YOHIO is a Swedish 17-year-old guitarist and singer who recently made solo debut in Japan with his mini album REACH the SKY. His genre is Visual-kei(visual style) which is an established music scene in Japan since the 90s.

The uniqueness of YOHIO is that he is Swedish but writing and performing his songs in Japanese. His interest in Japan and Japanese Culture started when he was 9 years old through manga and anime. He quickly fell in love with the Japanese culture and music.

YOHIO immediately began to learn the language through night school and by watching Japanese TV shows and blogging in Japanese, and has almost exclusively listened to Japanese music since then.

He started playing guitar when he was 11 years old and now he is shredding neoclassical solos like Yngwie Malmsteen dressed as a classic lolita singing in Japanese. It may seem like a strange combination for Western people, but in Japan it's fully accepted.

His fast guitar playing has already got him a lot of attention from guitar magazines in Japan and he is fully endorsed by Japanese guitar brand ESP.

YOHIO has already appeared several times in major national Japanese television shows and Universal makes massive marketing campaigns. The fact that he speaks Japanese and performs his songs in Japanese has given him a lot of media attention.

YOHIO is currently writing songs for his upcoming debut full album which will be released this fall.

News of YOHIO's rampage in Japan have also been picked up by CNN and Yahoo news below a link to a chronicle describing the YOHIO phenomenon. German Tv-station RTL has also broadcasted the YOHIO story.