the pillows Profile

Origin	Hokkaidō, Japan
Name in Japanese	ザ・ピロウズ, ざぴろうず
Genres	Alternative rock Indie rock Power pop
Years active	1989—
Labels	Captain, Pony Canyon, King, Avex Trax
Associated acts	The Predators, Nine Miles, Kenzi & the Trips
Website	pillows.jp

The Pillows (styled as the pillows) are a Japanese rock band. The Pillows was formed on September 16, 1989.Kenji Ueda, bassist for Kenzi & The Trips, invited The Coin Locker Babies vocalist Sawao Yamanaka and Kenzi & The Trips drummer Shinichiro Sato to form a new band. Since Yamanaka was not able to play the guitar well yet, Yoshiaki Manabe, a guitarist of the band Persia, joined them. The group has released more than a dozen original studio albums, along with several EPs, singles and compilations.

Mascot

Buster-kun has been The Pillows' mascot since about 1998, when on a visit to London, they saw a doll of a "grotesque and creepy-looking teddy bear" (which can be seen in many of their videos, including "Hybrid Rainbow") and subsequently used it for the artwork of the album Little Busters and on t-shirts sold during the following tour. Buster-kun was named after the album and the group also uses the term "little busters" for its fans.

Lineup
Yamanaka Sawao (山中さわお) – vocals, rhythm guitar
Manabe Yoshiaki (真鍋吉明) – lead guitar
Satō Shin’ichirō (佐藤シンイチロウ) – drums
Suzuki Jun (鈴木淳) – bass (support member, since 1999)

Former members

Ueda Kenjia (上田ケンジ) – bass (1989–1992)
Kashima Tatsuya (鹿島達也) – bass (support member, 1992–1999)