ZONE

ZONE (ゾーン) was an all-female pop rock band started in Sapporo, Japan in 1999. Though it initially started as a dance group, they turned to an all female band. Zone has been categorized in a new genre called "bandol" (a portmanteau of the words band and idol). The band was started by Studio RunTime and released their first single under the major record label Sony Records, "Good Days", on February 7, 2001.

Their most famous song is "Secret Base: Kimi ga Kureta Mono" released on August 8, 2001. The single sold about 744,000 copies on Japanese Oricon charts.

At first, Zone started off with eight members in 1997, then reduced to six and finally four - these members were Nagase Miyu, Saito Mizuho, Sakae Maiko, and Ookoshi Takayo - by the time they released their first indie disc in 1999.

Ominami Tadayuki, a representative of Sony Records, noticed that the crowd reaction to the debut concert was particularly enthusiastic. Back then, Zone was solely concentrated on singing and dancing. Following his belief that Zone had the makings of a hit, Tadayuki watched a live video of the band playing with instruments at the KomeKome Klub and felt that, due to the overabundance of dance groups, Zone had the makings of a breakthrough act, providing they could play their instruments as well as sing and dance.

In late 2003, Ookoshi Takayo announced her graduation from Zone to pursue her studies and has been since replaced by Nishimura Tomoka, one of the two original members cut from the band when they scaled from six members to four.

Between 1999 and 2005, Zone released seventeen hit singles, three full lengths CDs, three DVDs, did commercials, and had their own television special, in addition to attending high school. They all graduated.

Zone officially disbanded on April 1, 2005, after playing their final concert at Nippon Budokan. On April 13, their greatest hits album E: Complete A Side Singles was released. The album debuted at #1 with the first week sales of about 98,000 copies, becoming their first number-one album on Japanese Oricon charts.

(Source: AniDB)