Moa Kikuchi was born on July 4, 1999, in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.
Her entertainment career began while she was still a child.
In 2007, Moa participated in the Ciao Girl Audition connected with Shogakukan's girls' manga magazine Ciao and received a Semi-Grand Prix. Historical Ciao Girl records place her in the same audition year as future Sakura Gakuin members Marina Horiuchi and Nene Sugisaki, who received Smile Awards.
The audition brought Moa into the child-entertainment environment associated with Ciao and Amuse and gave her early experience in modeling, promotional appearances and performance.
By 2010, she entered the project that would become the foundation for nearly every major stage of her career.
Moa joined Sakura Gakuin in August 2010 together with Yui Mizuno.
Unlike the eight original members who had been introduced when Sakura Gakuin was first created, Moa and Yui were presented as the group's first transfer students.
Both were fifth-grade elementary-school students and the youngest members of the group.
In a 2015 interview, Moa remembered entering Sakura Gakuin at a listed height of only 129 centimeters. She and Yui were affectionately treated as the group's “little two,” and the pair would eventually become one of the most recognizable partnerships in both Sakura Gakuin and BABYMETAL.
Sakura Gakuin was structured around the concept of a fictional school and was explicitly limited to the members' growth period. Members could participate only until completing junior high school, after which they would graduate and move toward their individual careers.
For Moa, Sakura Gakuin became much more than a side project.
She later described the group as having filled almost her entire world during those years.
The first major club unit connected with Moa was Twinklestars, Sakura Gakuin's Baton Club.
The official Sakura Gakuin archive lists Moa among the members active through the 2014 school year.
Twinklestars performed songs including: “Dear Mr.Socrates,” “Please! Please! Please!,” “Rapikamu,” and “Tenshi to Akuma.”
The unit required precise synchronized baton choreography and gave Moa another technical performance style beyond Sakura Gakuin's main group.
In 2011, Moa also became part of the second-generation Cooking Club Mini-Pati.
The original Mini-Pati members Nene Sugisaki, Raura Iida and Marina Horiuchi formally handed the unit to: Yui Mizuno, Moa Kikuchi, and Hana Taguchi.
The second-generation lineup remained active through the 2014 school year.
Mini-Pati's songs included: “Happy Birthday,” “Princess☆a la mode,” “Yokubari Fille,” “Miracle♪Patiful♪Hamburger,” “Acha! Cha! Curry,” “Shanari Hannari Dorayaki Hime,” “Hirari! Kirakira☆Yamiyami Museum,” “Jakapara Goo Goo♡Omelette Rice,” and “Dabada♪Salad de Sebon☆Avenue.”
Moa therefore spent her Sakura Gakuin years moving between the main group, Twinklestars, Mini-Pati and another club that would ultimately become much larger than Sakura Gakuin itself: the Heavy Music Club.
In 2010, Moa, Yui Mizuno and Suzuka Nakamoto were selected for Sakura Gakuin's Heavy Music Club.
Within that project they became: SU-METAL, YUIMETAL, and MOAMETAL.
The group was named BABYMETAL.
At the beginning, BABYMETAL was explicitly one of Sakura Gakuin's extracurricular club units.
Its concept combined heavy-metal instrumentation with choreography, idol performance, theatrical mythology and melodic vocals.
Moa's initial BABYMETAL role was built around dance and “scream” support vocals.
Together with YUIMETAL, she provided the synchronized counterpart to SU-METAL's central lead-vocal position.
The contrast became one of the defining visual structures of early BABYMETAL: SU-METAL in the center as the primary vocalist, with YUIMETAL and MOAMETAL mirroring each other through choreography, chants and supporting vocals.
BABYMETAL's first original song, “Doki Doki ☆ Morning,” appeared on Sakura Gakuin's first album, Sakura Gakuin 2010 Nendo ~message~, released in April 2011.
The song and its music video established the basic formula that would make the group internationally recognizable: extremely heavy instrumental sections, bright melodic vocals, youthful choreography, and a deliberately theatrical collision of metal and Japanese idol culture.
Through 2011 and 2012, BABYMETAL developed from a small Sakura Gakuin club into an increasingly independent live project.
Moa and Yui's pairing became especially visible through BLACK BABYMETAL.
BLACK BABYMETAL was the duo configuration used when SU-METAL left the stage and YUIMETAL and MOAMETAL performed their own songs.
One of its earliest signature tracks was: “Onedari Daisakusen.”
The performance emphasized rap-like vocals, exaggerated cute demands and deliberately mischievous staging.
The unit gave Moa significantly more vocal responsibility than the standard three-person BABYMETAL formation.
Another major BLACK BABYMETAL song became: “4 no Uta.”
The track is one of the most important songwriting details in Moa's biography.
The official song credit lists: Lyrics — BLACK BABYMETAL Music — BLACK BABYMETAL Arrangement — K×B×METAL and TATSUO.
In practice, BLACK BABYMETAL refers to YUIMETAL and MOAMETAL.
Moa and Yui later explained that the song developed from something they casually sang together before the production team turned it into a complete track.
Moa herself later joked that she was not sure whether what they had done should really count as “writing lyrics,” but the official credit remains one of the few direct BABYMETAL songwriting credits attached to the performers themselves.
The song was included on BABYMETAL's 2014 self-titled debut album.
In 2012, BABYMETAL's profile expanded significantly.
The group released: “BABYMETAL × Kiba of Akiba” and “Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!”
It also appeared at SUMMER SONIC for the first time and performed outside Japan at Anime Festival Asia Singapore.
For Moa, the schedule was increasingly unusual: she was simultaneously a Sakura Gakuin student, a Twinklestars member, a Mini-Pati member, and part of a metal project beginning to attract an overseas audience.
BABYMETAL's major-label debut came on January 9, 2013 with: “Ijime, Dame, Zettai.”
At that point, the group's future depended on a problem created by Sakura Gakuin's own rules.
SU-METAL / Suzuka Nakamoto was required to graduate from Sakura Gakuin in March 2013.
If BABYMETAL remained only a school club, the group should logically have ended.
Instead, Sakura Gakuin announced on February 1, 2013 that BABYMETAL would continue beyond Suzuka's graduation.
The Heavy Music Club would effectively graduate from Sakura Gakuin's internal framework and move forward as an independent artist project.
Yui and Moa, who were still Sakura Gakuin students, continued in both worlds simultaneously.
This created a particularly demanding period.
During 2013 and 2014, Moa and Yui still participated in Sakura Gakuin's annual albums, concerts, transfer ceremonies, lessons and club units while BABYMETAL's overseas activity increased dramatically.
The contrast between the two professional environments became especially clear in 2014.
On February 26, BABYMETAL released its self-titled debut album.
The record included: “BABYMETAL DEATH,” “Megitsune,” “Gimme Chocolate!!,” “Iine!,” “Doki Doki ☆ Morning,” “Onedari Daisakusen,” “4 no Uta,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!,” “Ijime, Dame, Zettai,” and other early material.
“Gimme Chocolate!!” became the group's international viral breakthrough and significantly increased attention outside Japan.
Only days after the album's release, BABYMETAL held two headline concerts at Nippon Budokan on March 1 and 2.
Later that year, the group launched its first major world tour.
Moa performed in: France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
On July 5, BABYMETAL appeared at Sonisphere Festival in the United Kingdom.
The performance became one of the group's most important international turning points because it placed the three young performers in front of a large, skeptical metal-festival audience.
The positive response became evidence that BABYMETAL could operate outside the Japanese idol context.
July also had personal significance for Moa.
BABYMETAL's first European headline dates occurred around the birthdays of Yui and Moa.
At the Cologne show on July 3, 2014, the production included a special MOAMETAL birthday presentation in which she took the main vocal position for part of “Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!.”
The performance became an early version of what fans later called “Moa-banger,” a tradition that would return on a much larger scale at LEGEND – M – in 2019.
Later in the summer, BABYMETAL supported Lady Gaga on five dates of the North American artRAVE tour.
For Moa, this international breakthrough was occurring at the same time she was preparing to become Sakura Gakuin's senior leader.
On May 5, 2014, Moa was appointed Sakura Gakuin Student Council President.
The 2014 Student Council consisted of: Moa Kikuchi — Student Council President Yui Mizuno — Produce Chairperson Hana Taguchi — Spirit Chairperson Yunano Notsu — Talk Chairperson
The appointment marked a major shift in Moa's Sakura Gakuin identity.
She had entered in 2010 as one of the tiny youngest transfer students.
Four years later, she had become the person responsible for leading the group.
In her first speech as president, Moa emphasized that she could not lead alone and would rely on Yui, Hana and Yunano to build the year together.
That collective attitude became one of the main themes of the 2014 school year.
The year was also complicated by BABYMETAL's international schedule.
Moa and Yui were sometimes away from Sakura Gakuin because of overseas BABYMETAL commitments.
In their 2015 graduation interview, both spoke about the difficulty of balancing the two groups and about the responsibility they felt toward Sakura Gakuin despite increasingly large BABYMETAL obligations.
Moa repeatedly used the idea: “Even when we are apart, our hearts are one.”
During Sakura Gakuin's calligraphy lesson in 2015, she chose the kanji-related concept “届け” — “deliver” or “reach” — explaining that communicating feelings can be difficult but deeply rewarding when those feelings finally reach someone.
The 2014 school year became emotionally important because it was also Moa's final year with Sakura Gakuin.
She remained active in: Twinklestars, Mini-Pati, BABYMETAL, and the main Sakura Gakuin lineup.
The final album, Sakura Gakuin 2014 Nendo ~Kimi ni Todoke~, was released on March 25, 2015.
On March 29, 2015, Moa graduated from Sakura Gakuin at NHK Hall alongside: Yui Mizuno, Hana Taguchi, and Yunano Notsu.
As Student Council President, Moa delivered the graduating-class response.
She thanked: previous graduates, school staff, the homeroom teachers, fans, and the remaining members.
She told the younger members that she felt confident leaving Sakura Gakuin in their hands and looked forward to seeing what new colors they would create.
In a pre-graduation interview about the future, Moa admitted that Sakura Gakuin had been such a central part of her life that she initially did not know what she would do once it ended.
She then said that she would first continue down the path she believed in with SU-METAL and YUIMETAL as BABYMETAL.
She also referred to a childhood dream of becoming: “Super Moa-chan.”
Most strikingly, she said that someday she hoped to return not only as MOAMETAL but as Moa Kikuchi.
That statement remains useful when writing her biography because it shows that she understood MOAMETAL and Moa Kikuchi as related but distinct public identities.
After graduation, BABYMETAL became her full-time professional focus.
The group's scale continued increasing through 2015.
BABYMETAL performed at major festivals including: Reading, Leeds, and other international events.
In Japan, the group expanded through large headline performances and its first domestic tour.
Moa's role remained strongly associated with the visual and vocal partnership with YUIMETAL.
BLACK BABYMETAL also remained active.
The second BABYMETAL album, METAL RESISTANCE, was released on April 1, 2016.
The record included two new YUIMETAL/MOAMETAL unit songs: “GJ!” and “Sis. Anger.”
“GJ!” emphasized playful rhythmic vocals and choreography.
“Sis. Anger,” by contrast, placed the pair against one of the group's most extreme musical arrangements, giving Moa and Yui a much harsher sonic environment than the deliberately cute humor of “Onedari Daisakusen.”
The album also included major full-group songs such as: “Road of Resistance,” “KARATE,” “YAVA!,” “Meta Taro,” “Tales of The Destinies,” and “THE ONE.”
METAL RESISTANCE reached No. 39 on the Billboard 200.
On April 2, 2016, BABYMETAL opened the world tour with a headline performance at Wembley Arena in London.
The show made BABYMETAL the first Japanese artist to headline the venue.
For Moa, the international touring environment was now no longer an experiment.
She had become part of a group operating regularly inside the global rock and metal circuit.
That became especially clear in July 2016 when BABYMETAL appeared at the Alternative Press Music Awards in Ohio.
The group performed with Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford.
After BABYMETAL performed “KARATE,” the collaboration section brought Halford and the group together for Judas Priest material.
The appearance placed Moa and Yui directly beside one of heavy metal's most iconic vocalists in an American awards-show environment.
The year culminated in BABYMETAL's largest Japanese production to that point.
On September 19 and 20, the group held RED NIGHT and BLACK NIGHT at Tokyo Dome.
Approximately 110,000 people attended across the two performances.
BLACK BABYMETAL material remained a major part of the shows.
The Tokyo Dome setlists included: “GJ!,” “4 no Uta,” “Sis. Anger,” and “Onedari Daisakusen.”
The two-night structure effectively summarized the original trio era at its largest scale.
Late 2016 and 2017 moved BABYMETAL even deeper into international metal touring.
The group joined: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Korn, and other major acts through support tours and special appearances.
Moa's role during this period required extraordinary physical consistency.
BABYMETAL shows were built around highly synchronized choreography while touring schedules involved repeated flights, festival conditions, large stages and very different climates.
Moa and Yui's mirrored performance remained one of the most recognizable visual elements of the group.
The structure began to change in late 2017.
YUIMETAL was unable to perform at LEGEND – S – BAPTISM XX – in Hiroshima because of health problems.
Through 2018, Yui remained absent from live activity.
BABYMETAL continued performing with changing stage formations that included additional dancers.
For Moa, this period represented one of the largest changes of her professional life.
For almost eight years, her BABYMETAL choreography had been structured around synchronization with Yui.
Now the stage arrangement had to be rebuilt repeatedly around new formations.
On October 19, 2018, Yui Mizuno officially announced her departure from BABYMETAL.
The group stated that it would continue in a new structure centered on: SU-METAL and MOAMETAL.
This made Moa one of only two permanent official members.
Her role changed immediately.
She was no longer one half of a symmetrical supporting pair.
She became the central dance and supporting-vocal anchor opposite SU-METAL, with additional dancers arranged around the two official members.
This transition is one of the most important periods in Moa's biography.
The continuation of BABYMETAL after YUIMETAL required both SU-METAL and MOAMETAL to redefine what the group could be without the original trio.
In 2019, BABYMETAL introduced a more stable temporary solution: the Avengers.
Three performers rotated in the third dance position: Riho Sayashi, Kano Fujihira, and Momoko Okazaki.
SU-METAL and MOAMETAL remained the only official members.
For Moa, the Avengers system restored much of the three-person choreography while preserving the distinction between permanent members and supporting dancers.
The year also brought the most important solo celebration of Moa's BABYMETAL career.
On July 6 and 7, 2019, BABYMETAL held: BABYMETAL ARISES – BEYOND THE MOON – LEGEND – M – at Portmesse Nagoya.
The production was centered on MOAMETAL's twentieth birthday.
Nagoya had particular symbolic value because Moa is from Aichi Prefecture.
LEGEND – M – gave her unusual prominence throughout the production.
She participated in the opening narration.
She took the lead vocal position for “Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!,” revisiting the birthday performance tradition from the 2014 European tour.
For the special version, the age reference was changed from fifteen to twenty.
The concert also introduced “Shine.”
During its opening, MOAMETAL appeared with an acoustic-style guitar before SU-METAL entered vocally.
The image of Moa alone with the guitar became one of the most visually distinctive moments in BABYMETAL's post-YUIMETAL transition.
LEGEND – M – effectively demonstrated that MOAMETAL was no longer simply functioning as SU-METAL's supporting dancer.
The show treated her as an individual central performer capable of: narration, lead singing, instrumental presentation, and carrying a major arena narrative around her own identity.
Only months later, BABYMETAL released its third studio album: METAL GALAXY on October 11, 2019.
The album expanded the group's genre experimentation through collaborations and tracks influenced by: electronic music, rap, Indian music, Latin rhythms, and other styles.
It reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200.
That same day, BABYMETAL headlined The Forum in Los Angeles.
For the SU-METAL/MOAMETAL core, the concert was another important test of whether the new structure could succeed at arena scale outside Japan.
In January 2020, BABYMETAL held: LEGEND – METAL GALAXY at Makuhari Messe.
Across two nights, the group presented material from both sides of the METAL GALAXY album and incorporated all three Avengers into the larger production.
The COVID-19 pandemic then interrupted international touring.
BABYMETAL shifted toward: archival broadcasts, streaming, special releases, and its tenth-anniversary campaign.
In 2020, the group appeared on Bring Me The Horizon's “Kingslayer.”
Although SU-METAL carried the principal melodic guest vocal, the collaboration became an important milestone for the entire BABYMETAL project and later developed into a major live crossover moment.
In 2021, BABYMETAL celebrated its first decade through: 10 BABYMETAL BUDOKAN.
Ten concerts were held at Nippon Budokan between January and April.
For Moa, returning to Budokan carried strong historical significance.
The group had first headlined the venue in 2014 while she was still a Sakura Gakuin student.
Seven years later, she returned as one of BABYMETAL's two permanent members during a ten-show anniversary residency.
After the anniversary campaign, BABYMETAL announced that its live activities would be “sealed.”
The symbolic language represented a genuine pause in conventional touring.
Moa and SU-METAL largely disappeared from regular public live performance.
The next chapter began through THE OTHER ONE restoration project.
During 2022, BABYMETAL gradually revealed new music built around ten parallel worlds.
The songs introduced a darker and more mature artistic direction.
BABYMETAL returned to the stage on January 28 and 29, 2023 with: BABYMETAL RETURNS – THE OTHER ONE – at Makuhari Messe.
For Moa, the concerts were the first major conventional BABYMETAL performances after the sealed period.
The concept album THE OTHER ONE followed on March 24, 2023.
It included: “METAL KINGDOM,” “Divine Attack – Shingeki -,” “Mirror Mirror,” “MAYA,” “Monochrome,” and other material.
Only days later, BABYMETAL's lineup changed again.
At BABYMETAL BEGINS – THE OTHER ONE – BLACK NIGHT on April 1, 2023, Momoko Okazaki was officially revealed as: MOMOMETAL.
The following night's CLEAR NIGHT formally began the permanent trio: SU-METAL, MOAMETAL, MOMOMETAL.
The event completed a transition that had lasted nearly five years.
For the first time since YUIMETAL's departure, Moa once again had another permanent official member sharing the Scream & Dance side of BABYMETAL.
This was not simply a return to the old Yui/Moa structure.
The relationship between MOAMETAL and MOMOMETAL developed around a different stage dynamic and a more mature group.
Official Amuse material currently lists: SU-METAL — Vocal & Dance MOAMETAL — Scream & Dance MOMOMETAL — Scream & Dance.
The restored trio immediately entered one of BABYMETAL's most intensive touring cycles.
In spring 2023, BABYMETAL toured Europe as special guest to Sabaton.
Later in the year, the group co-headlined the BABYKLOK TOUR in North America with Dethklok.
On August 18, 2023, BABYMETAL released: “METALI!!” featuring Tom Morello.
The official BABYMETAL announcement described it as the first new song released by the reborn three-member lineup.
The song also allowed MOMOMETAL to introduce the harsh-vocal style that would increasingly contrast with SU-METAL's clean vocals and MOAMETAL's performance role.
The trio's development continued through 2024.
On March 2 and 3, BABYMETAL held: LEGEND – MM at Yokohama Arena.
The concerts centered on MOMOMETAL's twentieth birthday and mirrored, in a new generation, some of the personalized LEGEND treatment previously given to SU-METAL and MOAMETAL.
On May 23, BABYMETAL released: “RATATATA” with Electric Callboy.
The collaboration became one of the group's most successful recent crossover songs and produced major shared festival performances.
BABYMETAL continued extensive global touring throughout 2024.
Universal Music's current biography states that the broader world-tour cycle beginning in 2024 involved: 22 countries, 51 domestic and international performances, and approximately 1.01 million attendees excluding special-guest appearances.
The group also expanded into South America.
For Moa, the development was important because BABYMETAL's touring footprint now reached regions that had supported the group for years without receiving regular local concerts.
By 2025, BABYMETAL entered its fifteenth-anniversary period.
The year introduced a completely different kind of public activity for Moa: regular radio.
On January 4, 2025, TOKYO FM launched: BABYMETAL no Metaraji! (BABYMETALのメタラジ！)
It was BABYMETAL's first official regular radio program with the group serving as personalities.
The program aired weekly on Saturdays on TOKYO FM.
The original announcement described its purpose as expanding a circle of: “Metatomo” — BABYMETAL's metal friends.
Guests included musicians, artists, creators and people known to have an interest in metal.
The concept deliberately mixed: serious metal discussion, personal musical recommendations, guest conversations, listener messages, and BABYMETAL's own experiences.
Before the program began, MOAMETAL said that she was excited about communicating with listeners and invited people to become “Metatomo” through the show.
Metaraji became particularly valuable within Moa's biography because BABYMETAL had historically maintained a highly controlled public presentation.
For much of the group's early career, concerts avoided conventional MC sections and interviews were usually conducted around album or tour promotion.
A weekly radio program created an entirely different format.
Moa could participate in long conversational exchanges with guests rather than speaking only in short promotional interviews.
The show therefore offered Japanese listeners a more relaxed and conversational side of MOAMETAL.
The guest list became unusually broad.
Among the people featured through the program and later included in the official Metaraji book were: ATARASHII GAKKO!, Daisuke Ozasa of Official HIGE DANdism, Tatsuya Kitani, Taka of ONE OK ROCK, Tak Matsumoto of B'z, Hattori and Yoshiaki Tanabe of Macaroni Enpitsu, Maximum the Hormone, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, members of FLOW, DAIDAI of Paledusk, HYDE, MAH of SiM, Demon Kakka of Seikima-II, Jean-Ken Johnny of MAN WITH A MISSION, Shinta Furuta, and others.
The format placed Moa in conversations not only with metal musicians but with artists from completely different parts of Japanese entertainment.
This gave her a new public role: radio personality.
Metaraji also supported BABYMETAL's stated goal of reconnecting more strongly with a domestic Japanese audience while maintaining the group's enormous overseas schedule.
The importance of the show increased as the year continued.
In January 2025, the program ranked among AuDee's most-played audio programs for the month, indicating that it was reaching an audience beyond conventional FM listening.
Meanwhile, BABYMETAL's music career entered another major expansion.
In April 2025, BABYMETAL entered a global label partnership with Capitol Records.
The group then prepared its fourth original studio album: METAL FORTH.
The project was built extensively around international collaborations.
Its track list included: “from me to u” featuring Poppy “RATATATA” with Electric Callboy “Song 3” with Slaughter to Prevail “Kon! Kon!” featuring Bloodywood “KxAxWxAxIxI” “Sunset Kiss” featuring Polyphia “My Queen” featuring Spiritbox “Algorism” “METALI!!” featuring Tom Morello and “White Flame -白炎-.”
On May 30, 2025, BABYMETAL completed its first UK and European arena tour with a sold-out headline concert at The O2 in London.
Official Universal Music material described the show as the first solo O2 Arena performance by a Japanese artist/group.
Approximately 20,000 people attended.
The venue had another connection to Moa's history.
BABYMETAL had supported Red Hot Chili Peppers at The O2 in 2016.
Nine years later, Moa returned as part of a group capable of selling out the arena under its own name.
BABYMETAL then carried out its largest North American tour to that point.
Universal Music states that the June–July 2025 North American run included: 25 performances and more than 110,000 attendees.
METAL FORTH was released on August 8, 2025.
On the Billboard 200, the album debuted at: No. 9.
Amuse officially announced that this made BABYMETAL the first Japanese group to reach the Billboard 200 Top 10.
The result surpassed: METAL RESISTANCE — No. 39 and METAL GALAXY — No. 13.
For Moa, the achievement represented a career arc stretching from a Sakura Gakuin extracurricular unit to a US Top 10 album fifteen years later.
On November 1, 2025, BABYMETAL headlined the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.
Universal Music reported that the concert sold out and was the first solo performance at the venue by a Japanese group.
The group then held a special arena show at Arena CDMX in Mexico City on November 7.
Metaraji continued alongside these international activities.
On December 6, 2025, TOKYO FM announced the first live event based on the radio program: TOKYO FM 55th Anniversary BABYMETAL no Metaraji! FES.
The event was scheduled for March 29, 2026 at Tokyo Garden Theater.
The announced artists were: BABYMETAL, Maximum the Hormone, and ATARASHII GAKKO!.
The guest lineup directly reflected relationships developed through the radio program.
The Metaraji project expanded again in January 2026.
A dedicated book was announced: BABYMETAL no Metaraji! BOOK.
The 192-page publication included: photography of BABYMETAL, a new 15,000-word interview, material drawn from guest conversations, metal recommendations, and an interview with KOBAMETAL.
The book provides unusually strong documentation of Metaraji as an important part of the 2025–2026 BABYMETAL era rather than a minor promotional radio appearance.
At the same time, BABYMETAL opened 2026 with another major live milestone.
On January 10 and 11, the group held: LEGEND – METAL FORTH at Saitama Super Arena.
The two-night production became the major Japanese centerpiece of the fifteenth-anniversary and METAL FORTH cycle.
The first quarter of 2026 also brought Metaraji to its conclusion.
In March, it was announced that: BABYMETAL no Metaraji! would end with the March 28, 2026 broadcast.
The program had therefore run for approximately one year and three months.
Rather than disappearing quietly, the radio era ended with a large live event the following day.
On March 29, 2026: TOKYO FM 55th Anniversary BABYMETAL no Metaraji! FES was held at Tokyo Garden Theater.
BABYMETAL, Maximum the Hormone, and ATARASHII GAKKO! performed.
The show represented the physical realization of the program's “Metatomo” idea: artists who had developed connections through the radio program were brought together in a shared live event.
For Moa, this meant the end of a unique chapter in her public career.
From January 2025 through March 2026 she had not only toured and recorded as MOAMETAL but also developed as a regular radio personality.
Metaraji gave listeners access to a side of her work that did not depend on choreography or stage mythology: conversation, humor, questions, musical curiosity, and interaction with other artists.
The official Metaraji book was released on March 31, 2026, two days after the festival.
BABYMETAL's live activity continued immediately.
During June 2026, the group returned to European touring and festivals including: Download Festival, Summer Punch Festival, Graspop Metal Meeting, Tons of Rock, Impericon Festival, and Copenhell.
On July 1, BABYMETAL headlined in Istanbul.
In August, Moa returned to Japanese festival stages with BABYMETAL.
The group performed at: LuckyFes on August 9, CANNONBALL GAIDEN at Ariake Arena on August 10, and SUMMER SONIC in Osaka and Chiba on August 14 and 16.
As of August 29, 2026, Moa remains an official member of BABYMETAL alongside: SU-METAL and MOMOMETAL.
Amuse currently credits her as: MOAMETAL — Scream & Dance.
BABYMETAL's 2026 tour cycle is still continuing.
On August 30, the group is scheduled to appear as special guest to My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade stadium tour at Petco Park in San Diego.
Beginning September 2, BABYMETAL is scheduled to undertake a North American headline run beginning at Ball Arena in Denver and continuing through the United States and Canada.
Additional North American dates continue into October, including Aftershock Festival.
The broader 2026 schedule also includes later international activity beyond North America.
Because these dates occur after August 29, they should be listed as scheduled rather than completed.
Moa's career is notable for how dramatically her professional role has changed without ever leaving BABYMETAL.
She began as: a child model and Ciao Girl, then became one of Sakura Gakuin's smallest transfer students.
Inside BABYMETAL she began as: one half of the YUIMETAL/MOAMETAL dance-and-scream pair.
She then became: a BLACK BABYMETAL vocalist, a co-credited songwriter on “4 no Uta,” Sakura Gakuin Student Council President, a full-time international touring performer, one of BABYMETAL's two permanent core members after 2018, the central figure of LEGEND – M -, a founding member of the restored SU-METAL/MOAMETAL/MOMOMETAL trio, and finally a regular radio personality through Metaraji.
The clearest career progression is:
Ciao Girl → Sakura Gakuin transfer student → Twinklestars / Mini-Pati → BABYMETAL Heavy Music Club → BLACK BABYMETAL → Sakura Gakuin Student Council President → full-time MOAMETAL → SU-METAL / MOAMETAL core → Avengers era → LEGEND – M – → restored trio with MOMOMETAL → METAL FORTH / global arena era → Metaraji radio personality.
Unlike some performers whose stage identity changes completely after leaving a youth group, Moa's story contains an unusual amount of continuity.
The same person who entered Sakura Gakuin at age eleven is still performing under the MOAMETAL identity created during that period more than fifteen years later.
At the same time, the meaning of MOAMETAL has changed.
In 2010, MOAMETAL was one performer inside a school-club concept.
By 2026, MOAMETAL is one of three permanent members of an internationally touring metal act that has: headlined Wembley Arena, performed two nights at Tokyo Dome, sold out The O2, sold out Intuit Dome, reached the Billboard 200 Top 10, and built a global touring audience across multiple continents.
Moa is also one of only two performers — alongside SU-METAL — who have remained in BABYMETAL continuously since its creation in 2010.
