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, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

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 heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

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 (channel 9), branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent station, independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city and parts ...

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 advertis ...

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 Thursday ...

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 is an annual music festival held on one weekend in August simultaneously in both Chiba and Osaka, Japan. The festival features revolving lineups performing one day in Osaka then performing the next day in Chiba and vice-versa. The lineup often ...

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. 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 On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...

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-language singers Singers from Sendai Ariola Japan artists 1979 births 21st-century Japanese singer-songwriters 21st-century Japanese male singers {{japan-musician-stub