&Team () is a Japanese boy band formed by YX Labels. The group is composed of nine members: K, Fuma, Nicholas, EJ, Yuma, Jo, Harua, Taki, and Maki. They were formed through the reality/survival program &Audition – The Howling – as their label's first group. &Team released their debut single "Under the Skin" on November 21, 2022, and officially debuted with their first extended play (EP) First Howling: Me on December 7, 2022. In 2025, &Team officially debuted in South Korea with the Korean-language EP Back to Life.
History 2020–2022: Pre-debut activities and formation K, Nicholas, EJ, and Taki competed on the 2020 South Korean survival show I-Land, which ultimately produced the boy group Enhypen. On January 1, 2021, Big Hit Japan announced the launch of the "Big Hit Japan Global Debut Project" to search for artists to debut as a group in Japan and become active worldwide. On March 19, Big Hit Entertainment re-branded and re-structured into Hybe Corporation. On April 26, K and EJ made cameo appearances in the music video for Enhypen's "Drunk-Dazed".
On November 4, it was announced that K, Nicholas, EJ, and Taki would participate as confirmed members of the planned group and would be joined by additional trainees to be selected through a new audition program. &Audition – The Howling began airing on July 9, 2022, and the nine final members were unveiled on September 3 via live broadcast from Tokyo. On September 26, their fandom name was announced to be "Luné", meaning moon, a backronym for "Light Up New Energy". The group's name, &Team, refers to "9 diverse members forming a team and connecting diverse worlds". 2022–2023: Debut, first fan meeting, and first releases
Hybe Labels Japan announced that &Team would release their debut extended play (EP), First Howling: Me on December 7, 2022. The group's self-variety show, , began airing on November 12; various guests were invited while viewers were able to see their debut preparations in South Korea and Japan. On November 21, 2022, &Team released their first music video and digital single, titled "Under the Skin".
On December 5, 2022, a webtoon featuring the group's members, Dark Moon: The Grey City, was published. Two days later, they released First Howling: Me alongside the music video for "Scent of You"; in the first week of its release, the EP sold 151,000 copies.
On March 2, 2023, it was announced the group would hold their first Japanese fan meeting tour 2023 &Team Fantour Luné Mare: Tsuki-Nami, from May 27 to June 16. On March 2, it was announced that members EJ, K, Nicholas, and Taki would release "W.O.L.F. (Win Or Lose Fight)" on March 16 as the soundtrack for their webtoon Dark Moon: The Grey City.
On May 7, &Team released "Blind Love" as the theme song of the NTV drama Dr. Chocolate.
On May 14, the track list for their new mini album was released, revealing their title track "Firework". &Team released their second extended play First Howling: We on June 14, 2023.
On September 3, &Team held their first anniversary event &Team 1st Anniversary (縁 Day) in Japan, as well as in Seoul on September 9.
On November 15, the group released their first studio album First Howling: Now. Following the release of the album on November 15, the album placed first on the Billboard Japan Hot albums and second on the Oricon Albums Chart in Japan.
On December 19, &Team announced that they would embark on a concert tour in 2024, titled First Paw Print. The tour will occur from January 21 to March 3 and will take place in seven Japanese cities and one South Korean city.
2024: "Samidare", "Aoarashi", "Jyuugoya" and Yukiakari
On March 12, 2024, &Team announced that they would release their first single on May 8. On April 6, the title of their first single album was revealed to be .
On June 10, the single album Samidare was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan for the first time, with cumulative sales of over 500,000 copies. On June 14, &Team announced that they would release their second single on August 7.
On July 10, the music-themed Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, California announced that a special K-pop exhibit will take place in August 2024, displaying the accessories and performance gear worn by artists under Hybe.
On August 14, it ranked first on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 singles chart for the first time. On August 20, Aoarashi entered the World Music Awards "United World chart" for the first time, ranking 30th with a score of 96,000. On August 31, it was announced that &Team would be responsible performing the opening theme song "Beat the Odds" for the anime "Trillion Game".
&Team released on October 23 as a pre-release single for their second full-length album , which was released on December 18. Also in December, &Team released "Magic Hour" and "Wonderful World", the opening and ending themes of the anime television series Honey Lemon Soda.
2025: Go in Blind, first Asia tour and Korean debut
On January 7, 2025, &Team members began hosting a biweekly podcast titled &Team's "Fortunate Chance to Talk to You" (or Enshabe), distributed by TV Tokyo.
&Team released their third lead single "Go in Blind" on April 23. The EP Go in Blind became the first of &Team's releases to be certified 3× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan for the first time in April for sales of more than 750,000 copies, with total sales exceeding 800,000 copies. Their debut album First Howling: ME was also certified platinum in April. On August 8, &Team received their first million certification from RIAJ for "Go in Blind", recognizing the cumulative sales of over 1,000,000 physical units of the single.
&Team appeared in the Japanese live-action film Ya Boy Kongming! the Movie, adapted from the Japanese manga Ya Boy Kongming!. In the film, which was released on April 25, they represented the music label Key Time on the stage of the Music Battle Festival and competed with the other two major music labels for the championship.
In May, they began their first Asia tour, titled Awaken the Bloodline.
On September 3, during the last show of their third anniversary event, &Team announced that they would make their Korean debut with the mini-album Back to Life. They also announced a six-episode documentary program titled &Team 100: Howling Out to the World, which was broadcast on Hulu Japan, Nippon Television, and YouTube weekly starting October 2. On October 24, YX Labels announced that, from mid-November 2025 to February 2026, K and Jo "may have difficulty participating in some schedules", including promotions of Back to Life, "due to personal activities".
&Team made their official Korean debut on October 28 with the mini-album Back to Life. The EP achieved immediate commercial success, selling 1,139,988 copies on its release day, making &Team a double million-seller following Go in Blind. Back to Life topped Oricon Daily Album ranking, becoming the first Korean album by a Japanese artist to do so. &Team achieved a television triple crown on Korean music programs with the lead single "Back to Life", winning SBS M's The Show, MBC M's Show Champion, and KBS2's Music Bank.
2026: "Kawasaki", We on Fire, second Asia tour and Mark on Me On February 20, Hybe Latin America released a remix of the Santos Bravos song "Kawasaki" featuring &Team members Nicholas, Yuma, Jo, and Maki.
&Team's third EP, We on Fire, was released on April 21. "Sakura-iro Yell" had been previously released as a single for the EP on March 14. We on Fire sold over onemillion copies on its first day of release, becoming the first Japanese album to surpass onemillion sales on the Korean Hanteo chart. On April 29, &Team won the Korean music program Show Champion.
In May 13, they began their second Asia tour, titled Blaze The Way. On May 30, &Team entered the Billboard 200 for the first time, with their third Japanese EP, "We on Fire", debuting at No. 52.
On July 5, &Team announced their second Korean mini album, Mark on Me, scheduled for September 8. On July 31, &TEAM announced that their digital single "For Us" would drop the next day on August 1 as the official theme song for the live-action movie Wandance.
Artistry and public image &Team was created in September 2022 through the survival reality competition program &Audition – The Howling. &Team is the first "global group" of South Korean entertainment company Hybe, developed under the company's "multi-home, multi-genre" strategy. With this strategy, the company has developed "localized" groups that are based outside of South Korea, including &Team, US-based Katseye, and Mexico-based Santos Bravos. As part of its global expansion efforts, &Team debuted in South Korea in October 2025 with the Korean-language EP Back to Life. Prior to their Korean debut, &Team were active in South Korea through concerts, fan events, and televised performances of Korean versions of their Japanese songs. Since their debut, their music has received wider international distribution than typical Japanese acts, with global streaming distribution and their promotions crossing over into K-pop.
Japanese record producer Soma Genda has worked with &Team as their main producer since &Audition, where he was a mentor. &Team is described as both J-pop and K-pop. Speaking to Billboard Korea about &Team's position as Hybe's first global group, &Team leader EJ said:People sometimes ask if &Team is K-pop or J-pop, but I'd like the focus to be on the music as it is, rather than the language. I'm proud that we play a role in expanding the company's musical style and culture. I hope people feel our appeal beyond language and borders.
Since their debut, &Team's visual and sonic identity has been shaped by a strong werewolf theme. To accompany this style, Hybe released the Dark Moon: The Grey City webnovel and webtoon series; the characters, which are based on the members of &Team, are werewolves. The Grey City is an expansion of Dark Moon: The Blood Altar, which is based on Enhypen as vampires. The Dark Moon series was later expanded with Dark Moon: The Witch of Yerasah, a multimedia project featuring the music of &Team. Music videos and promotional materials for &Team's fifth EP, We on Fire, contained references to The Witch of Yerasah.
Seven of &Team's nine members are from Japan; EJ is from South Korea and Nicholas is from Taiwan. All members of &Team are fluent in both Japanese and Korean. Additionally, Nicholas speaks Mandarin Chinese and English, and Maki (who is of Japanese and German descent) speaks English and German. EJ is the leader of &Team and Fuma is the sub-leader. K is often described as the group's performance leader, in charge of the group's choreography; he choreographed some parts of some of the group's songs.
Members K () – performance leader Fuma () – sub-leader Nicholas (; EJ (; ) – leader Yuma () Jo () Harua () Taki () Maki ()
Discography Studio albums + List of studio albums, showing selected details, selected chart positions, and sales figures Title Details Peak chart positions Sales Certifications JPN JPNComb. JPNHotBillboard Japan Hot Albums peak chart position:
First Howling: Now Released: November 15, 2023 Label: YX Labels Formats: CD, digital download, streaming 1 1 1 JPN: 119,458 Japan physical sales figures for First Howling: Now
JPN: 1,200 Japan digital sales figures for First Howling: Now
RIAJ : Platinum Yukiakari Released: December 18, 2024 Label: YX Labels Formats: CD, digital download, streaming 1 1 1 JPN: 362,034 RIAJ : 2× Platinum
Extended plays + List of extended plays, showing selected details, selected chart positions, and sales figures Title Details Peak chart positions Sales Certifications JPN JPNComb. JPNHot AUT BEL(FL) FRA KORPeaks on the Circle Album Chart:
US Mark on Me: USWorldPeaks on the World Albums chart: Back to Life: We on Fire: Mark on Me: First Howling: Me Released: December 7, 2022 Label: Hybe Labels Japan