Akai Tori (赤い鳥; The Red Birds) was Japanese folk group from 1969 to 1974.

Akai Tori formed in April 1969 and got their name from the Suzuki Miekichi's fairy tale Red Birds. Before the year was up, the group won the grand prix for the 3rd Annual Yamaha Light Music Contest, beating another upcoming Japanese folk band OFF COURSE. A couple months later, the group left for London, England after their victory for a while to record their first album FLY WITH THE RED BIRDS that was released on June 1970 on the record label Toshiba Records. They also won the Rookie of the Year award before the year was up at the Nemu no Sato Popular Song Festival.

Their big hit came on Februrary 1971 with the single, Takeda no Komoriuta, selling over a million copies. A year after, they headed over to America to record new material with several musicians including the British musician Tony Macaulay. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.