Ken Hirai

Ken Hirai's steady, competent falsetto, good looks, and -- most importantly -- predilection for classic R&B and soul, which he mixes with jazz, funk, and hip-hop, made him a top-league feature on the Japanese scene and throughout East Asia, with the total amount of CDs he's sold being close to 14 million. His career began in the early '90s: in 1993, Hirai, still a student, won an audition at Sony and got a deal with the label. He started big -- his first two singles, "Precious Junk" and "Katahou Zutsu No Earphone" (both 1995), were used in TV dramas -- but the sales of his two...