Tokunaga Hideaki's first releases, Girl, a full-length album, and a single, Rainy Blue, were released on January 21st 1986, via King Records. Following this he began a 50 concert hall tour. He quickly aimed abroad, releasing his third album BIRDS, in Hong Kong in 1987, and appearing as a guest musician at singer-actor Jackie Chan's concert.
However, his first solo concert abroad had to wait until October 1989 when Tokunaga performed at the Hong Kong Colosseum. In December the anime Dragon Quest, based on a very popular game, began airing on Japanese TV and, for the first 26 episodes, the ending theme song was Tokunaga's bright pop song Yume wo shinjite. Many of his songs have been used in various commercials and TV series, but his work for Dragon Quest is probably the best recognized example of this, considering the series and game's world-wide popularity.
Mirai hikou, his 20th single, came out in 1995 and his career was doing well, concerts keeping him busy. Two years later his 25th single, Rainy Blue ~1997 Track~, which showed respect to the beginning of his career, was released. Just before his next tour in Hong Kong, Ballade of Ballade, a collection of his best ballads, appeared in music stores. To promote this release, he toured Japan and footage from this tour was released via his fan club, Tony's Club.
In June 1998 Tokunaga left King Records and signed with Bandai. This move was marked by the release of a two-part singles collection. The first included hits from 1986-1991 and the second spanning the years 1992-1997. In the end of 2000 Tokunaga's first DVD, which consisted of concert footage and all 25 of his music videos, was released to the masses.
In June 2001 however, the beloved artist worried his fans when he suddenly ended up in the hospital. Due to his poor health, he was forced to quit performing for a while and previously announced dates had to be cancelled. About a year and a half later, in November 2002, Tokunaga returned to the spotlight after changing his label once again to Universal. At this time CD & DVD boxes, collections spanning his entire career, were released.
The members of Tony's Club received another fan club only release in November of 2004, when the live recording Hideaki Tokunaga Live CD "Akai Taiyo no Hi + Aoi Ginga no Yoru" Communication Box was offered to these loyal supporters.
January 2006 was a rather meaningful point in time for the artist, as it commemorated 20 years since his music was first released to the public. Celebrating releases, a CD best of, BEAUTIFUL BALLADE, and a DVD, BEAUTIFUL CLIPS, were released, and his last concert of the year was elegantly called Beautiful Symphony. Before this, however, he had kindly taken part in two charity events: Act Against AIDS 2006 LIVE IN OSAKA, focusing on AIDS, and Point Green Live 2006, for global warming.
