Koshi Inaba
Inaba performing in 2012
Background information
Born	Hiroshi Inaba (1964-09-23)September 23, 1964 (age 61) Tsuyama, Okayama, Japan
Genres	Hard rock folk rock pop rock blues rock
Occupations	Musician, singer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals guitar piano harmonica drums maracas mandolin
Years active	1985–present
Labels	Room Vermillion
Member of	B'z
Website	Official web site

Koshi Inaba (Japanese:稲葉浩志,Hepburn:Inaba Kōshi; born September 23, 1964) is a Japanese singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the vocalist and lyricist of therock duoB'z, thebest-selling music act in their native Japan. He also has a successful solo career, with six studio albums and five singles topping the Japanese music charts. Inaba collaborated withSlash on the latter's 2009 single "Sahara", and withStevie Salas on the albumsChubby Groove (2017) andMaximum Huavo (2020).

Koshi Inaba was born and raised inTsuyama, Okayama, and enrolled inYokohama National University's Faculty for Education in 1983 to become a qualified mathematics teacher.^[1] Inaba made his musical debut in 1985 whilst still a student, contributing vocals to Toshiya "Ran" Matsukawa's albumBurning ~Dedication to Randy Rhoads~ under the stage name Mr. Crazy Tiger. He graduated in 1987 when he also formed a short-lived band.

Beginning withB'z in 1988, Inaba has, together with guitaristTak Matsumoto, continued to release new material and tour as part of B'z almost every year since. He has also periodically released solo material, starting in 1997 with the albumMagma, produced whilst B'z were on a brief hiatus. It was one of the albums to receive the "Best Rock Album of the Year" award at the 12thJapan Gold Disc Awards.^[2] Unlike in B'z, where he contributes only lyrics, Inaba has composed the music for his solo releases. All his studio albums and singles until now have topped theOricon music charts. Additionally, the first studio album with 1,001,160 sold copies was the 21st best-selling album of the year, secondShian with 438,930 copies was the 39th in 2002, thirdPeace of Mind with 297,103 copies was 48th in 2004, fourthHadou with 177,984 was 38th in 2010, andSinging Bird with 107,551 was certified Gold byRIAJ. As for singles, "Tooku Made" with 663,660 sold copies was the 28th best-selling single of the year 1999, "Ki" with 275,957 copies was 25th in 2003, "Wonderland" with 225,229 copies was 36th in 2004, "Okay" with 134,381 copies was 45th in 2010, and "Hane" was certified Gold and was 51st in 2016.^[3][4] His live video recordings also topped the charts, hence cumulatively, according to reported yearly sales and certifications he sold over 3.4 million records.

Inaba has also sung on other artists' releases, such as theSteve Vai song "Asian Sky" from the albumThe Ultra Zone in 1999. On September 29, 2009, it was announced that Inaba would be featured inSlash's 2010 solo album,Slash. Inaba sang on the first single, "Sahara", released on November 11, 2009, in Japan. The song, for which Inaba wrote the lyrics, was featured as the 15th track of the Japanese edition of the album.^[5] The single charted at #4 on the Oricon weekly singles chart. On February 24, 2010, it was announced that single "Sahara" won the Western "Single of the Year" award atJapan Gold Disc Award held byRIAJ.^[6] In 2017, Inaba released a collaborative album withStevie Salas under the name "Inaba/Salas". The album,Chubby Groove, went to #2 in the Japanese album charts and was certified Gold by RIAJ.^[7]Hiroshi Inaba takes care of his physical condition by not drinking alcohol and not using the air conditioning much during the tour to protect his throat.Marty Friedman once listed Hiroshi Inaba as the best vocalist in the whole world. The reason for this, he says, is that his voice hasn't faded after more than 20 years of singing hard rock songs. He performed the Japanese dubbing voice for Clay Calloway inSing 2.^[8]

• B'z
• Tak Matsumoto

Wikimedia Commons has media related toKōshi Inaba.

• Official website

• B'z
• Japanese male rock singers
• Japanese male pop singers
• Japanese male singer-songwriters
• English-language Japanese singers
• 1964 births
• Living people
• B Zone artists
• Singers from Okayama Prefecture
• Yokohama National University alumni
• 20th-century Japanese male singers
• 21st-century Japanese male singers

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