Aska

Aska, Ryo Aska or Ryō Asuka (飛鳥 涼) (born Shigeaki Miyazaki (宮﨑 重明) on February 24, 1958 in Ono, Onojō, Fukuoka) is a Japanese singer-songwriter.

Aska is best known for work as part of the music duo Chage and Aska.

As a composer, he wrote most of the duo's hit songs, including "Morning Moon", "Love Song", "Say Yes", and "Meguriai".

He has also written for many other singers and groups, including Hikaru Genji.

He began a solo career in 1987, and was highly successful in the early 1990s.

His most well-known song as a solo singer is "Hajimari wa Itsumo Ame" (The Start Is Always Rain), which was a single from his second solo album.

The song reached No. 2 on oricon and sold over 1,160,000 copies.

The song led him to prominence across East Asia.

He was arrested in May 2014 for possession of the illegal stimulant.

On September 12, 2014, he was sentenced to three years in prison suspended for four years.

He restarted his career in 2017.

In 2019, Aska announced he would leave Chage and Aska.

Initially, it was thought that his stage name was derived from the Ryo Asuka character of the Devilman manga series by Go Nagai.

Aska later denied this, explaining that his name was derived from "Asuka", the name of female radio DJ in Fukuoka on whom he had a crush in college.

When he thought about his stage name, he used Aska to get back at the DJ.

At first, the English notation of his name was Ryo Asuka, but this was often mispronounced, so Asuka was changed to Aska.