Kenshi Yonezu Reaches New Milestone with 'Iris Out'
HISTORY-MAKING J-POP PHENOM
KENSHI YONEZU
REACHES NEW MILESTONE WITH
“IRIS OUT”
TRACK REACHES TOP 5 ON BILLBOARD'S GLOBAL 200 CHART – THE HIGHEST-EVER CHARTING POSITION FOR A JAPANESE LANGUAGE SONG
WATCH: YONEZU CHATS WITH GLOBAL ICON HIKARU UTADA
ABOUT THEIR NEW COLLABORATION “JANE DOE”
BOTH “IRIS OUT” AND “JANE DOE” ARE OFFICIAL THEME SONGS FOR
CHAINSAW MAN – THE MOVIE: REZE ARC
LISTEN: “IRIS OUT” | “JANE DOE”
NEW YORK, NY (October 3, 2025) – Chart-topping J-pop superstar KENSHI YONEZU's new song “IRIS OUT” is already setting global records, rocketing to the Top 5 of the Billboard Global 200 chart, becoming the highest-ever charting position for a Japanese language song. Surpassing previous records set by YOASOBI's “Idol” and Creepy Nuts' “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” “IRIS OUT” serves as the official theme song for CHAINSAW MAN – THE MOVIE: REZE ARC and was released alongside a music video featuring highlights from the film. In response to the record-breaking hit, Yonezu himself drew a special illustration of the angelic demon from the CHAINSAW MAN franchise. Today's news is the latest in a string of recent historic milestones for Yonezu, as his 2022CHAINSAW MAN series theme “KICK BACK” became the first-ever Japanese language song to reach RIAA Platinum certification nearly three years after its release.
In addition to “IRIS OUT,” Yonezu most recently collaborated with global icon HIKARU UTADA on the closing theme to the newCHAINSAW MAN film entitled “JANE DOE.” In celebration of the release and making its debut today is an exclusive video of the two J-pop icons in conversation about their collaboration, first meeting and differences in their careers – watch here. Written and composed by Yonezu with Utada joining in on vocals, “JANE DOE” was released alongside a music video featuring both musicians, which shot to No. 1 on YouTube's Trending chart for nine consecutive days following its release.
CHAINSAW MAN – THE MOVIE: REZE ARC will be hitting theaters in United States on October 24, 2025 from Sony Pictures Entertainment, who has acquired the worldwide distribution rights for the film.
ABOUT KENSHI YONEZU
After gaining success with Vocaloid music under the stage name HACHI, Kenshi Yonezu began producing under his real name in 2012. In addition to music, he has attracted attention for his album cover illustrations and video productions. The video for his hit single “Lemon”, the long-running theme song for the TV series Unnatural, is the most-viewed music video in Japan, and topped Billboard Japan's year-end charts for two consecutive years, leaving a mark on music history both in Japan and abroad.
His 2020 album STRAY SHEEP set a record of 1.9 million copies sold with the highest-placing Japanese artist ever to appear on the IFPI year-end global ranking chart. He continued to work tirelessly during the COVID-19 pandemic, including performing as the first Asian in a virtual concert hosted by the online game Fortnite. Collaborated globally with UNIQLO on their UT collection with the storefront collaboration displays in NY and other 8 UNIQLO stores worldwide. He was awarded an AAC Award, listed in Forbes' 100 Asian Digital Stars, and received the Minister of NEWS RELEASE Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists.
In 2022, he released “M87” as the theme song for the film Shin Ultraman, and “POP SONG” as the theme song for a PlayStation commercial. His single “KICK BACK,” the opening theme for the TV anime CHAINSAW MAN, made Spotify's Global Top 50, and became the first Japanese-language song certified Gold by RIAA®. He was also selected as the first and only Japanese artist to be a part of the “RIAA Class of 2023”, with which the association summarized the artists who had flourished in the year.
In 2023, Yonezu released “Tsuki Wo Miteita - Moongazing” as the theme song for the RPG game Final Fantasy XVI, and “Chikyugi - Spinning Globe” – the theme song Studio Ghibli's animated film The Boy and the Heron (Academy Award Winner for Best Animated Feature, 2024), directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
In August 2024, Yonezu wrote “Garakuta – JUNK”, the theme song of the movie LAST MILE, and released his sixth studio album, LOST CORNER. In September, Yonezu released an exclusive line of graphic tees in collaboration with UNIQLO, as part of their ongoing UT series celebrating pop culture from around the world. After 11 years, Hachi (Kenshi Yonezu) himself created a new illustration for the VOCALOID song “Donut Hole”, and a fully animated music video based on the illustration. Original chocolate was also released from Godiva Japan as the “GODIVA x HACHI Donut Hole Collection” from October as the first time for Godiva worldwide to create a chocolate collection lineup in collaboration with an artist. In November Yonezu released “Azalea”, a song written as the theme song for the global Netflix series Beyond Goodbye. For the first time in 6 years, appeared at Kohaku Uta Gassen.
In 2025, Yonezu released “Plazma”, a theme to the film Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- and also the theme to its anime series Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-. He then released the theme to the anime series Medalist with a collaboration music video between Kenshi Yonezu and the Winter Olympics gold Medalist Yuzuru Hanyu. Yonezu kicked off his largest-scaled world tour, KENSHI YONEZU 2025 WORLD TOUR / JUNK after performing domes in Japan, toured Asia, Europe, and the U.S., drew a total of 440,000 people. Kenshi Yonezu has just recently announced his new tour, KENSHI YONEZU 2026 TOUR / GHOST— a 6-city, 14-show arena headliner across Japan. The tour will kick off in Nagano on November 6, 2026, and will travel through Osaka, Aichi, Fukuoka, Miyagi, and Kanagawa, concluding on December 17. In September, he dropped his latest track, “IRIS OUT”, the official theme for the new film CHAINSAW MAN – THE MOVIE: REZE ARC, and its ending theme "JANE DOE" on 9/22.
As for Yonezu's music videos, “Lemon” has surpassed 930 million views, continuing to break the records of Japanese artists. It is one of the 17 music videos of his songs that garnered him a commanding record of surpassing 100 million views each (“Lemon,” “Eine Kleine,” “LOSER,” “Peace Sign,” “Haiirotoao (+Masaki Suda),” “orion,” “Flamingo,” “Kanden,” “Fireworks,” “Paprika,” “Shunrai,” “Uma to Shika,” “Spirits of the Sea,” “KICK BACK,” Foorin's “Paprika” and Masaki Suda's “Machigaisagashi,” “Sayonara, Mata Itsuka! – Sayonara”). He has over 7.98 million subscribers on his official YouTube channel.
CONNECT WITH KENSHI YONEZU: WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | X | TIKTOK | YOUTUBE
ABOUT HIKARU UTADA
A Japanese singer-songwriter and producer Hikaru Utada debuted with the single ‘Automatic/time will tell’ on December 9, 1998. Their first album First Love remains the best-selling Japanese album of all time. In 2024, they released their first greatest hits album SCIENCE FICTION to commemorate their 25th anniversary of their debut, followed by their first tour in six years ―the nationwide HIKARU UTADA SCIENCE FICTION TOUR 2024. In 2025, continuing a dynamic run of creative output, Utada's latest digital single “Mine or Yours” has captured attention as the theme for the Ayataka green tea commercial, marking the second consecutive year of Utada's collaboration with the brand. Electricity Remixes, a limited-edition vinyl released on July 9 featuring three remixes by internationally recognized artists Karen Nyame KG, Arca and salute, has already generated excitement among music fans in Japan and around the world following the earlier digital releases.
CONNECT WITH HIKARU UTADA: WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | X | YOUTUBE
KENSHI YONEZU
REACHES NEW MILESTONE WITH
“IRIS OUT”
TRACK REACHES TOP 5 ON BILLBOARD'S GLOBAL 200 CHART – THE HIGHEST-EVER CHARTING POSITION FOR A JAPANESE LANGUAGE SONG
WATCH: YONEZU CHATS WITH GLOBAL ICON HIKARU UTADA
ABOUT THEIR NEW COLLABORATION “JANE DOE”
BOTH “IRIS OUT” AND “JANE DOE” ARE OFFICIAL THEME SONGS FOR
CHAINSAW MAN – THE MOVIE: REZE ARC
LISTEN: “IRIS OUT” | “JANE DOE”
NEW YORK, NY (October 3, 2025) – Chart-topping J-pop superstar KENSHI YONEZU's new song “IRIS OUT” is already setting global records, rocketing to the Top 5 of the Billboard Global 200 chart, becoming the highest-ever charting position for a Japanese language song. Surpassing previous records set by YOASOBI's “Idol” and Creepy Nuts' “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” “IRIS OUT” serves as the official theme song for CHAINSAW MAN – THE MOVIE: REZE ARC and was released alongside a music video featuring highlights from the film. In response to the record-breaking hit, Yonezu himself drew a special illustration of the angelic demon from the CHAINSAW MAN franchise. Today's news is the latest in a string of recent historic milestones for Yonezu, as his 2022CHAINSAW MAN series theme “KICK BACK” became the first-ever Japanese language song to reach RIAA Platinum certification nearly three years after its release.
In addition to “IRIS OUT,” Yonezu most recently collaborated with global icon HIKARU UTADA on the closing theme to the newCHAINSAW MAN film entitled “JANE DOE.” In celebration of the release and making its debut today is an exclusive video of the two J-pop icons in conversation about their collaboration, first meeting and differences in their careers – watch here. Written and composed by Yonezu with Utada joining in on vocals, “JANE DOE” was released alongside a music video featuring both musicians, which shot to No. 1 on YouTube's Trending chart for nine consecutive days following its release.
CHAINSAW MAN – THE MOVIE: REZE ARC will be hitting theaters in United States on October 24, 2025 from Sony Pictures Entertainment, who has acquired the worldwide distribution rights for the film.
ABOUT KENSHI YONEZU
After gaining success with Vocaloid music under the stage name HACHI, Kenshi Yonezu began producing under his real name in 2012. In addition to music, he has attracted attention for his album cover illustrations and video productions. The video for his hit single “Lemon”, the long-running theme song for the TV series Unnatural, is the most-viewed music video in Japan, and topped Billboard Japan's year-end charts for two consecutive years, leaving a mark on music history both in Japan and abroad.
His 2020 album STRAY SHEEP set a record of 1.9 million copies sold with the highest-placing Japanese artist ever to appear on the IFPI year-end global ranking chart. He continued to work tirelessly during the COVID-19 pandemic, including performing as the first Asian in a virtual concert hosted by the online game Fortnite. Collaborated globally with UNIQLO on their UT collection with the storefront collaboration displays in NY and other 8 UNIQLO stores worldwide. He was awarded an AAC Award, listed in Forbes' 100 Asian Digital Stars, and received the Minister of NEWS RELEASE Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists.
In 2022, he released “M87” as the theme song for the film Shin Ultraman, and “POP SONG” as the theme song for a PlayStation commercial. His single “KICK BACK,” the opening theme for the TV anime CHAINSAW MAN, made Spotify's Global Top 50, and became the first Japanese-language song certified Gold by RIAA®. He was also selected as the first and only Japanese artist to be a part of the “RIAA Class of 2023”, with which the association summarized the artists who had flourished in the year.
In 2023, Yonezu released “Tsuki Wo Miteita - Moongazing” as the theme song for the RPG game Final Fantasy XVI, and “Chikyugi - Spinning Globe” – the theme song Studio Ghibli's animated film The Boy and the Heron (Academy Award Winner for Best Animated Feature, 2024), directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
In August 2024, Yonezu wrote “Garakuta – JUNK”, the theme song of the movie LAST MILE, and released his sixth studio album, LOST CORNER. In September, Yonezu released an exclusive line of graphic tees in collaboration with UNIQLO, as part of their ongoing UT series celebrating pop culture from around the world. After 11 years, Hachi (Kenshi Yonezu) himself created a new illustration for the VOCALOID song “Donut Hole”, and a fully animated music video based on the illustration. Original chocolate was also released from Godiva Japan as the “GODIVA x HACHI Donut Hole Collection” from October as the first time for Godiva worldwide to create a chocolate collection lineup in collaboration with an artist. In November Yonezu released “Azalea”, a song written as the theme song for the global Netflix series Beyond Goodbye. For the first time in 6 years, appeared at Kohaku Uta Gassen.
In 2025, Yonezu released “Plazma”, a theme to the film Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- and also the theme to its anime series Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-. He then released the theme to the anime series Medalist with a collaboration music video between Kenshi Yonezu and the Winter Olympics gold Medalist Yuzuru Hanyu. Yonezu kicked off his largest-scaled world tour, KENSHI YONEZU 2025 WORLD TOUR / JUNK after performing domes in Japan, toured Asia, Europe, and the U.S., drew a total of 440,000 people. Kenshi Yonezu has just recently announced his new tour, KENSHI YONEZU 2026 TOUR / GHOST— a 6-city, 14-show arena headliner across Japan. The tour will kick off in Nagano on November 6, 2026, and will travel through Osaka, Aichi, Fukuoka, Miyagi, and Kanagawa, concluding on December 17. In September, he dropped his latest track, “IRIS OUT”, the official theme for the new film CHAINSAW MAN – THE MOVIE: REZE ARC, and its ending theme "JANE DOE" on 9/22.
As for Yonezu's music videos, “Lemon” has surpassed 930 million views, continuing to break the records of Japanese artists. It is one of the 17 music videos of his songs that garnered him a commanding record of surpassing 100 million views each (“Lemon,” “Eine Kleine,” “LOSER,” “Peace Sign,” “Haiirotoao (+Masaki Suda),” “orion,” “Flamingo,” “Kanden,” “Fireworks,” “Paprika,” “Shunrai,” “Uma to Shika,” “Spirits of the Sea,” “KICK BACK,” Foorin's “Paprika” and Masaki Suda's “Machigaisagashi,” “Sayonara, Mata Itsuka! – Sayonara”). He has over 7.98 million subscribers on his official YouTube channel.
CONNECT WITH KENSHI YONEZU: WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | X | TIKTOK | YOUTUBE
ABOUT HIKARU UTADA
A Japanese singer-songwriter and producer Hikaru Utada debuted with the single ‘Automatic/time will tell’ on December 9, 1998. Their first album First Love remains the best-selling Japanese album of all time. In 2024, they released their first greatest hits album SCIENCE FICTION to commemorate their 25th anniversary of their debut, followed by their first tour in six years ―the nationwide HIKARU UTADA SCIENCE FICTION TOUR 2024. In 2025, continuing a dynamic run of creative output, Utada's latest digital single “Mine or Yours” has captured attention as the theme for the Ayataka green tea commercial, marking the second consecutive year of Utada's collaboration with the brand. Electricity Remixes, a limited-edition vinyl released on July 9 featuring three remixes by internationally recognized artists Karen Nyame KG, Arca and salute, has already generated excitement among music fans in Japan and around the world following the earlier digital releases.
CONNECT WITH HIKARU UTADA: WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | X | YOUTUBE
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