Jin Akanishi (born July 4, 1984) is a Japanese idol, singer-songwriter, actor, seiyū, and former radio host. Akanishi is a former member of the J-pop group, KAT-TUN, and was one of the two lead vocalists. Since the group's debut in 2006, it has achieved 14 consecutive number ones (including studio albums) on the Oricon charts.Akanishi is also a budding actor with roles in the second season of popular NTV school drama, Gokusen 2, Anego and Yukan Club. He was also a co-host of KAT-TUN's own variety show, Cartoon KAT-TUN, and used to host a radio program called "KAT-TUN Style" with bandmate Junnosuke Taguchi from October 2007 to March 2008.
Born in the Chiba Prefecture on July 4, 1984, Akanishi is the oldest child. His family consists of his parents and a younger brother, Reio, who also works in the entertainment industry as an actor under the stage name, Fuuta. His given name, Jin ("benevolence"), comes from one of the five Confucian virtues. He moved to Tokyo in the first grade. He is the best friend of Tomohisa Yamashita and the two remain close today. In 1997, when he was still in grade school, a classmate sent in a photo of him to idol magazine, Myojo, and he was featured in the "Cool Classmates" corner of the issue. Akanishi expressed interest in the entertainment industry and his mother thus sent in an application to Johnny's Entertainment on his behalf in 1998. Though he technically failed his audition on November 8, 1998, he was told to stay when he tried to return his number plate to a man who happened to be Johnny Kitagawa himself. He entered Johnny & Associates at the same time as future bandmates Kazuya Kamenashi and Yuichi Nakamaru.
