producer
Yasushi Akimoto(秋元 康)
Nogizaka46 (乃木坂46) is, unlike any other affiliated idol groups, is an official rival of AKB48. The number 46 represents the enthusiastic spirit that we can compete against AKB48, even though the number of the members is lower than the counterpart. We are going to reach the level as high as AKB48 in 5 months, although it has taken the rival group 5 years to get to where they are now. We, Sony Music, which parted with AKB48, is going to promote the growth of this maji no, or in English ‘real’, Japanese idol group, staking the future of the company and giving everything we have. So, stay tuned!
Born in Tokyo in 1958. He emerged as a broadcast writer since high school, and he works on a number of program compositions such as "The Best Ten".
He received a Grand Prix of Japan Lyricist Awards (Nihon Sakushi Taishō, or ”日本作詩大賞”) in 2008, a Best Songwriter Award of the Japanese Record Awards(Nihon Rekōdo Taishō, or “日本レコード大賞”) in 2012, and an Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement Music in an Animated Feature Production in 2013.
Now, he is successfully active in a wide variety of fields: creating TV shows, writing scripts and developing movies (including the original One Missed Call, or Chakushin Ari, series), designing commercials and video games, writing stories for manga, having his serialized works in magazines and newspapers and so on.
He authored the novel named Zô No Senaka (“象の背中”, or the back of an elephant), Syumi Ryoku (“趣味力”, or the power of hobbies) and many more books.
The movie Chakushin Ari was adapted into a Hollywood movie as One Missed Call and released in America in January, 2008. Zô No Senaka was turned into a TV drama by South Korean TV network JTBC in 2012.
He is an executive producer of the nation’s widely recognized idol group ‘AKB48 group’ and ’Sakamichi Series’ (坂道シリーズ), and in recent days, he is working as an executive producer of 22/7 (read ’Nanabun no Nijūni’, or twenty two per seven),
a digital idol group consisting of voice actors, and in charge of planning and creating an original draft for a TV show entitled Last Idol, which will begin in June, 2017 and be aired by TV Asahi.
