(born October 30, 1980) is a Japanese singer-songwriter. In 2000, Onitsuka released her debut single "Shine" and gained recognition when its follow-up "Gekkou" became a hit. Insomnia, her first studio album, released in the following year, topped the Japanese Oricon charts and has sold more than a million copies. She won the prize for lyrics of the 43rd Japan Record Awards in 2001 with "Memai", one of the singles from her debut album. Onitsuka has suffered physical and mental illnesses, affecting her career. She put her recording career on hold until March 2007, after some confrontations with record labels and management during the mid-2000s. By 2019, Onitsuka had released seven studio albums, twenty singles, five compilations, and several DVDs, selling at least 4.1 million units. Early life Her parents encouraged Onitsuka to listen to Western music. By the time she was ten, she wrote her first poems, receiving praise from her parents, friends, and teachers, who called them 'earnest efforts'. However, she thought that just writing 'earnestly' wasn't enough, and from that time onward, she tried to write every day; by the time she was in junior high school, she began to gain more confidence. Influence from Alanis Morissette in junior high school, and Jewel in high school strongly compelled Onitsuka to become a singer-songwriter. With some 70 original compositions and several other auditions under her belt, Onitsuka entered the 1998 Virgin Tokyo Artists Audition, going on to winning Grand Prize. Onitsuka then started her career as a professional and moved to Tokyo in spring 1999 after graduating from high school. Career 2000–2001: "Gekkou" and Insomnia Onitsuka's debut single "Shine" was released on February 9, 2000. Despite promotion, it failed commercially and did not enter any charts. In August 2000, Onitsuka released "Gekkō" as the second single from her debut studio album, Insomnia. The song served as the theme song to the Japanese television series Trick, starring Yukie Nakama and Hiroshi Abe. The song debuted at number 30 on the Oricon Weekly Singles chart and peaked at number 11. It has sold over 561,000 physical units and 500,000 digital units and remains Onitsuka's best-selling song. The double-A-side single, "Memai"/"Edge" was released as the fourth single from her debut album. It peaked at number six on the Oricon Weekly Singles chart and was certificated platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ). "Memai" later earned a Japan Record Awards for