TOMOO

Overview

TOMOO (born June 28, 1995) is a Tokyo-born Japanese singer-songwriter signed to Irori Records, a label under Pony Canyon. She rose to prominence in 2021 with the song "Ginger", made her major debut in 2022, and played her first solo concert at the Nippon Budokan in 2025. Her songs have been used in the anime series Blue Box and City: The Animation.

Career

As a child she sang along to The Lion King and played with a toy piano that came with a picture book; her parents then bought her an electronic piano, on which she began playing Disney and Studio Ghibli music by ear. She took piano lessons in elementary school and joined the drama club in junior high. Writing a song in reply to a friend's letter, and moving her friend, led her to pursue music.

In January 2013 she entered Yamaha's amateur contest "The 6th Music Revolution" with "Konjiki no Kage" as the Tokyo FINAL representative and became a finalist, though she was unhappy with her performance, having never sung in public before. After entering university she began her music career in earnest, releasing her first mini-album Wanna V in August 2016, followed by the mini-albums Blink and Topaz.

"Ginger", released in August 2021, brought her wide attention. At a one-man show at Shibuya WWWX on February 6, 2022, she announced a major debut with Irori Records, and on August 3 she debuted with the digital single "Othello". On August 7 she held her first post-debut solo concert, "TOMOO one-man live 'Estuary'", at LINE CUBE SHIBUYA. From December 16, 2022 to January 15, 2023 she performed her first national tour, "TOMOO 1st LIVE TOUR 2022-2023 'BEAT'", in five cities. "Othello" won the Grand Prix at the FM Q LEAGUE AWARD 2022.

On June 3 and 28, 2023 she played the hall tour "Walk on the Keys" at NHK Osaka Hall and NHK Hall in Tokyo. Her major-label debut album Two Moon was released on September 27, 2023, and topped both the Billboard Japan Download Albums chart and the Oricon weekly digital album ranking dated February 5, 2024. From November 2023 to January 2024 she toured eight locations under the album's name, and on March 20, 2024 she received "BEST SONAR TRAX OF 2023" at J-WAVE's SAISON CARD TOKIO HOT 100 AWARD.

In June and July 2024 she held the "Puddles" live house tour at four venues in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. On September 1 and 15 she performed "MTV Unplugged Presents: TOMOO Acoustic Tour 2024 'Mirrors'" at LINE CUBE SHIBUYA and Osaka-jo Hall; the Osaka show was the first MTV Unplugged held at an outdoor venue in Japan. On December 13 she played her largest venue to that point, Pacifico Yokohama National Convention Hall, for "Anchor". She also won Best Creative Video at MTV VMAJ 2024 for "Present".

In 2025 she released her first anime song, "Contrast", used as the second ending theme of Blue Box. On May 23 she held "TOMOO Live at Nippon Budokan" with a 21-member "Budokan Special Band", and dancer Erinacchi made a surprise appearance during "Rashiku mo Nakutatte Iideshou". On July 25 she made her first appearance at FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL '25. Her song "Lucky" became the ending theme of City: The Animation. Her album DEAR MYSTERIES, her first full-length in about two years, came out on November 12, 2025, followed by a national hall tour from November 2025 to February 2026. At the final show she announced her first arena tour, TOMOO ARENA TOUR 2026, at Pia Arena MM and Osaka-jo Hall in November 2026. She has been nominated at MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN 2025 and 2026, including Best Japanese Alternative Artist.

She has appeared on television programs such as Music Station and CDTV Live! Live!, and has hosted radio programs including Ann X and All Night Nippon 0 (ZERO) on Nippon Broadcasting.

Musical Style

TOMOO cites Joe Hisaishi as a major influence, stemming from her childhood love of Studio Ghibli. She was also a fan of Yui, Aqua Timez, Kobukuro and Koji Tamaki, and in junior high loved Evanescence, going through a phase of preferring darker music. She names Gen Hoshino as an influential singer-songwriter and has long been friends with Shota Takagi of BREIMEN, with whom she also writes songs.

Her production evolved over time: Wanna V was complicated to make because she had no band experience, while Blink and Topaz had desktop-music influences with arrangements by others. "Ginger" was inspired by a pet cat that was not especially attached to her, and also reflects herself and those around her, carrying the message not to label things simply as good or bad. "Lucky" was composed to sound like a 1970s song; she read the original manga to capture the character's quirkiness, and the word "juice" in the lyrics came from recurring scenes in the story.