Number_i is a Japanese boy band that made its global debut this April at the Coachella Festival, just six months after forming. Their first single, “GOAT,” was released in March and quickly made it to the top 10 on the U.S. iTunes Chart. Now, their first full album, Number_I, is set to be released on September 23, with the lead track “INZM” available for streaming from August 19.
Newsweek Japan, the Japanese language edition of Newsweek, featured Number_i on the cover of their August 20 issue and conducted solo interviews with each of the three members: Yuta Kishi, Yuta Jinguji and Sho Hirano.
It is not quite a year since the group formed in October. They all say their lives have been transformed, but what exactly are their views, thoughts and attitudes toward music now? Journalist Ei Tazawa asked them.
Yuta Kishi
“The group name Number_i just came to me. Sho, Jin and I were discussing it, and it just came to me, and we all agreed that this was the name we would go with.
“Aiming for No. 1 is important to us, but ‘i’ also means that each of us are important as an individual, and ‘i’ also stands for ‘ai’—which is Japanese for ‘love.’ All in all, the name symbolizes the way we want to relate to our fans.
“Between the formation of the group in October and the release of our debut number in January, we were a mixture of anticipation and anxiety. It was like, where is this going to take us? But things were speeding along and we had to keep up. We decided that we had to move forward in whatever way felt right to us.
“Thankfully, our debut number ‘GOAT’ was well received, but that doesn’t mean we were ready to relax and let go. We didn’t want to be a one-song phenomenon. We had to aim for something higher.
“In order for Number_i to compete on the world stage, we need to improve not only our performance skills, but everything else, including how we come across as people.
“Baseball star Shohei Ohtani is just two years older than me, and I check the internet news sites and online videos every time he hits a home run. He is so bada** great, and because I used to play baseball myself, I can’t keep my eyes off his stats.
“We performed at the Coachella Festival in April. It was just a quick appearance, but I think we did pretty well. We need to study more English—it’s no good yet and it’s really difficult. But I was on a live TV show and said that ‘It’s My Life’ is a really addictive song. Then Bon Jovi went on X (formerly Twitter) to say ‘Thank you Yuta!’ which amazed me, since it was completely out of the blue.
“Nowadays, I don’t have the time, but I used to be into strength training. I would set goals for myself, and the joy of achieving them bit by bit was good not only for my muscles, but also for training myself mentally. That kind of thing brings you a simple kind of satisfaction.
“When we create songs as Number_i, we try to spend as much time on it as we possibly can until we have what we want. We talk with lyricists and composers either by texting or in person, communicating the images and references we want—in detail—for each song.
“Every idea that comes to us, we pass on to them. Whenever we record a music video, we amplify ideas brought to us by the director and spend time tossing them around. We had an average of four to five brainstorming sessions for every video we did.
“I think that basic communication is really so important for us.
“I want to try all kinds of things in the future, but performing and doing live concerts are what I like best. We did some solo concerts at Ariake Arena [in Tokyon] in June—matinee and evening shows every day, several days running—and we have a series of festivals coming up, and we’re also planning a national tour. It won’t be easy, but the fun will outweigh the hassle for sure.
“But I don’t feel that I’m making a great effort. I’m just doing what I want and pursuing what gives me joy. As for recording, sure, the less time it takes the better. But I don’t want to regret things afterwards, thinking we should have done it differently. I want to feel happy about it. It’s because we know how good it feels to do a thing well, that we do takes and retakes, and practice things over and over and over.
“There are certain things that only the three of us can do together. Sho and Jin are the two people in the world that I spend the most time with. We’re not just buddies, and we’re not just business partners. Our relationship is indescribable. Even when we’re not working together in person, it’s the most natural thing in the world for us to share ideas by texting each other.
“It will make me very happy if people will watch over us not expecting too much too soon.”
Yuta Jinguji
“I was in Paris until a few days ago. It was for the unveiling of jewelry brand Mikimoto’s new collection, and it’s only yesterday that I finally got over my jet lag. It was a really tight schedule—work till evening before finally enjoying a meal and no days off, but hopefully, next time, I will be able to make it to Mont St. Michel.
“I would like people all over the world to listen to songs by Number_i. That’s my goal for the immediate future.
“Time has just whizzed by since last October. Recording, live shows, TV appearances, festivals—it was one thing after another, and it trained us to stay on schedule and to build things up from zero. Every day called for thinking things through.
“Our debut number ‘GOAT’ was something we really built up from zero, with advice from a lyricist and composer. The three of us grew up in different environments, listening to different types of music, so it was really, really hard to get all those points of view into one song, but it was also a really fun experience for us.
“‘GOAT’ is a hip-hop number, which may have surprised people who knew us. To tell you the truth, that was the one thing that worried us. We worried about how fans who had supported us up to then would react. But the final outcome was super cool.
“That was the moment we felt the strength of the bond between our fans and us. We pitched an entirely different type of ball than we’d done before, and they were there to catch it with a gigantic mitt.
“Naturally, we’ll have to keep improving the quality. As for taking our music to the whole world, we realize that things move there at an entirely different pace. Offers like, ‘Hey wanna appear at next week’s festival?’ are pretty common. We can’t be in a position where we have only three songs that are ready to go. We need to keep preparing new material.
“There were no rehearsals at Coachella. We’d never done a festival in Japan, let alone abroad, so we had no experience with these things and were often pretty surprised. There were no sound checks or trying out the stage. We were just suddenly there, which was a first-time experience for us. But we managed it, thanks to the stuff we’d done before.
“Around about March, we started assigning a producer to each number. One of us puts together the song, and the three of us try it out together.
“With regard to the lead tracks on the album, Sho did ‘BON,’ I did ‘INZM,’ Kishi will do the next one, and so on. I don’t know if we’ll keep on doing it this way. I guess you could say that we’re on a trial run concerning it.
“When you do something new, there are bound to be different reactions. I tend to do a lot of net browsing. I see a lot of good reactions out there, but also some harsh opinions. Even a bad comment, if it comes after watching and listening to each of our numbers, is something we value. But a really malicious comment can sometimes get me down.
“The Tokyo gubernatorial race is picking up steam at the moment, and yeah, you could say I’m concerned about where Japan is headed. I was born in Japan and had the luck to grow up in a great culture, so I’d like to help spread it around the world. And I think it would be good for our performance if people know more about Japan. ‘BON’ started as an image in Sho’s mind of a bonsai tree. We all liked that, and we decided to wear indigo-dyed clothes for the song.
“What I enjoy most is doing live performances. I like taking the songs that we’ve created and showing them to others onstage. When it’s over, it leaves you with a sense of fulfillment and also some sadness. Like something has been experienced and absorbed together.”
Toru Yaguchi for Newsweek Japan
Sho Hirano
“Everything in our lives has changed after we formed Number_i. There was a complete turnover of our staff and it’s full of people I don’t know. The three of us have gotten into the habit of thinking things out on our own and moving people around. I’m shy by nature, so this past year has been a year of true effort in geting to know more about people.
“I’ve learned a lot about life over the past year, and it’s been a year of being really grateful for the presence of our fans.
“It’s been a long succession of busy days. What do I do when I get up in the morning? This morning… let’s see… I woke up to the tune I’d set for my alarm, then I put in my contact lenses. It takes me a really long time to get out of bed and into the living room. I was so tired yesterday—really bushed—so I went to bed pretty early, at about one o’clock. There was nothing on my schedule this morning, so I slept about 11 hours. I dawdled an hour or so in bed, then I made it to the living room for some soup.
“My schedule is really packed for the days to come, and so it would be disastrous to get sick. The news now about the strep infections going around is something that really does worry me. [In 2024, Japan has seen a record number of cases of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome, a potentially deadly bacterial infection.]
“Ideas for songs and staging just sort of come to me. I guess you could say that I’m always thinking about them, and then when I’m out driving, it might suddenly occur to me: Now, that’s a melody that would really suit us!
“After we formed Number_i, we’ve had a lot more opportunities to develop our own ideas. After the Ariake Arena shows in June, we’d each go home at night and text each other in our group chat, to discuss our songs and albums we might want to do in the future.
“I began to dance as a first-grade kid in elementary school. My mom may have been the influence that got me listening to hip-hop. When I was in second grade, I think, my mom helped me practice backflips so that I could do them for my dance teacher.
“I practiced in the park because that’s where my mom said I should practice. I was really into [Japanese media franchise] Dragon Ball and believed that the power would somehow come into me when I was in a tough spot, but I landed on my head anyway.
“Well, that’s how I got started, but the 10 months since we launched Number_i have been really something special.
“We can’t rely on staff to clear new paths for us. This is especially true when we work abroad. Last November, I went to Hong Kong for a presentation of the Louis Vuitton Collection and I was just completely lost. But this year, I went to Paris in January and March, and I didn’t feel any anxiety about being in a foreign country.
“I’m not sure how it affects the way I create new songs, but I listen to all kinds of music from morning till night. I also watch a lot of short movies and American news programs and odd incidents aired on YouTube.
“As for the video for ‘GOAT,’ we had this idea that a situation like that would be cool, and then we worked in some simple ideas. Afterwards, though, as I followed the reaction on the net, I realized that people here and abroad were dissecting it more than we ever did, which is disconcerting, and also quite interesting.
“I was the one to produce ‘BON,’ which includes the lyrics: ‘three geniuses, wanderers, not idols.’ It may sound provocative, but we’re just performers after all. You can call us ‘idols’ if you like, or even ‘artists.’ That’s up to the viewer.
“‘BON’ includes the concept of seeing us as bonsai. We want to complete our evolution together with our fans, but I hope that viewers will judge us on the basis of what they actually see with their own eyes.
“We made a new debut this year, by appearing at a festival in a foreign country. That was just a tiny step, and we intend to continue taking on new challenges in the future.”