Who Is Hikaru?

Last updated: October 2026

Name (Japanese)	ヒカル (Hikaru)
Born	May 29, 1991, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
Category	YouTuber / Entrepreneur
Active since	2013 (YouTube)
Known for	Big-money stunt videos, the ReZARD brand, blunt business talk
Platform	YouTube — main channel with more than 4.5 million subscribers and over 5 billion total views as of 2026

Hikaru is one of Japan’s most recognizable — and most debated — YouTubers. Known for his blond hair, black-and-gold aesthetic and videos in which he casually spends eye-watering amounts of money, he has built a main channel that peaked at just over five million subscribers in 2025 and still counts more than 4.5 million, with over five billion total views, as of 2026. Beyond YouTube he runs a string of businesses, most famously the apparel and beauty brand ReZARD, and he openly plays up a self-styled “charisma” persona — a swagger that fans find entertaining and critics find brash.

That mix of showmanship, business hustle and bluntness has kept him near the center of Japanese internet culture for a decade. He survived one of the biggest scandals in Japanese YouTube history, reinvented himself as an entrepreneur, saw his company honored with a state decoration for charitable giving, and in 2025 and 2026 dominated tabloid headlines with a whirlwind marriage and divorce — all while continuing to upload on a regular schedule.

Rise to Fame

Hikaru was born in 1991 in rural Hyogo Prefecture in western Japan. After high school he worked at a local factory before quitting to try his luck in online business. He started his first YouTube channel, the gaming-focused Hikaru Games, in 2013, and opened his main channel in March 2016. His aggressive, money-centric style stood out immediately, and the channel passed one million subscribers that December, before the end of its first year.

His signature early hit came in the spring of 2017, when he filmed himself buying roughly 150,000 yen worth of tickets at a festival lottery stall — the kind of game booth run by street vendors at traditional Japanese festivals — without drawing a single top prize. Framed as an expose of rigged festival games, the video racked up tens of millions of views and set off a national conversation about carnival-stall practices.

Later that year came the crash. In the summer of 2017 Hikaru was at the center of the VALU incident, involving a now-defunct Japanese platform that let individuals sell bitcoin-denominated “shares” in themselves. After hyping his own shares, Hikaru and his associates sold off their holdings in August 2017, the price collapsed, and buyers were left facing heavy losses. Amid criticism that the sell-off resembled a pump-and-dump scheme, he announced a buyback of the shares within days and later apologized, suspending his activities indefinitely in September 2017. He returned that November and spent the following years rebuilding — a comeback Japanese commentators still cite as proof of his unusual resilience.

What Hikaru Is Known For

Hikaru’s content revolves around money and spectacle, often in the “kensho” (verification) format popular on Japanese YouTube: spending huge sums to test whether something is true or possible. Typical videos include buying out entire stores, high-stakes challenges at game stalls and arcades, frank talk about how much he earns, and collaborations across the Japanese YouTuber and celebrity world. Off camera, his portfolio keeps growing.

ReZARD — the apparel brand he founded in November 2019, promising high-end comfort at lower prices. It has since expanded into cosmetics and lifestyle goods.
UPSTART — a music unit formed in January 2021 with Sota Hanamura of the pop group Da-iCE, which made its major-label debut on Avex.
Philanthropy — in 2021 his company received Japan’s Medal with Dark Blue Ribbon (Konju Hosho), a government decoration recognizing substantial charitable donations, after roughly 21.7 million yen in proceeds from a Takashi Murakami collaboration line was donated to the Red Feather community chest.
A rice venture — launched in 2025 to support Japanese rice farmers during a period of soaring rice prices, though its second year has proved rocky.

His persona divides opinion by design: he boasts, flashes cash and picks public arguments, but he is also unusually transparent about money, business and his own failures — a big part of why his audience has stayed loyal through repeated controversies.

Recent Years

In May 2025 Hikaru announced a “zero-day marriage” — marrying without any dating period — to Shingeki no Noa, an influencer and businesswoman who runs a cabaret club in Osaka. The couple made headlines again that September when they announced in a video that they would pursue an “open marriage,” an arrangement permitting relationships outside the marriage. The backlash in Japan was swift and severe: his main channel, which had topped five million subscribers in May 2025, lost roughly 270,000 subscribers and stood at about 4.8 million by late December. That month the two announced their divorce, with Hikaru explaining that he had felt suffocated by the gap between his real self and the saintly image expected of him, and that he wanted to keep YouTube his first priority.

Through 2026 he has been in rebuild-and-reinvention mode. His main channel has yet to regain its pre-controversy peak, but his wider business has kept moving: in August 2026 he launched a paid fan club, Hikari no Kai, reported to have drawn some 45,000 paying members within two weeks. His rice venture entered a bumpier second year — in September 2026 media reports described slow sales, a growing stockpile of unsold rice and claims that he had lost interest, reports Hikaru angrily denied while insisting the business would continue. He also made his most unexpected move yet: in May 2026 the celebrated rakugo master Tatekawa Shiraku announced he would take Hikaru on as a pupil — rakugo being Japan’s traditional art of solo comic storytelling — and that summer Hikaru formally entered the apprenticeship under the stage name “Tatekawa Sagishi,” making his stage debut at Tokyo’s Meijiza theater on August 3, 2026, with additional performances following that autumn. As of October 2026 he remains one of the most watched and most discussed figures on Japanese YouTube.

FAQ

Why is Hikaru so famous in Japan?

He broke out in 2017 with a viral video exposing festival lottery stalls, then built a decade-long career on big-money "verification" videos, blunt business talk and ventures like his ReZARD brand, making him one of Japan’s most watched and most debated YouTubers.

What was Hikaru’s open marriage controversy?

In September 2025, Hikaru and his wife, influencer Shingeki no Noa, announced they would pursue an open marriage. The backlash cost his channel roughly 270,000 subscribers in the months that followed, and the couple announced their divorce in December 2025, about six months after marrying.

How many subscribers does Hikaru have?

His main channel topped five million subscribers in May 2025, fell to about 4.8 million after the open marriage backlash later that year, and counts more than 4.5 million as of 2026, with over five billion total views.