Princess Princess (band)
Princess Princess (プリンセス・プリンセス), also known as Puri-Puri, was a five-member Japanese pop/rock girl group from Tokyo. They were active from 1983 to 1996, and briefly reunited in 2012 and again in 2016. The band also performed under two earlier names, Akasaka Komachi (1983) and Julian Mama (1985). They were found through an open audition of about 1,400 hopefuls and trained in the Tokyo area for over two years before appearing on TV in 1984.
They began as Akasaka Komachi and then briefly as Julian Mama, but in 1987 they debuted as Princess Princess with the single Koi wa Balance. Early lyrics were written by guitarist Kanako Nakayama, while the music was by producer Saburo Suzuki. The band decided to write their own music from then on, with Nakayama and Kyōko Tomita usually handling lyrics and lead singer Kaori Okui contributing a large share of the music.
At first they played small venues and slowly built a following. Their big break came in 1988 with the album Here We Are and the single Go Away Boy, which entered the Oricon Top 20. The band kept growing, releasing the successful albums and singles that followed. In 1989 they hit a peak: their single Diamonds reached No. 1 on the charts and became Japan’s first CD single to sell a million copies. They also topped the charts with Sekai de Ichiban Atsui Natsu, and their album Lovers rose to No. 1 on the albums chart. By 1990 they were touring nationwide, and their songs Julian and Oh Yeah! also reached No. 1.
In 1991 they scored another No. 1 with Kiss, and Seven Years After peaked at No. 3. Their 1991 album Dolls in Action and the 1993 Bee-Beep (including the No. 1 album Bee-Beep) kept them busy, but the group started to slow down in the early 1990s. In 1993 keyboardist Tomoko Konno temporarily lost hearing in one ear, causing a short lineup change. The following years brought more mature, softer songs and solo projects by members.
Princess Princess announced their retirement in 1995. They felt there were tensions about a new direction and that songwriting was becoming harder. Their final single, Fly Baby Fly, sold poorly, and their last album, The Last Princess, served as a goodbye message. They ended with a three-night Budokan run in May 1996.
The group briefly reunited in November 2012 to help with recovery after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, performing six shows in Sendai, Tokyo, and at the Tokyo Dome, plus appearing on the 2012 Kōhaku Uta Gassen New Year’s Eve program.
After disbanding, members pursued various projects. Kaori Okui married actor Goro Kishitani and released solo work under her name, later forming Unlock The Girls in 2018 with other musicians. Kanako Nakayama released solo albums and joined the group VooDoo Hawaiians. Tomoko Konno released solo albums and wrote film scores. Atsuko Watanabe joined Tokyo School of Music as a teacher and later helped form a group called Go 50 Go. Kyōko Tomita also teaches at Tokyo School of Music and hosts a radio program.
Princess Princess is remembered for helping to popularize female-fronted rock in Japan and for achieving major chart success in the late 1980s, including a landmark million-selling single with Diamonds.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:41 (CET).