Friends III is the sixth mini-album by the Japanese rock duo B'z. It was released on December 8, 2021.[1] It's a concept album and is a sequel to their previous mini-album, Friends II, released in 1996.
The mini-album came in three editions: a standard edition, a first press edition with a DVD featuring a re-recording of their song "Itsuka no Merry Christmas" from their fourth mini-album, Friends, and a special Live Friends box featuring the standard edition with a glass, which was only available to those who purchased live tickets and was only sold through B'z Club-Gym.[1]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, guitarist Tak Matsumoto went back and forth between Japan and the United States. During a mandatory isolation after returning to Japan, he decided to make one song a day. The songs produced matched up to the style of the past Friends mini-albums, which led Matsumoto to propose producing a third entry into the series, to which vocalist Koshi Inaba agreed.[4][5]