INI

INI is a Japanese boy band. There are eleven members who are from Japan and China. It was formed from the survival audition program called Produce 101 Japan Season2.^[1] This is the Japanese version of a popular audition program from South Korea. 6,000 people auditioned for the show. The show started with 101 trainees passing the audition, and 11 members were chosen through this program. After the end of Produce 101 Japan Season2, INI flew to South Korea to prepare and produce their debut single. They released their first single called "A" on November 3, 2021. It sold over 500,000 copies in its first week and reached the top in the "Oricon Weekly Single Ranking".^[2] INI won the “Favorite Asian Artist Award” at “2021 MAMA (Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS)”, one of the largest music award ceremonies in Asia, held on Saturday, December 11.^[3] Their debut single "Rocketeer" was nominated for "The Rookie of the Year Award" of "The Japan Record Award" (affiliated with TBS Television).^[4]

It is managed by Lapone Entertainment, a joint company between Yoshimoto Kogyo and CJ ENM.

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Name

"INI" means connecting members (I) and you (I) with network (N).^[1] This name was chosen from the votes by fans and announced in the last episode of the audition program. The official fan name is "MINI : Me + INI" . In addition, there are some meanings in this name, for example, "We want to see (in Japanese, see is mini) INI", "M (memory), I (me), N (network), I (you)" and "We will make memories together".^[6]

Members

Name / Birthday / Nation^[7]

• Fujimaki Kyosuke (藤牧 京介) / August 10, 1999 / Japan
• Gotou Takeru (後藤 威尊) / June 3, 1999 / Japan
• Ikezaki Rihito (池﨑 理人) / August 30, 2001 / Japan
• Kimura Masaya (木村 柾哉) / October 10, 1997 / Japan
• Matsuda Jin (松田 迅) / October 30, 2002 / Japan
• Nishi Hiroto (西 洸人) / June 1, 1997 / Japan
• Ozaki Takumi (尾崎 匠海) / June 14, 1999 / Japan
• Sano Yudai (佐野 雄大) / October 10, 2000 / Japan
• Tajima Shogo (田島 将吾) / October 13, 1998 / Japan
• Takatsuka Hiromu (髙塚 大夢) / April 4, 1999 / Japan
• Xu Fengfan (許 豊凡) / June 12, 1998 / China

Discography

Single:『A』[8]
1. Rocketeer 2. Cardio 3. RUNWAY(INI Ver.) 4. Brighter
Released: November 3, 2021 Label: Lapone Entertainment Formats: CD, Digital download First week sales: about 508,000 copies (half million)

Events

*Concert

INI FIRST FAN MEETING[9]
Date: November 13, 2021 - November 14, 2021 Type: Offline / Live Streaming Location: PIA ARENA MM (Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan)

*Festival

KCON:TACT HI 5[10]
Date: September 26, 2021 Type: Live Streaming Location: South Korea

*Award Ceremony

2021 MAMA（2021 Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS）[3]
Date: December 11, 2021 Type: Offline / Live Streaming Location: CJ ENM content World (Paju, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea) ※INI performed with the video recorded in advance in Tokyo.