Pop group 'SPEED' to reunite for NTV's 24-hour TV

Wednesday 20th August, 05:04 PM JST

TOKYO —

The pop group SPEED, which broke up in 2000, will reunite for the charity program “24-hour TV”, NTV said Tuesday. The group will perform on the telethon which aims to raise money for charities working with handicapped people.

SPEED member Eriko Imai, 24, talked for the first time about her 3-year-old son who has a hearing disability, “I would like my son, who cannot hear my voice, to enjoy our performance. Hopefully we can raise awareness of the difficulties experienced everyday by handicapped people.”

The program is scheduled to air on August 31.

15 Comments

akaguma at 12:29 AM JST - 21st August

nice bit of irony that
borscht at 03:26 AM JST - 21st August

One of Stevie Wonder's children (a son, I believe) is also deaf. Speed. Were there only two of them or am I thinking of another group that should remain broken up?
Zybster at 08:57 AM JST - 21st August

borscht, SPEED is a group of four girls from Okinawa, they had pieces like "My Graduation", "White Love" etc. The leader, Hiroko, was IMHO one of the cutest AND most talented singers on the Japanese scene.

"Speed is officially the best selling female group in Japan when it comes to combined album and single's numbers. They also have the highest selling album (Moment) and single (White Love) and consecutive number one Oricon Weekly chart debuts in the respective categories. Prior to their disbandment, none of their singles released ever sold below the 550,000 mark - a feat. yet to be matched by any other jpop artist or band. "

Source: http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Speed-(band)
ExPrinceska at 12:03 PM JST - 21st August

no, please do not unite and sing again
Zybster at 01:15 PM JST - 21st August

ExPrinceska, and that would be because...?
hoserfella at 02:41 PM JST - 21st August

because they sucked then and will be even worse now. Zybster, u must be kidding about Hiroko's voice! I remember it was bad (even for a J-pop idol) More of a rusty screech than anything. zero talent. The only reason they were so popular was because like all j-poppers, they were successfully packaged to the 10-15 year old demographic and of course the oyaji perverts out there (I read that a sizable portion of fans at their "concerts" were salarymen)
dennis0bauer at 03:20 PM JST - 21st August

I like speed, i can't wait to hear their screeches again :p
some14some at 03:25 PM JST - 21st August

Group of good looking girls, wishing them better success than Fuji Tv's 27-hrs program.
terebiko at 03:50 PM JST - 21st August

At least NTV's 24-hour TV is for charity, like the Jerry Lewis Telethon in the States. As far as I know, Fuji's 27-hour has no real point, except to show how cool they are (JIMAN).

If reuniting can help raise money for charity, and more awareness about handicapped people (Goodness nows Japan needs more awareness!), I say more power to Speed.
ExPrinceska at 09:08 PM JST - 21st August

ExPrinceska, and that would be because...?

...they cannot sing.
Pukey2 at 10:08 PM JST - 21st August

The leader, Hiroko, was IMHO one of the cutest AND most talented singers on the Japanese scene.

Wasn't Hiroko the one with awful teeth?
DenshaDeGO at 09:32 PM JST - 22nd August

I hope they've matured since their break up. I remember they were on "Utaban" once and made muffins or something. Ishibashi made comments and one or two of them started crying. Not a lot of fun watching that episode.
JackDorff at 10:22 PM JST - 22nd August

Perhaps, in order to show solidarity with deaf people, SPEED could simply dance and pretend to sing for a few minutes. That way viewers at home will be able to gain some kind of understanding of what its like to be deaf. Im sure that whatever they do will be a welcome break from the galaxy of B-grade idols that`ll be appearing. What price the nandedarou boys rocking up again?
borscht at 11:01 PM JST - 22nd August

Zybster,

Thanks, now I remember them. As I recall, they weren't the worst of the jPop lot. And their 'retirement' earned them headline news. Right?
cwhite at 08:49 PM JST - 25th August

DenshaDeGO> That was when Hiro just turned 12... yeah 6th graders girls do tend to overreact and cry for no real reason.

Speed was phenomenal, they changed J-Pop in it's entirety. Every other girl band since then is a tribute to them or should I say the companies behind them. Unfortunately Okinawa Actors School has become too institutionalized and lost that spark it once had during it's prime. The label Toy's Factory vanished over night. Anyway the producer Ichiji Hiromasa would be the equal if any to Komoro Tetsuya racking in just as much dough over the years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed(band) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OkinawaActors_School http://www.kdash.jp/profile/creative/ijichi