Early life and career Yonezu was born in
Tokushima Prefecture, Japan, on March 10, 1991. He had difficulty communicating with others, especially his father. Yonezu felt that his mother understood him. He originally wanted to be a manga artist. When he was in fifth grade, he watched a Flash animation that was popular on the internet at the time, and was impressed by the music used by Japanese rock band
Bump of Chicken. He was diagnosed with
high-functioning autism at the age of 20. His first foray into music was in 2006 during his second year of junior high school. Yonezu and Hiroshi Nakajima formed a band Late Rabbit Edda, while attending the school culture festival. Yonezu became the vocalist, songwriter, and occasional guitarist, while Nakajima became the guitarist. In late 2007, he made a website for the band, posting song lyrics and short novels. Yonezu wrote songs for the band, and uploaded 24 original songs to
video sharing website
Nico Nico Douga between April 2008 and March 2009. None of the songs were viewed, with the greatest, "Beelzebub", receiving only 23,000 views. Yonezu created his blog in this period, and called it . Yonezu moved to
Osaka after high school and attended a fine arts school. He discovered Japanese musician
Susumu Hirasawa on Nico Nico Douga and was strongly influenced by his work. After upgrading his computer, he began desktop music (DTM) and released about 30 original songs under the name Hachi, featuring his own vocals, on platforms like Nico Nico Douga. However, he later deleted all of them. The reason cited was that his own influences were too heavily reflected in the songs. Since 2009, he began uploading songs using the
Vocaloid software
Hatsune Miku alongside his band activities, gaining popularity. His 2009 song was his first song to receive over a million views on the site. Yonezu uploaded over thirty songs, but he deleted them when his Vocaloid songs became popular. In December 2009, Yonezu's song was included on
Exit Tunes' compilation album
Supernova, marking his first time appearing on a major album. and reached the top 10 on the
Oricon weekly albums chart. Yonezu released two self-produced albums in 2010:
Hanataba to Suisō and
Official Orange. Between 2010 and 2011, his songs were featured on many Exit Tunes albums, including
Vocalonexus feat. Hatsune Miku, which was the second Vocaloid album to reach number one on Oricon's albums chart. On July 2, 2011, he traveled to the United States to participate as a Vocaloid creator in events related to Hatsune Miku's live concert 'MIKUNOPOLIS in Los Angeles' held at the
Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The live performance was part of
Anime Expo 2011. Some fans cosplayed as the character Parker from “Matryoshka”. On the following day, July 3, she participated in a signing event at the Expo merchandise booth alongside wowaka and Task from Minakata Research Institute as Hachi. He commented, “I'm happy to see it spreading overseas”. Late Rabbit Edda remained active until 2010. They were renamed Ernst Eckman and added a drummer called Sumimoto to their lineup. As Ernst Eckman, they released a single song on
MySpace, . Yonezu felt that he did not work well with other people, and decided to work alone on Vocaloid songs exclusively, giving up on being a part of a band.
Major label debut In March 2011, Yonezu and seven other musicians created
Balloom, an independent music label for Internet musicians to widen their musical opportunities. His first album,
Diorama, was released on May 16, 2012. It debuted at number 6 and sold over 45,000 copies, becoming the biggest release on the label to date. The album was one of the winners of the 5th
CD Shop Awards, an award voted on by music store personnel. Yonezu became a major label artist under
Universal Sigma and debuted in May 2013 with the single "
Santa Maria". He made the shift in order to work with musicians doing similar things as him. On October 28, 2013, Yonezu released his first Vocaloid song in two and a half years, , using a live band and the vocal
Gumi. Yonezu released his second album,
Yankee, on April 23, 2014, followed by the first concert in his career on June 27. His song, "Eine Kleine", was written for
Tokyo Metro to be used in its the commercial campaign. Yonezu produced his next two albums,
Bremen and
Bootleg. Driven by hit singles: "
Uchiage Hanabi", "Loser", "Orion", and "
Peace Sign",
Bootleg won Album of the Year at the
60th Japan Record Awards. In November 2017, his 22-show "fogbound" tour began. On December 31, 2018, Yonezu made his live television debut on the
69th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen, an annual year-end extravaganza and one of Japan's most prestigious music programs. He performed his 2018 hit "
Lemon" live from Tokushima, marking the first time a segment of the
Kōhaku Uta Gassen was broadcast from Tokushima Prefecture. The songs "
Uchiage Hanabi" and "
Paprika", both produced by Yonezu, were also performed at the event. Yonezu wrote the lyrics for
Masaki Suda's song, "Machigaisagashi". It won Best Pop Video at the
2019 MTV Video Music Awards Japan. When
Billboard Japan published its year-end charts, "
Uma to Shika" and "Machigaisagashi" ranked fifth and sixth respectively. In January 2019, Yonezu embarked on his first arena tour, 16-show "When the Spine Becomes Opal". The tour included his first overseas concerts in China and Taiwan. Yonezu won the Special Award at the
61st Japan Record Awards held on December 30, and "Paprika" won the Grand Prix. Yonezu co-wrote the song "
Kite" for Japanese boy band
Arashi, which served as the theme song for NHK's coverage of the
2020 Summer Olympics. In February 2020, Yonezu cancelled the 20-show "HYPE" tour due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. On August 7, 2020, he performed during
Fortnite's Party Royale, singing songs from his latest album
Stray Sheep (2020), which had been released two days prior. In December, he became one of five recipients of the Special Achievement Award at the
62nd Japan Record Awards. Yonezu released "Daydream" as the theme song for
NTV's "News Zero" in January 2021, and "
Pale Blue" as the theme song for the
TBS drama "Rikokatsu" in April. In 2022, Yonezu released "
Kick Back", which was used as the opening theme song for the
anime series
Chainsaw Man, and "M87", which was used as the ending theme for the
tokusatsu movie
Shin Ultraman.His 10-show arena tour "HENSHIN" began in September that year. In 2023, Yonezu released his single "Tsuki wo miteita - Moongazing" as the theme song for the video game
Final Fantasy XVI, and released "
Spinning Globe" as the theme song for
Hayao Miyazaki's film
The Boy and the Heron. Miyazaki had requested him after hearing children singing Yonezu's song "Paprika" at a Ghibli-run nursery school. When Miyazaki heard the completed song, he cried. Yonezu said the experience was the biggest honor in his life. His 2023 "Fantasy" tour, with 24 concerts, began in April. His sixth studio album,
Lost Corner, was released on August 21, 2024. It is his longest album, with 20 songs. On December 31, 2024, Yonezu did a special performance at the
75th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen, singing "
Sayonara, Mata Itsuka!", which he wrote for the TV program
The Tiger and Her Wings. In January 2025, Yonezu embarked on his biggest tour yet, 26-show "JUNK", with 350,000 people attending his domestic concerts, and 440,000 overall. "JUNK" included his first world tour, with shows in Shanghai, Taipei, Seoul, Paris, London, Los Angeles, and New York City. Yonezu said he was "profoundly moved to have been so passionately welcomed by them". On March 5, 2025, Yonezu collaborated with two-time Olympic figure skating champion
Yuzuru Hanyu, who performed a skating program for the music video of his song "
BOW AND ARROW", which was used as the opening theme for the
anime Medalist. On 21st of April,
NetEase Cloud Music named Yonezu as the most streamed Japanese artist in the platform's 12-year history with over 5.5 billion streams. On September 15, 2025, he released his latest single "
Iris Out" digitally, and "
Jane Doe" featuring
Utada Hikaru on September 22, 2025, served as the theme song and ending theme song, respectively, for the anime movie "
Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc". "Iris Out" becomes Japan's fastest song to reach 100,000,000 streams and peaked at number 5 on
Billboard Global 200, the highest for any Japanese song. The song was first performed live at the
76th NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen. == Artistry ==