Who Is Hajime Shacho?

Last updated: October 2026

Name (Japanese)	はじめしゃちょー (Hajime Shacho)
Born	February 14, 1993, Toyama Prefecture, Japan
Category	YouTuber
Active since	2012
Known for	Large-scale experiment videos such as the giant slime bath and Mentos-and-cola stunts
Platform	YouTube (main channel with more than 16 million subscribers as of 2026)
Agency	UUUM

Hajime Shacho is one of the most famous YouTubers in Japan, and his main channel was the most subscribed YouTube channel in the country for more than four years, from 2016 to 2020. A member of the country’s first generation of professional YouTubers, he built his audience on big, silly, meticulously staged experiments: filling a bathtub with homemade slime, building a spear out of Mentos candy to plunge into a vat of cola, or converting rooms of his own house into sets for whatever idea he has that week. As of 2026 his main channel has more than 16 million subscribers and over 13 billion total views, with more than 20 million subscribers combined across his channels.

His screen name roughly translates to “President Hajime” — “shacho” is the Japanese word for a company president. It dates back to 2012, when he and university classmates jokingly founded a video-making crew called “Hajime Company.” His real name is widely reported as Hajime Eda. Born in 1993 in Toyama Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast, he started uploading as a student at Shizuoka University and still bases his life and channel in Shizuoka. He belongs to UUUM, Japan’s largest management agency for YouTube creators.

Rise to Fame

Hajime Shacho posted his first videos in 2012, and by his own account they barely reached a few views. After a stint studying English in the United Kingdom, he returned to Japan and signed with UUUM in April 2014, just as YouTube was becoming a mainstream career path in Japan. His mix of stunts, pranks and “I tried doing X” experiment videos — a format so common in Japanese YouTube that it has its own name, “yattemita” — grew explosively, and by March 2016, the same month he graduated from university, his channel had overtaken HIKAKIN’s to become the most subscribed in Japan, a position it held until 2020.

Along the way he crossed into mainstream Japanese pop culture. In November 2015 he set a Guinness World Record by organizing the largest-ever game of “Daruma-san ga Koronda,” the Japanese equivalent of Red Light, Green Light, with 740 participants. At the end of that year he appeared on NHK’s Kohaku Uta Gassen, the flagship New Year’s Eve music broadcast that is a traditional measure of celebrity status in Japan. In 2017, after weekly-magazine reports about his private relationships, he apologized to fans and paused his activities for about six weeks before returning to regular uploads. In December 2021 his main channel passed 10 million subscribers, making him only the second individual Japanese YouTuber to reach that milestone.

What Hajime Shacho Is Known For

Hajime Shacho’s signature is scale: he takes a simple childhood experiment and makes it absurdly large. His best-known videos include:

The giant slime bath — mixing an entire bathtub’s worth of slime and diving into it, one of his most-viewed videos and an image still associated with him in Japan
Endless variations on the Mentos-and-cola reaction, from Mentos spears to covering his own body in the candy before entering a bath of cola
Room-scale experiments such as a bathtub of body cream, oversized versions of everyday products, and renovations of his own home for a single video

Beyond the main channel, he runs secondary channels — including “Hajime Shacho 2” and “Hajime Shacho’s Field” — for casual vlogs, gaming and daily-life content. His house itself has become a recurring character: a seaside home in Shizuoka that he bought in 2021 and has gradually upgraded with a home theater, a sauna and even a nuclear shelter, renovations reported to have raised its value to around 500 million yen. He has also made cameo voice-acting appearances in anime such as Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens and Dr. Stone.

Recent Years

The mid-2020s brought major changes in Hajime Shacho’s private life, which he shared openly with viewers. On August 30, 2025 he announced that he had married a woman outside the entertainment industry, and on January 1, 2026 he announced the birth of their first child, a daughter, saying that his life had changed dramatically.

His content has stayed as playful as ever. In January 2026 Kracie, the confectionery company that sells Mentos in Japan, named him the brand’s official ambassador — with a twist: under the one-year campaign his trademark Mentos-cola videos are off limits, and he instead has to find entirely new ways to use the candy. As of October 2026 he continues to upload frequently to his main channel, and he remains one of the most subscribed and most recognizable individual creators in Japanese YouTube history.

FAQ

What does "Hajime Shacho" mean?

It roughly means "President Hajime." The name comes from "Hajime Company," a joking video-crew name he and his university classmates used when he started making YouTube videos in 2012 — "shacho" is Japanese for a company president.

How many subscribers does Hajime Shacho have?

As of 2026 his main channel has more than 16 million subscribers, and his channels combined exceed 20 million. His main channel was the most subscribed YouTube channel in Japan from 2016 to 2020.

Is Hajime Shacho married?

Yes. He announced his marriage to a woman outside the entertainment industry on August 30, 2025, and on January 1, 2026 he announced the birth of the couple’s first child, a daughter.