JAM Project was founded in 2000 by veteran singer
Ichirou Mizuki, who sought to revitalize the fiery spirit of earlier anime songs. He recruited fellow veterans of that space, including
Hironobu Kageyama and
Masaaki Endoh, who remain members of the group. The following year, JAM Project began a long association with the
Super Robot Wars franchise, performing "Hagane no Messiah" for the
PlayStation game "
Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden." In 2002, Mizuki and
Eizo Sakamoto stepped back from the group but three members would join.
Masami Okui had released a number of albums and had performed openings for shows including
Slayers and
Revolutionary Girl Utena. Hiroshi Kitadani, previously a member of the bands Stagger and Lapis Lazuli, entered the world of anime songs via
One Piece and its first of several opening themes he has performed for the long-running series.
Yoshiki Fukuyama, like Kageyama, Endoh and Mizuki, was a veteran of the anime world. In the 1990s, he was the singing voice of
Basara Nekki in
Macross 7. In 2005, the group began another long association with the
Garo franchise, writing opening themes for nearly all iterations of the franchise, both anime and live-action. Kageyama voices Madou Ring Zaruba in every release of the show. In 2007, JAM Project announced plans to perform outside East Asia. Since 2008, the group has performed internationally with regularity, in cities such as
Baltimore,
Washington,
Rotterdam,
Abu Dhabi and
Paris, typically in conjunction with
anime conventions. 2008 also marked the release of "No Border," their first single not connected with an anime or video game. In the summer of 2012, they teamed up with
Animetal USA for a limited national concert tour called the . From 2011 to 2014, Japanese composer and conductor
Takayuki Hattori served as orchestral arranger on several albums and tours. In 2015, JAM Project celebrated its 15th anniversary with a series of concerts that contained 39 songs in its setlist chosen from all their previous albums, the most songs in any of their concerts to date. They also released a CD based on a new
ultra-high quality (UHQ CD) standard containing re-arranged and re-recorded hits voted on by fans. The same year, the group exposed itself to a new audience through "THE HERO! ~Ikareru Kobushi ni Honō wo Tsukero~" (lit. "Set Fire To The Furious Fist)", their opening for the first season of
One-Punch Man. The music video, filmed in
San Francisco, has accumulated more than 50 million views on
YouTube. In 2020, the group celebrated its 20th anniversary with the release of the album
The Age of Dragon Knights. JAM Project worked with prominent peers, including
Yuki Kajiura,
GRANRODEO,
ALI PROJECT,
angela and members of
FLOW. The group also released
JAM Project 20th Anniversary Complete BOX, which includes all of the group's albums, a collection of its foreign-language recordings, Blu-rays of a concert and other footage, and a 300-page booklet. The
COVID-19 pandemic caused a planned tour to be scuttled. Kageyama, however, credited the unplanned break with rejuvenating the band's creative drive. That rebirth is the subject of the 2021 documentary
Get Over -- JAM Project the Movie. On January 22, 2026,
Capcom announced JAM Project would provide the theme for
Alex in downloadable content for
Street Fighter 6. The song is titled "GO! ALEX!〜 Kibō tanjō 〜" (GO! ALEX! Hope is born). The group's producer is Shunji Inoue, the founder of
Lantis and a former bandmate of Kageyama. JAM Project is managed by HIGHWAY STAR, which also represents Kageyama, Endoh and Kitadani in their solo careers. In 2021, HIGHWAY STAR spun off from Bandai Namco, with the new business including Lantis recording and production assets, and relationships with artists including JAM Project. == Members ==