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| Born | April 21, 1989 Myōkō, Niigata, Japan | ||||||||||||
| Nationality | Japanese | ||||||||||||
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| Years active | 2006–present | ||||||||||||
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| Network | UUUM | ||||||||||||
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Last updated: September 27, 2023 | |||||||||||||
Hikaru Kaihatsu (開發 光, Kaihatsu Hikaru, born April 21, 1989), professionally known as Hikakin (Japanese: ヒカキン), is a Japanese YouTuber and businessman who is the co-founder of UUUM,[2] a Japanese multi-channel network. A video of his Super Mario Bros. beatbox went viral in 2010, reaching over 3.8 million views by mid-September of that year.[3][4] He, alongside fellow Japanese YouTuber Megwin, quit their day jobs in 2012 to focus entirely on their channels.[5][6] He also collaborated with Gille, appearing in her promotions for her single "Try Again", where it is stated that he is one of the most popular Japanese YouTubers.[7]
He was born on April 21, 1989 in Myoko Kogen-machi, Nakakubi-gun, Niigata Prefecture (now Myoko City, Niigata Prefecture) as the second son.[3] His older brother (eldest son) is also a YouTuber, Seikin, and as a child he was an unusual boy in the corner of the classroom.[8] Growing up in the snowy Joetsu region, his dream as an elementary school student was "to compete in the Olympics in ski jumping," and he continued ski jumping until high school.[3] When he was in elementary school, he participated in the "Hamonepu League," a corner of the variety show "Riki no Dinchi Gogo Gogo! a variety show that aired on Fuji Television network at the time, he developed an interest in human beat box.[3]
After graduating from Myoko Kogen Minami Elementary School (now Myoko Municipal), Myoko Kogen Junior High School (now Myoko Municipal Myoko Kogen Junior High School), and then Niigata Prefectural Arai High School, he began live performances and other activities in Joetsu.[9][3] Then, in December 2006, he established his own official channel "HIKAKIN" on YouTube.[3] He says that he initially started it for the purpose of viewing videos of foreign beat boxers, but he started posting videos because he thought that if he posted his own videos, people would watch them.[10] He started posting videos soon after he opened the site, but few of the videos from that time remain, as he later deleted them himself. The oldest video in existence is a beatbox that he shot in his bathroom in 2007 (he was a senior in high school at the time). In 2015, a remake of this beatbox video was posted as "2015 ver.", which was filmed in the same environment and clothing as at the time.
In 2008, he graduated from Niigata Prefectural Arai High School and moved to Tokyo. Thereafter, he earned his living while working at Yoshiike, a supermarket in Tokyo where many people from Niigata Prefecture happened to have job offers to the high school.[11] He had no savings because he did not have his own bank account at the time, and moved to Tokyo with only 20,000 yen given to him by his parents. The supermarket where he worked had a company dormitory, and rent was deducted from his monthly salary, so he had no trouble finding a place to live.[12] From then on, he shot many beatbox videos using a cheap microphone in the bathroom of the company dormitory at night or in his own room, carefully selected the ones he thought he had done perfectly well, and uploaded one or two videos each month.[13]
He once applied to become a YouTube partner (a system for earning advertising revenue), but was rejected at the time. After that incident, he began to think, "I'll do it so that I can get offers from the YouTube side," and began to make videos from the viewer's point of view.[14] Although nothing major happened for about two years after his arrival in Tokyo, the number of views gradually increased, and the most popular video at the time had about 200,000 views. At the time, YouTube was still not well known in Japan, and most of the views were from overseas, with only about 10-20% coming from Japan.
In 2010, he uploaded "Super Mario Beatbox," a beatbox medley of background music from the "Super Mario Bros. This video recorded the No. 1 access on YouTube for the month in Japan and was featured in the top news story of "CBS News" in the United States.[15] After recording 200,000 hits 24 hours after uploading the video and 1 million hits a week later, Hikakin received an offer from YouTube to become a YouTube partner,[14] He said that he thought, "I have YouTube even when customers get angry at me in the supermarket or my boss gets sarcastic with me. Furthermore, he was selected as one of the top 500 best YouTube partners in the world in 2010[16] and won the "WOW Star Project 2010" and was invited to Las Vegas.[17] These events led to a gradual increase in requests to perform live and on TV shows as a performer.
In June 2011, the YouTube Partner Forum was held in Japan. At the time, he did not even have the idea of posting videos for a living, but meeting American YouTuber Michelle Phan at this event and being impressed by her speech was a turning point, and he began posting videos in earnest.[18] Later, an opportunity presented itself when a contest called "YouTube NextUp 2011" was held, with 10 winners and a prize of 2 million yen. At the time, he had the largest number of channel subscribers in Japan, and people around him thought he would be accepted. He entered the contest with the confidence that he could quit his job and concentrate on YouTube, but he was not selected. After this humiliating setback, he sought advice from Tomohiro Sato, who works as an advisor to YouTubers. There, he received a handbook outlining the basics of video creation and lots of individual advice. On his own, he studied videos by top creators in Japan and abroad, and imitated their editing skills, such as titles and thumbnails. After about three months of doing so, he realized that his income from YouTube exceeded his company employee's salary.[19]
In December 2012, Hikakin released his first album, a collaboration with video game music composer Hideki Sakamoto, for the soundtrack of the Echannel drawing application of the PlayStation Vita. In May 2013, Hikakin participated in the Social Star Awards and the subsequent Singapore Social concerts, performing with Aerosmith during their stage set and beatboxing before performing with the band on "Walk This Way".
In February 2014, Hikakin did a collaboration beatbox video with American singer Ariana Grande, beatboxing to her song "Baby I."
In October 2014, Hikakin was one of the performers for the first YouTube FanFest in Tokyo, Japan. At the same YouTube FanFest, Japanese breakbeat music duo Hifana performed with their instruments and using Hikakin's beatbox broken down into several parts, they created a new combination of his beatboxing and their instruments.
In December 2014, Hikakin went to New York City to do another collaboration video with Ariana Grande, doing a beatbox of that song, while she was singing "Break Free." In the same month, Hikakin uploaded a beatbox video that featured American singer Ne-Yo. They performed Ne-Yo's song "Coming with You" and his famous 2007 hit "Because of You."
On December 22, 2017, he became the first YouTuber to appear on Music Station Super Live.[20] On May 12, he collaborated with members of SMAP on Fuji Television's SMAPxSMAP.[21]
On December 8, 2020, it was ranked No. 1 in the "Domestic Annual Top Trending Ranking" announced by YouTube official.[22]
On April 8, 2021, the number of subscribers to his YouTube channel exceeded 9 million.[23] He personally took the lead in calling for people to refrain from living with the new coronavirus in 2020, and to wear masks.[24] He also had an online conversation with Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, asking her questions about coronary measures and other issues.[25]
At 12:11 on September 10, 2021, the number of subscribers to his YouTube channel "HikakinTV" surpassed 10 million. On the day of the event, he made a live broadcast, and at the moment he reached the milestone, he was so moved that he cried.[26]
The 10 million live record includes 130,000 more channel subscribers in about 10 minutes, 160,000 simultaneous connections, about 7.5 million views in the first five days of video release, and a total superchat amount of $3 million raised in about 10 minutes, ranking the channel number one worldwide in YouTube's superchat rankings for channels worldwide.
On January 1, 2024, Hikakin announced his marriage on his channel.[27] His brother Seikin, born 30 July 1987 is also a YouTuber with more than 4.6 million subscribers.[28]
