Yoasobi is a Japanese musical duo formed in 2019, consisting of songwriter and producer Ayase and vocalist Lilas Ikuta, who performs under the stage name Ikura. The name Yoasobi originates from the Japanese word for nightlife, a concept Ayase conceived to represent their career as a playful challenge undertaken during the night, contrasting with their individual daytime careers. The duo operates under the slogan novel into music, meaning that if a song is not based on a fictional story, they are not credited under the Yoasobi name but separately as Ayase and Ikura. Their official fanclub is called Yoa's, which was officially renamed from its previous title in October 2025. This unique structure allows them to explore narrative-driven songs that are originally based on selected fictional stories posted on Monogatary.com, a social media platform for creative writing and illustration operated by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Later, their sources expanded to include fiction by professional authors, books, letters, messages, plays, and social media posts, creating a diverse and rich tapestry of musical storytelling.
From Hospital To Stardom
Both members of Yoasobi had active music careers before the formation of the duo, with Ayase serving as the vocalist of the rock band Davinci, which was active from 2012 to 2018 and eventually disbanded in 2020. During his treatment at a hospital for peptic ulcer disease, Ayase began using Vocaloid software Hatsune Miku to produce music, uploading his first song, Sentensei Assault Girl, on the video-sharing website Niconico in 2018. He gained popularity with Last Resort a year later and released his debut extended play Ghost City Tokyo in December 2019. Lilas Ikuta, who later adopted the stage name Ikura for Yoasobi, is a singer-songwriter and a former member of the cover group Plusonica, active from 2017 to 2021. She started her music career by performing on the streets and small venues with a guitar at the age of 14, as well as uploading her music and covers on YouTube. In 2016, she participated in a new artist training course called the Lesson, sponsored by Sony Music Entertainment Japan, and released her demo CD 15 no Omoi. Later, Ikuta released her first two EPs: Rerise in 2018 and Jukebox in 2019 through the independent label After School. In 2019, Yohei Yashiro, a founder of Monogatary.com, presented the idea of a project to produce songs inspired by selected story submissions published on the website as a prize to authors instead of book or anime adaptation. Yashiro enlisted Shuya Yamamoto, who handled SMEJ's artists at that time, and in the mid-year, Ayase received an offer from Yashiro and Yamamoto to produce songs for the project. During the vocalist discussion, Ayase found Aimyon's Kimi wa Rock o Kikanai covered by Ikura on Instagram and later checked her YouTube channel to contact her directly to persuade her to form Yoasobi. The duo announced their debut via a teaser video on October 1, marking it as their anniversary.
Yoasobi was originally planned for making a few songs as a trial run, but during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan in early 2020, their debut single Yoru ni Kakeru went viral on social media, including a Home Take solo performance by Ikura, bringing it to top several music streaming service charts in Japan. The song first entered the Billboard Japan Hot 100 at number 76 in March and ascended to number one for the first time in May, five months after its release. It spent a total of six weeks atop the chart, of which three weeks were consecutive, and topped the Oricon Combined Singles Chart. Eventually, Yoru ni Kakeru finished 2020 as the year's number-one Japan Hot 100 song, making it the first-ever single with no physical release to top the year-end chart. The Recording Industry Association of Japan certified the song diamond for exceeding 500 million streams in 2021 and double diamond for 1 billion streams in 2025, becoming the first-ever song in history to achieve these milestones. The song won the Song of the Year at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards Japan and the 2021 Space Shower Music Awards, and the Silver Prize at the 2023 JASRAC Awards. Following their debut single, Yoasobi released Ano Yume o Nazotte on the 18th of January 2020, based on another Sony Music Award-winning short story by Sōta Ishiki, Yume no Shizuku to Hoshi no Hana. The next single, Halzion, sourced from Shunki Hashizume's Soredemo, Happy End, was released on May 11 as part of Suntory's Immersive Song Project to advertise energy drink Zone. It was the duo's first collaboration with a professional novelist, whereas the first two were amateur writers. In the second half of the year, they continually released three more singles, including Tabun, Gunjō, and Haruka, each based on different short stories and used for various commercial purposes.
The Reading CD Era
On December 31, Yoasobi concluded 2020 at the year-end television special 71st NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen with the debut live performance of Yoru ni Kakeru as a duo, along with the band members, filmed at Bookshelf Theater, Kadokawa Culture Museum in Tokorozawa. It made the duo the first-ever artist to perform at the TV special without any physical releases. All previously released singles were featured on the duo's debut EP The Book, released on the 6th of January 2021, expressing a theme of reading CD with a binder package. It additionally included Encore, based on Yoasobi Contest Vol. 1-winning Sekai no Owari to, Sayonara no Uta by Kanami Minakami and used for a Google Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a (5G) advertisement. The EP debuted at number two on the Oricon Albums Chart and the Billboard Japan Hot Albums. As of 2021, The Book has sold 150,000 CD and 100,000 digital sales, the latter making it the only album to reach the milestone that year, and was certified gold for both by the RIAJ. The EP won Special Award at the CD Shop Awards. Yoasobi released their second EP, The Book 2, on the 1st of December 2021, featuring the duo's all singles released in that year, including Moshi mo Inochi ga Egaketara, a theme for and based on the 2021 play of the same name written and directed by Osamu Suzuki. The EP debuted at number two on the Oricon Albums Chart and topped the Billboard Japan Hot Albums for the first time. It won Special Award at the CD Shop Awards. In support of The Book 2, Yoasobi held their first face-to-face one-off concert, called Nice to Meet You, at Nippon Budokan on December 4 and 5, receiving 14,000 offline attendees, and starred on an episode of documentary program Jōnetsu Tairiku on December 12. The duo participated in the 72nd NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen on December 31, performing Gunjō for the main show featuring a symphony orchestra, and Tsubame as part of Colorful Special Segment with Midories and mascots from Hirogare! Irotoridori.
Global Expansion And Anime Themes
Furthermore, in 2021, Yoasobi began exploring the English-language market by translating the original Japanese song into English, as suggested by the Orchard. The first single, Into the Night, translated from Yoru ni Kakeru, was released on July 2. Afterwards, the duo released three more singles: RGB, Monster, and Blue, all included in their debut English-language EP E-Side, released digitally on November 12. Commercially, the EP peaked at number 19 on the Oricon Combined Albums Chart and number nine on the Billboard Japan Hot Albums. Yoasobi won Artist of the Year at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards Japan and the 2022 Space Shower Music Awards, as well as the Special Achievement Award at the 63rd Japan Record Awards. In 2022, Yoasobi collaborated with four Naoki Prize-winning novelists to perform four songs based on their short stories under the theme of a story to read when you do something for the first time. It contains Rio Shimamoto's Watashi Dake no Shoyūsha, Mizuki Tsujimura's Yūrei, Miyuki Miyabe's Iro Chigai no Trump, and Eto Mori's Hikari no Tane. All stories were published as a tankōbon book by Suirinsha, titled Hajimete no, on the 16th of February 2022. The first single of the project based on Shimamoto's story, Mr., was released in conjunction with the book publication. It was followed by Mori's story-based Suki da on May 30, Tsujimura's story-based Umi no Manimani on November 18, and Miyabe's story-based Seventeen on March 27 the next year. All songs were collected on the book's companion EP, issued on the 10th of May 2023. It peaked at number nine on the Oricon Singles Chart. The sequel project Hajimete no Bungei-bu was announced in September 2022. Beyond their musical discography, Yoasobi released their first video album, The Film, on March 23, containing videos of the duo's three concerts held in 2021 and unreleased footage from their episode on Jōnetsu Tairiku. The duo participated in an outdoor music festival for the first time in August at the Rock in Japan Festival. Yoasobi performed the first opening theme of the mecha anime series Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, titled Shukufuku, based on the short story Yurikago no Hoshi by the anime's writer Ichirō ōkouchi. The song was released on October 1 and peaked at number two on the Japan Hot 100. They released their second English-language EP E-Side 2 on November 18. The EP debuted at number ten on the Billboard Japan Hot Albums. Yoasobi performed overseas for the first time in December 2022 at the Head in the Clouds Festival in Indonesia.
The Idol Record Breaker
In 2023, Yoasobi was in charge of the opening theme of the anime series Oshi no Ko, titled Idol. It was based on manga artist Aka Akasaka's short story 45510, and released on April 12. The song was a massive success, topping both the Oricon Combined Singles and Billboard Japan Hot 100 charts, the latter staying for 22 non-consecutive weeks, surpassing the previous longest record of 13 weeks of Official Hige Dandism's Subtitle. It broke the record for the fastest song to be certified diamond for streaming by the RIAJ within 295 days since its release. Globally, Idol peaked at number seven on the Billboard Global 200, and topped the Global Excl. US, the first Japanese-language song to do so. The song also set a new record as the fastest music video by Japanese act to reach 100 million views within 35 days. The song won various awards, including Best Animation Video and Song of the Year at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards Japan, Best Anime Song at the 8th Crunchyroll Anime Awards, Song of the Year in both download and streaming categories at the 38th Japan Gold Disc Award, Gold Prize at the 2024 and 2025 JASRAC Awards, and Top Global Hit from Japan, Best Anime Song, Best Music Video, and Song of the Year for Creators at the 2025 Music Awards Japan. Oricon and Billboard Japan ranked Idol as the 2023 best-performing song in Japan, while the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry ranked the song as the 19th best-selling song in 2023 globally, earning 1.01 billion subscription streams equivalents. The duo embarked on their first concert tour in 2023, titled Denkōsekka Arena Tour, in seven cities with fourteen shows throughout Japan, starting in Nagoya on April 5 and concluding in Yokohama on June 24, which amassed 130,000 attendees. During the tour, they held a livestream concert through TikTok on April 24 at Theater Milano-za, the same venue as the Keep Out Theater when it was under construction. The duo had their first performance in the Western Hemisphere at the Head in the Clouds Festival in the United States in August. Yoasobi released their third EP, The Book 3, on October 4, comprising all singles from 2022 to the September 2023, which included the first opening theme for the anime series Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, titled Yūsha, based on Jirō Kiso's short story Fanfare for Frieren with supervision by the manga's writer Kanehito Yamada. The song was released ahead on the EP on September 27 and peaked at number two on the Japan Hot 100. The Book 3 debuted at number two on both the Oricon Albums Chart and Billboard Japan Hot Albums.
International Domination And Future Projects
In November 2023, Yoasobi was an opening act for two Tokyo shows of British rock band Coldplay's Music of the Spheres World Tour, and released the single Biri-Biri, inspired by the short story written by Ayano Takeda Kimi to Ameagari o, to commemorate the first anniversary of role-playing video games Pokémon Scarlet and Violet releases. The next month, the duo featured on Yumi Matsutoya's 50th anniversary greatest hit album Yuming Kanpai!!, for the remake of Chūō Freeway, originally from 14 Banme no Tsuki, adding new materials sourced from Matsutoya's biographical novel Subete no Koto wa Message Shōsetsu Yuming. They also participated in the seventh iteration of television special 18Fes, singing one-time-only Heart Beat with 1,000 teenagers between 17 and 20 years old, broadcast on December 25 and the song was released the next day. From December 2023 to January 2024, the duo launched the radio show Yoasobi's Otsumami Radio with Apple Music and Podcasts for four episodes. On the 31st of December 2023, Yoasobi performed Idol at the 74th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen, featuring selected members of Japanese and Korean idol groups from Seventeen, Nogizaka46, NiziU, Be:First, NewJeans, JO1, Stray Kids, Sakurazaka46, Le Sserafim, and MiSaMo, former idols, now actress Kanna Hashimoto and now singer Ano, dance group Avantgardey, and B-boy group Real Akiba Boyz. The duo embarked on their first Asia tour between December 2023 and January 2024, and continued with the Pop Out Zepp Tour in Japan from January to March 2024. The duo released their second video album The Film 2 on April 10, collecting selected concert performances from 2023 to early 2024, and their third English-language EP E-Side 3 the next two day. In the same month, they were invited for the US President Joe Biden-hosted state dinner for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House, and signed an agent contract with Creative Artists Agency. In April and August, they finished two US major music festivals and a concert tour: Coachella, Lollapalooza, and the Yoasobi Live in the USA. They made a guest appearance on NewJeans' Bunnies Camp 2024 Tokyo Dome on June 26. Yoasobi performed a theme for original net animation Monogatari Series: Off & Monster Season, titled Undead. It was released on the 1st of July 2024, and sourced from two short stories, Nadeko Past and Shinobu Future, written by Monogatari writer Nisio Isin. The song reached number ten on the Japan Hot 100. In the same month, on July 25, the duo released Butai ni Tatte, a theme for NHK's 2024 coverage of sports events, including the Summer Olympics and Paralympics. It was based on short story adaptations written by Jun Esaka of three one-shot manga: Taizan 5's Hanareta Futari, Yūki Kirishima's Parallel Lane, and Hirusagari Haruno's Owaranai Deuce. On September 12, it was announced that Yoasobi had moved to SMEJ's newly established talent agency and record label, Echoes. Monotone, a theme song by the duo for 2024 animated film Fureru, was issued on October 1. The film's writer Mari Okada wrote a short story for the song Fureru. no, Zen'ya. To commemorate their five anniversary, Yoasobi collaborated with magazine Vi/Nyl to hold an exhibition titled Yoasobi Keep Out Gallery from October 5 to 14 at the new-built Ginza Sony Park, and publish Vi/Nyl Super Yoasobi 5th Anniversary Book on October 30. The duo also embarked on their Chō-genjitsu Dome Live from October to November, received 170,000 audiences. The tour's concert film was later released to theaters on the 21st of February 2025. At the tour, they debuted New Me and released it on November 11. The song was sourced from Mado Arite's short story Hakusan-dōri Enjō no Ken, winning Bungei × Monogatary.com Collaboration Award at the Monocon 2023, and used as a jingle for Recruit's second part of Mada, Koko ni Nai, Deai, Koko ni Nai, Ongaku project commercial, Wakaranai mama, Sore de mo. Yoasobi ran their second Asia tour of the same name as the dome tour from December 2024 to February the next year, attracting 140,000 people.
The Next Chapter
Released on the 21st of March 2025, Players is a collaboration between Yoasobi and PlayStation for the Project: Memory Card based on a game you want to erase your memory of and play again collected from X users via hashtag #MemoryOfPlay to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the home video game console's first release. On May 17, the duo released Watch Me!, the first opening theme for the anime series Witch Watch, sourced from Kenta Shinohara's short story Kokoro Kororon. They travelled in Europe to participate at Primavera Sound in Barcelona, Spain, and held a one-off concert at Wembley Arena, London, England in June, and returned to Japan to embark on their Wandara Hall Tour between July and November, focusing on small cities rather than the big ones, and open for the Saitama show of Billie Eilish's Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour. Yoasobi and South Korean girl group Le Sserafim collaborated on the song The Noise to celebrate the 20th anniversary of fashion e-commerce website Zozotown. It contains a sample of the duo's Yoru ni Kakeru, and was released on September 26. Coinciding with their sixth anniversary, the duo released their third video album The Film 3, comprising their selected performances from 2024 to 2025, as well as behind-the-scenes. The next day, their first television drama series theme, Gekijō, for Pray Speak What Has Happened, was issued. Based on the series writer Kōki Mitani's Gekijō Monogatari, it is the duo's first song that provides the vocals from Ayase, and its live-action music video features the members. In November, the duo covered Radwimps' Kaishin no Ichigeki, including on the band's tribute album Dear Jubilee: Radwimps Tribute, and was selected as one of the openers on the band's 20th anniversary tour. In late 2025, it was announced that Yoasobi would be in charge of opening and ending theme songs for the anime adaptation of manga series Hana-Kimi, titled Adrena and Baby, respectively. Adrena was released as a single on the 4th of January 2026, and based on Fuyu Tsuyama's short story, Magical. Baby came a week later, on January 11, and is sourced from My Dear......, written by Yasuko Aoki. The duo is scheduled to embark on an all-dome and all-arena tour in ten cities in Japan and Asia between 2026 and 2027. Yoasobi has won numerous awards throughout their career, including ten Japan Gold Disc Awards, five CD Shop Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards Japan, three Music Awards Japan, three Space Shower Music Awards, three Reiwa Anisong Awards, two Japan Record Awards, one Crunchyroll Anime Award, and one Melon Music Award, among others. In 2021, Yoasobi received the Noma Publishing Culture Award by Kodansha in honors of excellent contributions to publishing, regardless of its forms, alongside manga artist Hajime Isayama, author and lyricist Shizuka Ijūin, and Kadokawa Culture Museum. The duo won Person of the Year at the 2023 Japan PR Awards, organized by the Public Relations Society of Japan. In 2025, Yoasobi was nominated at the inaugural Music Awards Japan for 14 categories, three for the artist and 11 for Idol. It is the third most nomination following Fujii Kaze and Creepy Nuts, which the duo won three awards. Yoasobi has been credited as a pioneer and representative of Japanese pop scene in the 2020s and the Reiwa era. According to Oricon, the duo was the top-ten best-selling artist in Japan in 2021, 2023, and 2024, grossing billions of yen. For digital platforms, the duo also grossed billions in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. As of December 2023, Oricon named the duo the tenth best-selling artist in Reiwa era so far, earning billions of yen. Yoru ni Kakeru, Kaibutsu / Yasashii Suisei, Idol, and Gunjō are inside the top-20 best-selling singles, and The Book the twentieth best-selling album. For the Billboard Japans year-end Artist 100, the duo was placed on the top ten since 2020, including number one in 2023. The duo's four songs received diamond streaming certification or higher from the Recording Industry Association of Japan. Abema dubbed the commercial success of Yoru ni Kakeru as a symbol of the beginning of the streaming era in Japan, where originally favored on CD format. Yoasobi is credited as one of the artists who re-popularize J-pop internationally, following the decline in the 2010s. The popularity includes in South Korea, where the import of Japanese culture used to be prevented due to Japanese occupation of Korea for decades. According to online magazine Nippon.com, Yoasobi is the most listened-to Japanese artist since 2023. Spotify reported that the duo was the most streamed Japanese artist outside Japan for four consecutive years, from 2021 to 2024; Ado dethroned the top position in 2025, decreased to number two. Apple Music listed their songs Yoru ni Kakeru, Idol, and Gunjō among the 500 most-streamed songs for the service between 2015 and 2025.