of X's recording plan, aroused a sense of distrust towards the other members. But X's album recording is still in progress slowly.

Originally, as a follow-up to Jealousy, I hoped to release an album to the world as soon as possible. However, there were problems within the band, such as TOSHI's English pronunciation (when recording ART OF LIFE, YOSHIKI was not satisfied with the lead vocal part even after recording for a long time, so he used a computer to correct his pronunciation) and other reasons, YOSHIKI could not express his feelings to the band. The CD DAHLIA will be released worldwide (it was originally planned to make DAHLIA an all-English CD).

Due to the long-term recording, the relationship between the band and WARNER gradually became sour. Within 4 years of signing the contract, the album recording expenses greatly exceeded the standard. In order to balance the recording costs, the band had to continue to release singles. In addition, due to YOSHIKI's old disease, cervical disc herniation, it was impossible to record many high-speed songs like those from the X era.

Just when the album could not be released, the domestic FILM GIG was held in Japan, X JAPAN brand condoms were released, UFO dolls, special games for Sega consoles, and participated in the World Culture Conference held at Todaiji Temple in Nara A legacy performance, a regular performance at the Tokyo Dome at the end of the year, and appearances in Japan's Red and White Song Battle for many consecutive years, X JAPAN has a variety of extra-band activities.

DAHLIA TOUR DAHLIA album released and disbanded

In November 1995, when the recording of the album DAHLIA was still not completed, the national tour DAHLIA TOUR 1995-1996 began. Considering YOSHIKI's physical condition, the basic schedule is to perform two days of performances at one venue in 1-2 weeks. Despite this, in December 1995, the two-day performance in Sendai was cancelled. On March 13, 1996, YOSHIKI's disc herniation recurred during the 1st performance in Nagoya. After that, all TOUR schedules were suspended. In fact, TOUR was equivalent to a miscarriage. In fact (excluding the postponement of the Fukuoka Dome), 7 of the 18 performances were temporarily suspended. In particular, the performances scheduled for the Fukuoka Dome were originally postponed but eventually had to be cancelled.

After a long period of recording, the DAHLIA album was finally released on November 4, 1996. However, after 5 years, 6 of the 10 songs in the album had been released as singles before. Released (SCARS released a single after the album was released), it became a de facto best album. At this time, TOSHI made the comment "X is suffocating".

In April 1997, TOSHI quit the group due to different musical directions. Unable to find a successor vocalist, it was decided that "X JAPAN would be resurrected in 2000 and disbanded for this reason." On September 22, a banner advertisement in Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun published a dissolution notice. A press conference was held on the same day to announce the dissolution of X JAPAN. Afterwards, HIDE held a final concert as a "responsibility" to the fans, and then HIDE persuaded YOSHIKI to invite TOSHI to participate in "THE LAST LIVE Last Night" held at Tokyo Dome on December 31, 1997. After the performance, he participated in the red for the last time. Baige Zhan as the curtain call.

The death of HIDE and the disbandment of X JAPAN

It was not until the "reformation in 2000" that each member of the group started solo activities.

Among them, HIDE enthusiastically launched its solo activities under the name hide with Spread Beaver. However, HIDE died suddenly on May 2, 1998, which made the agreement to reunite X JAPAN come to nothing (this is YOSHIKI's RO-25 in 2005, Weekly Oricon in January 2002, speeches in various interviews such as Feature in June 1999) Due to the death of HIDE, bands like X JAPAN became legends early. Later, several live concert DVDs such as ART OF LIFE and THE LAST LIVE were published, selected albums were selected by online voting, and FILM GIG was held in major cities across Japan and in Seoul, South Korea. At the same time, as a fellow member of HIDE, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi publicly stated "I am a fan of X JAPAN" regarding the active construction of hideMUSEUM.

However, in terms of media reports, on the one hand, TOSHI's brainwashing turmoil, and on the other hand, YOSHIKI's frequent activities other than music, this has made music fans more or less uneasy. In particular, YOSHIKI disappeared from the Japanese music industry, and VIOLET UK in the United States was promoted as the main body of the activity. However, after more than ten years and hundreds of millions of funds have been invested, there are still few official music sources. This is the result of the huge mental stimulation caused by the death of HIDE, whom he deeply trusted, both public and private.

The turning point after HIDE's death was that YOSHIKI composed and performed the song "Anniversary" to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Emperor's reign. Then in 2002, YOSHIKI was a guest on the first episode of Japan's NHK TV program "わたしはあきらめない" and talked about some topics about disbandment. Regarding the direct reason for TOSHI's disbandment, he said, "TOSHI's voice was generally used as a prop." Regarding this program, TOSHI at the time said, "I didn't know it because I didn't watch TV."

X JAPAN is very popular not only in Japan, but especially in East and Southeast Asia. South Korea used TEARS as an insert song in the movie "Servant of the Girl". This was the first time that a Korean film used Japanese music after the ban on Japanese culture was lifted in South Korea. In addition, the music of

Reformed in 2007

Reforming the band in 2007 became a topic. TOSHI clearly stated on his personal homepage on February 10 of the same year, "We discussed the topic of forming a relationship with YOSHIKI." On the myspace homepage of their mutual friend Tetsuya Komuro, they also talked about the re-formation in English. In an interview with TOSHI in Weekly Women's Magazine in March 2007, it was said that "I am scheduled to go to Los Angeles to talk to YOSHIKI about this matter recently." However, in March 2007, YOSHIKI, who had the power to lead the activities as the leader of "There is no such thing" is said in English on mayspace to negate and then form. Then the comments and other related instructions related to the re-formation on TOSHI's personal homepage were deleted. Later, YOSHIKI said in an exclusive interview with SPORTS News, "My will is very strong. As a band that is equivalent to a musician's life, I carefully listen to the opinions of all parties while preparing for resurrection." In this way, there is a possibility of re-formation. It became thicker again.

During the SONY contract period on February 14, 2007 (that is, the X era), the two albums BLUE BLOOD and JEALOUSY were respectively released for limited special sale. On March 21, 2007, TOSHI mentioned on his personal website that he went to Los Angeles to find YOSHIKI and collaborated with him on music in the recording studio nearly 10 years later.

And this song is included in YOSHIKI's 2005 personal classical album ETERNAL MELODY, YOSHIKI's memorial song WITHOUT YOU to HIDE. It is now 10 years since X JAPAN was disbanded, 25 years after its formation, and MAJOR DEBU’s 18th year.

On October 18, 2007, four months after the SPORTS news report, the X JAPAN official website officially announced the resumption of band activities as an urgent notice. The news stated that X JAPAN's new song I.V. PROMOTION VIDEO will be publicly filmed at the Odaiba House in Odaiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo, and I.V. has been decided to be the theme song of the Hollywood movie "Saw 4". This song shows X JAPAN’s expectations and determination to DEBUT worldwide. This song was produced as a new song for the X JAPAN 5 members after reprocessing the deceased HIDE sound source. At this time, the sound source version of the song has not yet been decided, and the release details will not be officially released until 3 months. As the world's DEBUT music, TOSHI also received special guidance from YOSHIKI on the pronunciation of English lyrics when recording DAHLIA. The resurrected Among the four people in front of the camera, YOSHIKI is holding a HIDE doll, showing that X JAPAN is still a five-member band after 10 years in front of the fans. This photo shoot strongly expresses the idea of ??"going to the world together with HIDE". Not only HIDE's human form, but also HIDE's usual position on the stage has been vacant. On the same day, めざましテレビ and various media magazines published an exclusive interview with YOSHIKI, telling fans that after the photo shoot, X JAPAN will hold a 2008 spring revival concert in Tokyo. YOSHIKI said that it will not only be a spring concert, but also X JAPAN will perform in the future We will continue to carry out various activities including the production of a new album.

Then, in a TV interview, he said, "YOSHIKI wants to put an end to X's gorgeous re-formation, and it won't be a long-term activity." Then TOSHI said in his solo concert after his resurrection, "I want to make my own healing music while doing X JAPAN."

On the other hand, Sawada Taiji (TAIJI) did not make any announcement on this related incident.

Officially launched into the world in 2008

After the re-formation was announced, X’s activities started from the completion of past live videos. The first to be released is the full version of X's first performance under the name X JAPAN, the first Japanese New Year's Eve concert in Tokyo Dome, "Japan Direct Release X JAPAN Returns". On December 5, 2007, before Kaisuke Kuwada appeared in the "FNS Gayo Festival", a CM advertisement was released titled "About the Return of Later, it was postponed to February 29 due to production problems. The bonus in the BOX includes the PROMOTION VIDEO of I.V. shot in October. YOSHIKI said that he will digitize past images in the future, and the complete versions of DAHLIA TOUR FINAL and THE LAST LIVE will also be scheduled to be released in the future.

On January 20, 2008, YOSHIKI held a public press conference at Shibuya Amusement Park that fans could participate in by lottery. At the meeting, it was announced that 2Days would be held at the Tokyo Dome on March 28 and 29 of the same year. Resurrection concert.

Ticket reservations began on the same day as the press conference, and all 100,000 tickets were sold by the 23rd. The response was completely higher than expected. The Tokyo Dome decided to open temporary seats, and announced additional performances in the summer. News that X will perform overseas, including in Europe, America and Asia, will be resurrected live under the name "X JAPAN Attack Reopened 2008 I.V. Destruction Kazuya", which is almost the same as the Tokyo Dome 3DAYS performance held from January 5th to 7th, 1992. With the same name, the 28th is the night of destruction, and the 30th is the night of creation. It is emphasized that this is X JAPAN with 5 people, and HIDE will also perform together on the stage. After the press conference, I.V. was released simultaneously on the iTunes Store in 23 countries around the world. This is a manifestation of X JAPAN’s expansion into the world in the form of music sources. On the afternoon of the same day, the members of X JAPAN held a small TALK LIVE with 160 people at the Shibuya store, expressing the reconciliation between YOSHIKI and TOSHI.

At the same time, YOSHIKI announced the vision of VIOLET UK and the future direction of X JAPAN in various magazine media and My space interviews, and the eye-catching X JAPAN activities were featured in the Japanese version of I.V. and WITHOUT YOU. In addition to the production, they will also record new songs, and said that "compared to the original idea, they may also carry out longer-term activities."

The next day, due to the strong response to the resurrection concert, YOSHIKI judged that the Tokyo Dome seats could not be expanded, so YOSHIKI decided to perform an additional performance on the 29th, which was originally scheduled for rest. YOSHIKI's performance on the 29th was canceled. Named after the night of conspiracy. This is the first time since 1992 that X JAPAN has scheduled performances at the Tokyo Dome for three consecutive days. At the same time, the platinum seats planned for the Leukemia Fund were finally canceled because they were too expensive.

On the day of the revival performance, many music fans gathered at the Tokyo Dome as the venue, and long queues formed at the surrounding sales points. The night of destruction on the first day did not start at the scheduled opening time. It was expected to start at 18:30. The performance under THE LAST SONG did not start until 2 hours and 20 minutes later. However, the order of the tracks had to be changed significantly. After YOSHIKI fell to the ground during the performance of ART OF LIFE, the performance was forcibly terminated by the Tokyo Dome, resulting in a unique situation where the performance time was shorter than the waiting time. The next day, YOSHIKI held a press conference before the Wumei Night performance. The reason for being late on the first day was "the constant adjustment of the 3D image setting machine scheduled for HIDE, because I wanted the fans to see it no matter what." The figure of HIDE”. The following night of futility and creation both started on time. In addition, at the resurrection concert, SUGIZO, a close friend of YOSHIKI and HIDE, and the band performed songs such as Silent Jealousy and I.V.

On May 4, 2008, the HIDE memorial summit was held for two days at the Ajinomoto Hotel in Tokyo. X JAPAN performed Without you and Pink Spider, and performed with LUNA SEA's The members played BELIEVE together.

Just after HIDE’s memorial performance, the X JAPAN world performance schedule scheduled for July 5, 2008 in Paris, August 2, Taiwan, and September 13, 2008 in New York was announced, and performances in various countries around the world were announced. The WORLD TOUR was scheduled to take place in Japan and other countries. However, due to the deterioration of YOSHIKI's old cervical disc herniation and tenosynovitis, it was decided to postpone all performances in June of the same year. Then YOSHIKI's illness recovered and the performance scheduled to be held at Paris Multipurpose Theater on November 22 of the same year had to be postponed again because the X JAPAN World Tour signed a new management contract.

On December 31st, X JAPAN held the X JAPAN COUNTDOWN GIG Hatsukoro performance at Akasaka BLITZ. This performance was broadcast separately by CS Fuji Channel and DMM, and was live in 13 TOHO theaters nationwide. broadcast. Since the tickets for the performance at Akasaka BLITZ were extremely high, after the performance, they announced plans to launch a dome performance with 300,000 people on the 4th in Tokyo Dome and the 2nd and 6th in other regional domes in 2009.

The 6-member band performed its first overseas performance in 2009

After the New Year’s Eve performance, the WORLD TOUR officially started in 2009. From January 16th to 17th, X JAPAN’s first overseas performance was in Hong Kong The performance, with the theme of X JAPAN WORLD TOUR LIVE IN HONG KONG, mobilized 20,000 people in the Asia International Center in 2 days. At the beginning of the Hong Kong performance, there was only one scheduled performance called "Broken Night in HONG KONG" on the 17th. However, all the tickets were sold out on the same day when the tickets went on sale on December 18. Based on this huge response, we urgently decided to add another one on the 16th. The show was called "Broken Night Extra", and tickets for this show were on sale on January 7, before the performance.

After the Hong Kong performance, a contract dispute occurred with HEATH, which postponed the Taiwan and Seoul performances originally scheduled to be held in February and March. X JAPAN fell into the worst BASS player and quit the group for the second time situation. Amid this whirlpool of disputes, tickets for the world tour titled "X JAPAN WORLD TOUR Live in TOKYO Attack on the Line" at the Tokyo Dome on May 2 and 3 were released without the members being clear, and YOSHIKI announced "Forced Breakthrough" declaration".

Just when I thought that HEATH's departure from the group might be inevitable, on May 1, the day before the performance, HEATH directly announced that they would not leave the group and expressed their concerns on the official website. While apologizing, SUGIZO, who has been active with the band as a support musician since the revival performance, officially joined X JAPAN as the "sixth member of the band". On May 2nd and 3rd, the anniversary of HIDE's death, "X JAPAN for 6" successfully performed "Invincible Night" and "Night of 18 Episodes". This performance was the first performance other than I.V. and Without you. Three new songs Jade, new elements added to the performance of SUGIZO's violin and YOSHIKI's piano. This concert was also synchronously broadcast by DMM. Since the re-formation of X JAPAN, YOSHIKI has talked about the release of selected albums including new songs many times. Although relevant news has been announced on the official website, it is still unknown when it will actually be released.

On May 30, X-Japan’s concert in Taipei welcomed 20,000 fans. The first climax after the opening was the piano and violin ensemble "SilentJealousy" by Yoshiki and Sugizo. Guitarist Pata then gave a huge solo guitar performance. This was followed by a performance of "Tears", another famous song by . The last thing X-Japan presented was the most popular "EndlessRain".

Yoshiki will hold fan meetings in Beijing and Shanghai on June 13th and June 14th.

In the meeting, Yoshiki pointed out that when I will continue to support X Japan like this, and they will continue to go forward.