Remioromen was formed in December 2000 by the singer-songwriter Fujimaki Ryota on vocals and guitar, studio musician Maeda Keisuke on bass and drummer Jinguji Osamu. The three of them had met each other at school when they were classmates. The name of the band doesn’t mean anything specific and was chosen after combining their favorite letters together and some games of jankenpon (rock, paper, scissors).
The band started to do concerts in Gunma, which is a prefecture North of Tokyo. Then, they increased their live activities and went to Tokyo instead. As the number of performances increased, they became more well-known and the number of fans started to grow steadily.
In 2002, the three of them moved back to their hometown Yamanashi and started to focus on the band even more. More songs were written and they practiced in the main hall of a Shinto shrine which they had rented almost every day. They recorded a CD independently and distributed it at their concerts. Exceeding all expectations, it sold out very quickly.
Their first CD came out in March 2003: the mini-album Festa. It was a small success and ranked first on the indies charts. Shortly after they released their first single, Ameagari, which was excessively promoted on every radio station. During the summer another single followed and Remioromen held many performances that received very good feedback. Ryota started his own radio show and the success of the band continued to grow as they released their first album Asagao in November. Shortly after, they performed their first one-man concert at SHIBUYA-AX.
On new year’s eve, Remioromen performed at the COUNT DOWN JAPAN event, which is one of the biggest events in Japan to celebrate the beginning of the new year. Since then, they have participated in all its editions.
The year 2004 started with their first nationwide one-man tour and the release of the single Sangatsu Kokonoka. The title translates to 'March 9th,' which was also the release date. For the promotion of the single, they held a concert at their old junior high school for about 2000 people. Later, the song would be used in a television drama and thanks to that, the band gained a lot of popularity. They did another nationwide tour, this time with 20 shows and during the summer they had countless performances at open air events and other events.
The following year 2005 could be considered as the year of Remioromen's big breakthrough. New singles and the album Ether came out and they did various tours and performances, amongst them a live at the Nippon Budokan, which was later released on DVD. Then, their songs Sangatsu Kokonoka (a choral version) and the not yet released Konayuki were chosen to be the theme songs of the popular dorama 1 rittoru no namida (1 litre of tears), which was aired from October to December.
Due to this, their popularity increased immensely. Shortly after, the single Konayuki was released and it became a huge success: even though it didn't achieve the first rank on the Oricon charts, it managed the second and remained in the charts for 46 weeks, almost a whole year. In 2006, Konayuki turned out to be the second best single sold that year and the video won the award for 'Best Pop Video' at the MTV VMAJ 2006. The first time performance of the song was done at the Kawaguchiko Stellar Theater, an open air theatre. Quite suitable for a song called Konayuki, which means 'powder snow' in Japanese, as the temperature outside was only six degrees celsius
Their third album, Horizon, came out in May and was their first release to rank first on the Oricon charts. It is their most popular album to date. In August, Remioromen held their largest live yet at the airport in Yamanashi: 30,000 people attended. The concert was recorded and distributed on the live album Flash and Gleam a few months later.
The year 2007 brought three more singles and various performances at summer events. 2008 continued in pretty much the same fashion, with the band touring during the first five months of the year. The tour consisted of 40 concerts all over the country, and in May a live DVD of this tour called TOUR 2008 “Wonderful & Beautiful” was released. Summer saw another single release, and December brought their fourth album Kaze no chroma, which was accompanied by a tour as well. Three more singles, the best-of album Remiobest and their fourth live DVD followed in 2009. For fans an almost unnoticeable change took place in 2009 as they changed labels and had moved from Victor Records to Avex with the release of the single Yume no tsubomi.
In 2010, Remioromen grandly celebrated their tenth anniversary. Starting off with a nearly 50-date nationwide tour in the beginning of the year, the band also found time in between to release their next album Kachoufuugetsu. In January 2011 the band released a special 10th anniversary box called 10th Anniversary Special CD BOX “Your Song.” Fans had the opportunity to choose the track list, and so newly arranged versions of favorites Konayuki and Sangatsu kokonoka were featured, along with a new song called Your Song, which was also released as a limited single on its own. Continuing on the "Your song" theme, Remioromen held a special concert on March 9th in Yokohama, with a set list selected by their fans and a string orchestra accompanying the trio. In April, this unique concert was released on CD and digitally on iTunes.
For the near future, Remioromen has several media appearances and concerts scheduled. It seems everything is going very well for this incredibly talented and successful band, and we can only hope they will continue this way.
Remioromen is a three-man band that plays catchy, often mellow rock. Without any visual get-ups, they appear to be a bunch of regular guys.
This description makes it seem that they are nothing special and just another small band that tries to get some attention, which is very untrue: the band is incredibly popular in Japan at the moment. Just to name a few accomplishments: their single Konayuki was the second best selling single of 2006.
Maybe the secret of their success is that exactly because of this 'normal,' but genuine style and their own talents instead of any flashy gimmicks, they manage to reach the hearts of many people.
