Arashi (Lan , lit. Storm) is a Japanese boy band consisting of five members formed under the Johnny & Associates talent agency. The members are Ohno Satoshi, Sakurai Sho, Aiba Masaki, Ninomiya Kazunari, and Matsumoto Jun. Arashi officially formed on September 15, 1999, in Honolulu, Hawaii, and made their debut CD on November 3, 1999. The group was initially signed to Pony Canyon and released one studio album and six singles--beginning with their 1999 eponymous debut single before moving to the Johnny's subsidiary label J Storm in 2001, which was initially set up for their succeeding releases.

Johnny & Associates announced the group's debut on September 15, 1999 through a press conference aboard a cruise ship off the coast of Honolulu, Hawaii. Then-president Johnny Kitagawa chose five trainees from the Johnny's Jr. division of the agency to become the members of Arashi, the Japanese word for Storm, and to represent the agency's thrust of "creating a storm throughout the world". On November 3, 1999, they made their CD debut by releasing the single "Arashi", which became the theme song for the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Cup hosted by Japan in 1999. It went on to become a major hit, selling 557,430 copies in its first week and almost a million copies by the end of its chart run.  On April 5, 2000, Arashi released their second single, "Sunrise Nippon/Horizon", which debuted at number-one on the Oricon weekly singles chart selling 304,340 copies. The next day, the group began their first concert tour at Osaka Hall. In July, the group released their next single "Typhoon Generation", which debuted at number three on the weekly singles chart with 256,510 copies sold, and continued to chart for nine weeks before leaving the charts. After holding more concerts in August, the group released their last single of 2000, "Kansha Kangeki Ame Arashi". The single debuted at number two on the Oricon weekly singles chart and had first-week sales of 258,720.  In January 2001, Arashi released their first studio album, Arashi No.1 Ichigou: Arashi wa Arashi o Yobu!. The album debuted at number-one on the Oricon weekly album chart with initial sales of 267,220 copies. Until the release of their tenth anniversary compilation album All the Best! 1999-2009, the album remained the group's best-selling album with overall sales of about 323,030 for nearly ten years. From March 25 to April 30, 2001, the group embarked on their first nationwide concert tour Arashi Spring Concert 2001. The tour took place in Sendai, Osaka, Nagoya, Hokkaido, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Kanazawa, Toyama, and Tokyo with an unprecedented twenty-six performances. Before moving to a private record label by the end of 2001, Arashi released "Jidai" as their final single under Pony Canyon. Used as the theme song for Matsumoto's drama Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo 3, it was named Best Theme Song in the 30th Television Drama Academy Awards.

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