Riho Sayashi is a J-pop vocalist who performed with the long-running girl group Morning Musume during the 2010s, then launched a solo career in 2020. She was born in Hiroshima, Japan, on May 28, 1998. As a student at Actor's School Hiroshima, she studied the performing arts as a child and joined Morning Musume as a 12 year-old in 2011. Morning Musume had originally formed in 1997, with Sayashi becoming a member of the group's ninth generation. "Maji Desu ka Ska!," her first single with the girl group, reached number 5 on the Oricon Singles chart. Before exiting Morning Musume's lineup in 2015, Sayashi appeared on 15 different Top 5 singles, six of which were Number 1 hits. Leaving the group after the release of "Tsumetai Kaze to Kataomoi," she pursued her academic studies in America and briefly toured with Babymetal as a backup dancer in 2020. She signed with Japan Music Entertainment as a solo artist later that year and began to work on her solo debut, which was released in August 2021. DAYBREAK, her debut EP, reached number 21 in Japan and marked her return to music after a six-year absence. Her follow-up release, Reflection, arrived in 2022 and peaked at number 18. Her 5th EP OWN was released on September 2, 2026.
