斉藤和義 [Saito Kazuyoshi] is a Japanese musician who has been active since the early 90s. He possesses a wide range of musical talent, as he writes, arranges, and produces the majority of his own material, while also playing all of the musical instruments in his recordings. Among his own fans, he is popular for his live performances, and holds shows on a regular basis; he has done several small-scale tours, such as clubhouse tours, as well as large-scale Budokan concerts. Saito, often called 'せっちゃん' [Secchan] by many fans, is not the most famous among the general Japanese public, but he has numerous fans among those in the music industry. Also interesting to note is that HMV.co.jp named him one of the 30 most underrated artists of all time, of which only two were Japanese artists.

Saito made his major debut in 1993 with the single ‘僕が見たビートルズはTVの中’ [‘Boku ga Mita Beatles wa TV no Naka]. In 1994, he released his fourth single, ‘歩いて帰ろう’ [‘Aruite Kaerou], which garnered a fair amount of success as the opening theme to the popular children’s show, ‘ポンキッキーズ’ [‘Ponkikkis’]. With this release, he was able to establish his name among many Japanese music fans, allowing him to break into the Oricon Top 30 with his album ‘WONDERFUL FISH’ and eventually into the Top 20 and Top 10 with future releases.

Saito continues to expand his activity in the music industry, as he takes part in various compilation and tribute albums, as well as music festivals. He has also written songs for several artists, such as PUFFY, and has produced much of the work of the singer-songwriter duo, 平川地一丁目 [Hirakawachi Icchome].

In January 2007, Saito Kazuyoshi released his 31st single, ‘ウエディング・ソング’ [‘Wedding Song’]. This was a collaboration with the copy creater, 一倉宏 [Ichikura Hiroshi]--Ichikura provided the lyrics to which Saito added a melody. As the CM song for the popular wedding company, ゼクシィ [Zexy], it became his first single to hit the Oricon Top 20, and is currently Saito’s fourth best-selling single to date.

On March 21, 2007, Saito released a special concept album entitled ‘紅盤’ [‘Beniban’], a collection of collaborative love songs and love song covers, including his latest hit single, ‘ウエディング・ソング’ [‘Wedding Song’]. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.