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Time Magazine Names Yoshiki, Yoshitomo Nara, Hiroyuki Sanada in Top 100 Most Influential People of 2025 List

Time Magazine revealed its list of the world's most influential people of 2025 on Wednesday, and it named YOSHIKI as one of the top 100 people. He is in the magazine's "Icons" category. The list honors 100 people who have changed the world.

The magazine also named artist Yoshitomo Nara in the "Artists" category and Shōgun series' lead actor and producer Hiroyuki Sanada in the "Icons" category. Nara illustrated Banana Yoshimoto's Hinagiku no Jinsei novel, which is inspiring Masaaki Yuasa's new anime film Daisy's Life. Sanada was also in the Ring and Onmyoji films.

YOSHIKI has a long-running career both in the band X Japan and as a solo artist. YOSHIKI composed songs for anime such as X, Attack on Titan, Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary, and Buddha: The Great Departure.

X Japan's most notable anime contributions were the songs in the X² music video collection and later X movie. The animation Studio Madhouse adapted both productions from CLAMP's X manga. The surviving original band members — Toshimitsu "Toshi" Deyama, Yoshiki Hayashi, Tomoaki "Pata" Ishizuka, and Hiroshi "Heath" Morie — reunited in 2007, 10 years after they first disbanded and nine years after the death of guitarist Hideto "Hide" Matsumoto. YOSHIKI, HYDE, SUGIZO, and MIYAVI formed a band named The Last Rockstars.

Time Magazine previously named Hayao Miyazaki in its list of the world's most influential people of 2024 and game creator Hidetaka Miyazaki (Elden Ring, Dark Souls) in 2023.

Sources: Time, Deadline (Greg Evans)