Ningen Isu (Japanese: 人間椅子, Hepburn: Ningen'isu, lit. "The Human Chair") is a Japanese heavy metal band from Hirosaki, formed in 1987 by Shinji Wajima (guitars and vocal) and Ken-ichi Suzuki (bass and vocal). They took their name from the 1924 short story of the same name by Edogawa Rampo.

Both natives of Hirosaki, Wajima and Suzuki first became acquainted with one another while attending a concert in a local music salon. They eventually became close friends when in 1981, they both entered Hirosaki High School. Their friendship would further develop through frequent exchanges of music-records. It was around this time that Suzuki first exposed Wajima to the music of Kiss. Wajima himself was listening to the music of The Beatles, King Crimson, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin at the time, while Suzuki favored Kiss, Saxon and Judas Priest. Suzuki was impressed by Wajima's talent for songwriting and wrote a song called "Demon", while Wajima wrote a song called "Tetsugōshi Mokushi-roku" (Apocalypse of Iron Grill), which was not received well by the music salon but which Suzuki liked nonetheless. Two years later, Wajima and Suzuki joined Shine Shine Dan ('dead dead group'), a band formed by members of the salon, with whom they played hard rock songs at music festivals.

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