For anyone who has seen the wonderfully wacky world of Japanese TV programs and their sponsoring commercials, you may have seen a youthful-looking middle-aged man occasionally spinning around in a shiny disco suit, yelling "Ja-PAN!"once in a while. Enter Hiromi Go!
Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ） was born Hiromi Haratake（原武裕美）in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1955. He joined Johnny & Associates（ジャニーズ事務所）in 1971 as a back dancer for one of the earliest groups signed by founder Johnny Kitagawa, The Four Leaves (Arashi's great ancestor), before getting his chance behind the mike. His stage name was born due to his already emerging popularity with the female members of the audience even as a dancer. They screamed "LET'S GO, HIROMI!" and from the last two words came Hiromi Go.
The 16-year-old Go debuted with "Otoko no Ko, Onna no Ko" (Boys, Girls) in August 1972. Even now, he's known for his nasal delivery, but back then, he sounded like a helium-filled cartoon character. The song is a cheeky adolescent exhortation of his desire for the opposite sex, completed with his "Hey, hey, hey", a porn-y guitar and a Benny Hill sax.
It was instantly a hit for Go as it broke into the Top 10 at No. 8. The following year, he and two other male aidoru, Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）and Goro Noguchi（野口五郎）became known as the Shin-Gosanke (新御三家...The New Big Three), to distinguish them from the previous decade's most popular trio of male singers. Of The New Big Three, Go is the most active even now in Japanese show business, still hoofing it up and singing away at the age of 56.
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