Ikimonogakari Discussing Making A Comeback

Ikimonogakari may be on its way to making a comeback sooner than expected.

Group member Hotaka Yamashita recently released his first book, a collection of essays, and held a release event over the weekend. It was during this event that he expressed a positive outlook regarding Ikimonogakari's future.

Ikimonogakari announced at the beginning of 2017 that it was going on indefinite hiatus, referring to it as a "grazing period" to allow its members to grow and live normal lives again. Although no longer bound together through artist activities, the break has actually brought them closer together, according to Yamashita.

"We originally started together as high school classmates. Our privacy ended after we debuted. After grazing this year, it felt like I was able to breathe again...We didn't expect our bond together to strength [because of this]," Yamashita said.

Without the burden of performing and activities, Yamashita has been able to experience new aspects of life that he was unable to as an active artist. He expressed a desire to use these experience to create something new artistically, but wants that something to be with his group mates.

"We've had a lot of opportunities to meet with each other privately since grazing...Restarting [our group activities] is not concrete yet, but after this break from our 10 years of activities, I want to do something new again, and I'm excited to do so," Yamashita said.

Although nothing is set in stone, Yamashita assured fans that his group mates are down for working together again as Ikimonogakari.

"We haven't talked about anything specific for now, but we do want to do something new," he said.