The KinKi Kids are made up of Domoto Koichi and Domoto Tsuyoshi. Despite their surnames, the members are unrelated but they do come from the Kinki region, hence the name KinKi Kids.
Tsuyoshi and Koichi both entered into the entertainment business around the tender age of 10 years old. Their first public appearances were as backup dancers for Hikaru Genji in 1991 and in the following year, the boys appeared in their first magazine and movie. Their first stint as a singing duo was as W Domoto (Double Domoto) in 1993. After this, their name was changed to Kansai Boya before finally settling on KinKi Kids, much to their dismay. They were the backup dancers for fellow Johnny's group SMAP and made appearances on Nakai Masahiro's show, Idol on stage.
In March of 1994, the KinKi Kids starred in the movie "Shoot" alongside former SMAP member, Matsutake. Then, from July to September, the two made their drama debut as the KinKi Kids in the TBS drama "Ningen Shikkaku ~Tatoeba Boku ga Shindara" and even shared their first onscreen kiss with each other. After a few more drama appearances, the boys held their first Budokan concert on New Year's Eve.
Throughout all of 1995, the KinKi Kids kept themselves busy with many drama series, theater acting and advertising contracts with Panasonic. In October of the following year, the boys started to work on six variety shows, the majority of which had only a life of one year, though one, "Love Love Aishiteru," ran until 2001.
In July 1997, the KinKi Kids finally made their CD debut with their first single and album as a singing duo. This single was Garasu no Shounen and it stayed at the top of the Oricon charts for many weeks, turning the boys into an instant idol success.
The KinKi Kids also became part of the super group J-Friends. Fellow artists V6 and Tokio made up the other parts of this collective that was originally created to raise money for charity after the Kobe earthquake. The J-Friends worked with many famous foreign artists like Elton John and Michael Jackson, releasing five albums and three singles before their dissolution in 2003.
In 1998, yet another variety show was created and their third single, Jetcoaster Romance, became the campaign song of ANA's (All Nippon Airlines) Paradise Okinawa 1998. Their first live video was released in May with another single and album in the summer months.
Early in 1999, the KinKi Kids made history for the first time, when they held a continuous three day live at the end of 1998/beginning of 1999. The live included a special birthday party for Koichi on January first.
The KinKi Kids single in January 2000 was used for Tsuyoshi's drama "Summer Snow," in which he had a starring role with Hirosue Ryoko. Even though they had only been together for a very short time, the group released a single collection that summer.
February 2001 saw the end of "Love Love Aishiteru," to be replaced by the popular "Domoto Kyoudai," which is still running today. It showcases well the talents of the pair as they play unplugged sets with other artists, including many other Johnny's artists. In May, they announced their plans to beat Westlife's world record of having eleven first place singles since their debut. Needless to say, they broke that record and released their twelfth single in May and fifth album in July. The limited edition of their thirteenth single, Hey! Minna Genki kai?, featured Tsuyoshi's first solo song Miagete Goran Yoru no Hoshi wo.
Finally, the next January, the Guinness Book of World Records Committee acknowledged the KinKi Kids' accomplishment for most number one singles and they received due recognition in the 2003 edition. In May, Tsuyoshi released his first solo single Machi, which was used in the drama "Yume no California," and Koichi's musical "Shock" started, despite the fact that he had injured himself. Tsuyoshi also embarked on his first solo tour that year.
Koichi also decided to go the solo route and held his first tour from March to May 2004. The solo projects continued with Tsuyoshi's movie, "Fantastipo" in 2005, for which he joined Kokubun Taichi of TOKIO in the duo Toraiji Haiji. He also had his own solo project alter-ego, ENDLICHERI☆ENDLICHERI. Meanwhile, Koichi's "SHOCK" musical continued and was renamed "Endless Shock" (and in early 2008 managed to reach its 575th show). The success of "Endless Shock" led to Koichi doing a solo release of his own, as Deep in your heart/+Million but −Love was released in 2006.
Such solo activities did not mean the work of KinKi abated, however. In 2007 they celebrated their 10th anniversary in style, complementing the anniversary live on July 22nd at Tokyo Dome with a best-hit album. This was entitled 39, which in Japanese is read as "san-kyuu" and is in turn a homonym for "thank you" in English. It represents the duo's thanks to their fans for 10 years of support. The best-of album is divided into two parts, featuring the top 11 favorites as voted for by the fans and then the favorites of Koichi and Tsuyoshi, respectively, coming to a combined total of 39 songs.
The anniversary year concluded with the boys' annual performance at Tokyo Dome on December 31, which preceded the Johnny's Countdown event. In 2008, however, they moved to Osaka, breaking a 10 year long run of appearances at Tokyo Dome on December 31. That honor instead went to fellow Johnny's group, NEWS.
2009 has showed no sign so far of KinKi Kids slowing down as they enter their twelfth year as a group, rather, they started the year off with a bang as the single Yakusoku became their 28th consecutive release to enter the Oricon chart at number 1, breaking their own record again for most consecutive number 1 singles of any band in history.
