The Man Who Can Do Everything: How Gen Hoshino Mastered Both Music and Acting
How did a young man born in Kawaguchi arrive at this place? The story begins with his days at Jiyuu no Mori Gakuen.
SAKEROCK: Starting From Music Without Words
Gen Hoshino was born on January 28, 1981, in Kawaguchi, Saitama. He attended the junior high and high schools of Jiyuu no Mori Gakuen, and in 2000 he formed the instrumental band SAKEROCK with classmates from the school. That he began his career in a band with no vocals is fascinating in light of how deeply he would later come to value words.
He sat the entrance examination for Osaka University of Arts, failed, and did not go on to higher education. His expression began from a point off the rails. SAKEROCK remained his musical foundation until the band disbanded in 2015.
Otona Keikaku: Captivated by the Stage
The turning point came in his high school years. Moved by a production of the theater company Otona Keikaku, he joined one of its workshops in 2003 and made his acting debut in the stage play Ningen Gozan, then joined the company itself.
Its leader, Suzuki Matsuo, became his mentor in theater. Otona Keikaku was the gateway through which he expanded from music into acting. Notably, the artists he reveres are Haruomi Hosono and Crazy Cats; somewhere in him runs the blood of good old Japanese entertainment.
A Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: A Return From the Edge
In 2010, he made his solo music debut with his first album, Baka no Uta. Just as he seemed to be off to a smooth start, in 2012 Gen Hoshino collapsed from a subarachnoid hemorrhage. He was hospitalized and underwent two surgeries.
And yet he came back, and came back almost casually. After his recovery, his 2015 album YELLOW DANCER reached number one on the Oricon chart, leading into POP VIRUS in 2018, the warmest and funkiest stretch of his career. For someone who had wandered the edge of death, he resumed turning out hit after hit with remarkable composure.
"Koi" and Sanada Maru: The Peak of 2016
The year 2016 was decisive for Gen Hoshino. He starred as Hiramasa Tsuzaki in We Married as a Job!, and its theme song "Koi" became a phenomenal hit, with the closing "Koi Dance" spreading explosively across social media.
That same year, he played the lead role of Sanada Nobushige (Yukimura) in the historical drama Sanada Maru. The lead of a comedic romance and a hero of the warring states era, both in a single year. Few actors could manage that. His acclaim as an actor is real: he won the Japan Academy Film Prize for Newcomer of the Year in 2014, and Outstanding Supporting Actor in 2021 for Koe: The Unknown Caller. In 2017, his writing was recognized with the Itami Juzo Award.
In 2021, Gen Hoshino announced his marriage to actress Yui Aragaki. It is not hard to imagine men across the country looking up at the sky in unison, yet there is a strange sense of rightness to the pairing.
Music, acting, writing, all done at a first-rate level. He nearly died once, came back without fuss, and went right on making great songs. In interviews he is oddly honest, shy, and given to self-deprecation. Perhaps it is precisely that slightly awkward humanity that makes this multitalented man impossible for anyone to resent.