櫻井翔 | ar

Sakurai Sho (櫻井翔; born January 25, 1982 in Minato, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese idol singer, actor, host, and newscaster, as well as a member of the Japanese idol group, Arashi.

Sakurai joined Johnny's Entertainment in October 1995 and made his debut with Arashi in Hawaii. While juggling his work as an idol, he attended Keio University and graduated with a degree in Economics in 2004 and has inspired many other juniors from the same agency to also pursue a higher education after high school. Sakurai is the designated rapper of the group, and has written the raps in the band's songs from the single ハダシの未来/言葉より大切なもの onwards. Fans affectionately call it "Sakurap". Sakurai's breakthrough in rapping made it easier for his juniors to rap as well despite being idols, and became an idol for them to look up to. According to TOKIO's 国分太一 (Kokubun Taichi) and KAT-TUN's member, 田中聖 (Tanaka Koki), they starting rapping because of Sakurai.

In 2006, he became a newscaster for News ZERO, with a segment every Monday. In 2007, he was chosen to help host NTV's ZEROxSenkyo 2007, a special program, regarding the upcoming House of Councillors elections. Sakurai became the first pop idol to host such a program. He was chosen as the main caster for Fuji TV's broadcast of the 2007 Volleyball World Cup. This marked the first time ARASHI, who were special supporters for the 1999 competition, has been involved with the Volleyball World Cup after eight years.

In 2008, Sakurai was appointed as the main caster for NTV's coverage of the Olympic Games in Beijing and in 2010, was appointed as a special caster for NTV's coverage of the Vancouver Games. .