It's been confirmed that SAKEROCK's bassist Tanaka Kei will be withdrawing from the band as of December 26th.

Tanaka made his decision back in September, explaining to his band mates, "I want to concentrate on what I want to do." His last performance with the band will be held on December 26th at SHIBUYA-AX.

A message from the band is posted on SAKEROCK's official website.

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"To the fans and people involved,
Thank you for always supporting SAKEROCK.

We have one important announcement.
At this time, as of December 26th,
Bassist Tanaka Kei will be withdrawing from the band.
We apologize for this sudden report.
Our final live with Tanaka Kei will be held on December 26th at SHIBUYA-AX.

In mid-September, Kei-kun gave us his opinion about the withdrawal.
He's our fellow member who has been with us for 11 years, since he got married in 2001.
We were very puzzled by his sudden request.
'I want concentrate on what I want to do'.
After hearing this positive reason,
We members and the staff talked things through,
And decided to support Kei-kun henceforth.

During our discussion, we had the choice of disbandment.
From before, we continued to say 'the four of us is SAKEROCK' during lives,
And we once proposed at an interview, 'if a member leaves, we'll probably disband'.
However, after talking things through with Ito Daichi, Hamano Kenta, Kakubari Wataru, and the rest of the staff,
We decided to continue SAKEROCK.

We still had many ideas that we wanted to see through as the instrumental band SAKEROCK.
Also, we still want to do more interesting things with this band.

The 4-man SAKEROCK will end in December,
But the 3-man SAKEROCK will continue next year.

We are very sorry to make this announcement this at this time.

Please continue to support both Tanaka Kei and SAKEROCK."

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Source: natalie