Shotaro

Shotaro is the Japanese dancer and rapper of the SM Entertainment boy group RIIZE, known among fans and casual K-pop listeners alike for his razor-sharp choreography and warm, easygoing charm. Long before he was a K-pop idol, Shotaro was already a working professional dancer in Japan, and that background still shows every time he steps on stage.

Born Osaki Shotaro on November 25, 2000, in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, he started dancing at just five years old after watching his mother, who loved to dance herself. By middle school he knew performing was his path, so he trained at LDH’s EXPG Studio in Tokyo, where he worked as a backup dancer for major Japanese acts like EXILE and singer-songwriter Gackt. Watching an NCT concert live was the moment that convinced him he wanted to become an idol himself, and in November 2019 he sent SM Entertainment an online audition tape that changed everything.

Shotaro’s first chapter as an idol began with NCT. He was introduced as a new member on September 23, 2020, alongside Sungchan, and made his official debut on October 12 with “NCT 2020 Resonance Pt. 1” — becoming only the second Japanese member of NCT after Yuta. He spent about two and a half years with the group before SM announced, in May 2023, that he and Sungchan would be leaving NCT to help launch the company’s next boy group.

That group turned out to be RIIZE, which debuted on September 4, 2023, with the single album “Get A Guitar.” Since then, Shotaro has become known as the member who quietly holds things together — RIIZE doesn’t have an official leader, but members and fans alike often point to Shotaro’s maturity and steady presence as a guiding force. On stage, he’s the one fans watch for the cleanest isolations, the sharpest breaks, and the kind of dance lines that make choreography look effortless.

Beyond the stage, Shotaro is easygoing and sociable, the type of person who makes friends without even trying. He loves sweet food, boba tea (his signature emoji is ), snowboarding, and mixing vintage pieces into his everyday fashion. With RIIZE’s rapid rise — from a record-breaking debut to a growing catalog that now includes “RIIZING,” “RIIZING: Epilogue,” “ODYSSEY,” and “II” — Shotaro’s journey from a small dance studio in Kanagawa to the global K-pop stage has become one of the most compelling stories among fifth-generation idols.