Exile
Exile in Taiwan in January 2020
Background information
Also known as	J Soul Brothers (1999–2001)
Origin	Tokyo, Japan
Genres	J-pop R&B dance house
Years active	2001–present
Labels	LDH Rhythm Zone
Spinoffs	J Soul Brothers Exile Tribe
Members	Exile Hiro Toshio Matsumoto Exile Makidai Exile Usa Exile Atsushi Exile Akira Exile Takahiro Kenchi Tachibana Exile Tetsuya Exile Nesmith Exile Shokichi Exile Naoto Naoki Kobayashi Alan Shirahama Sekai Taiki Sato
Past members	Shun Keiji Kuroki Mandy Sekiguchi Takanori Iwata
Website	exile.jp

Exile (stylized inall caps asEXILE) is a 17-member Japaneseboy band.Hiro is the group's leader, who debuted as a member ofZoo underFor Life Music, but Exile have released their singles and albums underAvex Group's labelRhythm Zone. Hiro andAvex's presidentMax Matsuura came from the samehigh school.^[1] In 2003, the six original members of Exile founded the management and entertainment companyLDH which has debuted many successful groups and soloists ever since. Exile is the representative group of the company.

In total, they have sold over 15,600,000 albums.

The current leader,Hiro, was originally in the pop groupZoo before they split up in 1995. In 1999, he started a new group calledJ Soul Brothers, which later changed its name to Exile in 2001. (But the name of J Soul Brothers was later revived by Hiro again in 2007 when he helped to form another 7-member group under the new J Soul Brothers moniker.)

Atsushi andShun became the lead vocalists of the group. Atsushi is a fan of AmericanR&B groupBoyz II Men. In November 2003, Exile remade Zoo's hit single "Choo Choo Train", which became a strong promotional single for their third studio albumExile Entertainment. The album sold over a million copies. They took part in theNHKKōhaku Uta Gassen of the year, singing "Choo Choo Train". At first, their music style was influenced by R&B, but their style later became more pop-oriented form. Their 2004 single "Real World" became their first number-one single onOricon weekly charts. They released the collaboration "Scream" with Japaneserock bandGlay in July 2005, peaking at No. 1 and selling over 500,000 copies on Oricon charts.^[2]

The group released "Tada...Aitakute" in December 2005 and "Yes!" in March 2006. Both singles topped the Oricon weekly charts. However, Shun left the group in March 2006 and became a solo singer. After the group sought a new vocalist from the public,Takahiro joined the group in September 2006. Takahiro originally tried to become ahairdresser in his school days, but eventually joined the group as a vocalist.^[3]

On February 14, 2007, the group released the single "Michi", which became their first number-one single on the Oricon charts since Takahiro joined the group. Their 2007 studio album,Exile Love, became the highest selling album of Japan in 2008, selling nearly 1.5 million copies on Oricon charts. Their compilation albumExile Ballad Best sold nearly 1 million copies in its first week on Oricon charts, making it the highest first week sales for an album of Japan in 2008. It is currently their best selling album with over 2 million copies sold. It was the 34th rank album for 2008. The song, "Ti Amo", was certified Million by theRecording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for 1,000,000 full-trackringtone digitalmusic downloads (Chaku Uta Full).^[4] They also won the Grand Prix Award at the50th edition ofJapan Record Awards for "Ti Amo".

In 2009, Exile's song "The Next Door" was featured as the theme of the Japanese edition ofStreet Fighter IV. The song was released at theiTunes Store on February 22, 2009. The English version "The Next Door -Indestructible-" was used for the international edition of the game. The English version was released as the third track of their single "The Hurricane (Fireworks)" on July 22, 2009, featuring American rapperFlo Rida.

On March 1, 2009, Exile and Nidaime J Soul Brothers announced that they would merge to become a 14-member group. They released their first studio album with 14 members,Aisubeki Mirai e, on December 2, 2009. They won the Grand Prix Award for the second year in a row with the song, "Someday", at the51st Japan Record Awards.From May 9,Exile Live Tour 2009 'The Monster' started.^[5] At the end of the year, They won the Grand Prix Award for the second year in a row with the song, "Someday", at the51st Japan Record Awards.^[6]

On April 17, 2010, Exile's TV talk show EXE started to be broadcast on TBS, while the show was also broadcast simultaneously onTaiwan'sCTV channel.^[7][8] On May 19, 2010,Avex released theCD maxi of thesuite "Taiyō no Kuni" (太陽の国), or "The Country of the Sun," written byYasushi Akimoto and sung by Exile, for the 20th anniversary of the accedence of theEmperor of JapanAkihito. However, the CD was not reflected on theOricon charts.^[9] From July 2010, Exile held their first stadium tour,Exile Live Tour 2010 Fantasy.^[10] For the52nd Japan Record Awards, the group earned their third consecutive win with the song "I Wish For You". "I Wish For You" was also the theme song for Tokyo Broadcasting System's (TBS) domestic broadcasts of the2010 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship and members of the band were in the crowd for Japan's bronze medal win, which was their first medal in 32 years.

From 2011, Exile started to perform in other Asian countries apart from its homeland Japan. They performed in The 2011Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards Presentation in Hong Kong on January 15 as special guests.^[11] On September 25, Exile performed inThree Kingdoms Performing Arts – China, Japan, and Korea Music Festival in Beijing, which was Exile's first participation in a live performance events outside Japan.^[12][13] On September 14, 2011, Exile released"Rising Sun", a single contain Rising Sun, the famous and popular song in support of the recovery afterthe 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.^[14] From November 2011, Exile started their seconddome tour,Exile Live Tour 2011 Tower of Wish ～Tower of Wish～.^[15] The group was the 3rd artist by total sales revenue in Japan in 2011, with ¥5.603 billion,^[16] and the 2nd in 2012, with ¥12.177 billion.^[17]

On January 1, 2012, Exile released their ninth albumEXILE JAPAN/Solo . The album landed 1st onOricon Albums Chart for three continual weeks, which set a new record for the group. In June, Exile won Best Video of the Year atMTV Video Music Awards Japan, which marked Exile 4th wins in the award's 11 years history.^[18]

On April 3, 2013, EXILE's leader HIRO, who had been a performer for 24 years prior, announced that he would be retiring from the group as a performer at the end of 2013. He stated that he would still continue to be the leader and producer of the group.^[19] On the same day, EXILE released their 41st single "EXILE PRIDE ~Konna Sekai wo Aisuru Tame~". The single became Exile's first single to be sold more than 1 million copies in October of the same year,^[20] and it won the group a fourth Japan Record Award. This was the group's first win since their consecutive winning streak was broken by the Idol groupAKB48, and Exile became the first artist to win the award four times.^[21] In April, Exile held their third dome tour calledExile Live Tour 2013 'Exile Pride' .^[22]

In April 2014, EXILE's Chapter 4 kicked off. On the final stage of EXILE's 3rd audition "EXILE PERFORMER BATTLE AUDITION", the winners, aka new members of Exile, were announced. Out of 2000 applicants, only 5 members were chosen. Those members wereTakanori Iwata fromSandaime J Soul Brothers,Alan Shirahama andMandy Sekiguchi fromGenerations, Sekai Yamamoto and Taiki Sato. Their first single in EXILE, "NEW HORIZON", was released a few months later, on July 23, 2014.^[23] From September, The new Exile started their first tour,Exile Tribe Perfect Year Live Tour Tower of Wish 2014 〜The Revolution〜.^[24] On March 25, 2015, the group released their tenth studio album 19 -Road to AMAZING WORLD-. From September 2015, They started a new national tour,Exile Live Tour 2015 'Amazing World'.^[25]

On June 22, 2015, membersToshio Matsumoto,ÜSA andMAKIDAI announced to be retiring from their positions of performers on the group within the year.^[26] Their last single with the group would be "Ki・mi・ni・mu・chu", a song which was used for the CM advertising Suntory's "The Malts".^[27] On December 31, 2015, Matsumoto Toshio, ÜSA and MAKIDAI retired from their positions of performers on the group on the New Year's special showCDTV Special! New Year's Eve Premiere Live 2015 → 2016. Although retiring as EXILE performers, ÜSA was revealed to remain as performer on the unit DANCE EARTH PARTY, and MAKIDAI would continue his music career as DJ MAKIDAI.

On April 14, 2016, a Documentary of Matsumoto Toshio, ÜSA and MAKIDAI's final tour 'AMAZING WORLD' was released .On August 17, 2016, Exile released their 48th singles, "Joy-ride ~Kanki no Drive~", which was Fuji television's theme song for theRio Olympics.

On 25 July 2018, Exile released a new original Album,Star of Wish .^[28] From September, they started their 5th dome tourExile Live Tour 2018–2019 'Star of Wish'.^[29]

Since the formation of EXILE there have been many new generations of members as well as departures. As of 2021, AKIRA (Performer) is the longest serving active member of EXILE. Retired members are no longer active, but still considered part the group. There are currently 13 active members in the group.

• Japan Record Award
• MTV Video Music Awards Japan
• List of best-selling music artists in Japan

^[1]

• Official Exile website(in Japanese)
• Scream – Official Glay x Exile "Scream" website(in Japanese)
• Exile mobile global(in English)
• EXILE mobile(in Japanese)
• Exile onFacebook(in English and Japanese)
• Exile (official label page) onFacebook(in Japanese)
• EX FAMILY -EXILE TRIBE OFFICIAL FAN CLUB-(in Japanese)
• EXILE's channel onYouTube
• EXILE STAFF (official) onTwitter(in Japanese)

• Musical groups established in 2001
• 2001 establishments in Japan
• Avex Group artists
• World Music Awards winners
• Japanese pop music groups
• Musical groups from Tokyo
• Japanese boy bands

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• CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
• CS1 errors: generic name
• Articles with short description
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