Arbitrary: Hitomi Shimatani

Name: Hitomi Shimatani

Japanese name: ,

Birthday: September 4, 1980 (1980-09-04) (age 28)

Origin Kure, Hiroshima, Japan

Genre(s) J-Pop, Dance

Years active 1999Present

Label(s) Avex Trax

Website Official Website

Hitomi Shimatani information:

Hiroshima is a female J-pop singer signed to the Avex Trax label. Shimatani started her career as an Enka singer with the release of her debut single "saka no Onna" (, sakan Woman?) in 1999, but later decided to get into the dance/pop style for her music. Shimatani's music has also appeared in video games and also anime series.

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After having finished school and feeling ready to her first step as a young singer, in 1999 Hitomi released her first single called "saka no onna" (, Woman Of Osaka?), an enka song. Although the single received much critical acclaim and even won some awards, it sold rather poorly, causing either Shimatani, avex, or both to decide that "saka no onna" was to be both the beginning and the end of Shimatani's enka career. She started to record more songs and in 2000 she released her second single, "Kaihku" (, liberated district?), which was drastically different, stylistically, than her previous with its extremely pop leanings.

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