<figure id="attachment_312853" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-312853" style="width: 2749px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="2e44c656"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/05/DSCN5193.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-312853" class="wp-caption-text">Sakurai leads the &#8220;Marshmallow Club. Ueda, a key member of the group, has been fascinated by Sakurai ever since he was approached by him when he was troubled by a member&#8217;s withdrawal from the group. He has said, &#8220;If anything should happen to my brother, I will turn myself in for him.</figcaption></figure>
<p><strong> Johnny&#8217;s is one of the many entertainment companies where there is a lot of interaction among the talent. At times, that connection is often the key to their advancement or decline&#8221; (source from a major entertainment professional).</strong></p>
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<p> From the day they enter the office in their early teens, Johnny&#8217;s talents accompany their seniors on tours and deepen their relationships. The many opportunities for contact with a wide range of ages, from elementary and junior high school students to those in their late 20s, make the scene seem like an extension of a boys&#8217; school. In recent years, the &#8220;Janino Channel,&#8221; which was born out of YouTube, has seen an increasing number of like-minded members working together across group boundaries, starting with Kazunari Ninomiya (39), Yuichi Nakamaru (39), Ryosuke Yamada (30), Fuma Kikuchi (28), and others.</p>
<p><strong> Besides &#8220;Johnny&#8217;s,&#8221; Kento Nakajima (29) of &#8220;Sexy Zone,&#8221; Teru Iwamoto (Hikaru) (30) of &#8220;Snow Man,&#8221; and Hiroki Shigeoka (30) of &#8220;Johnny&#8217;s West&#8221; co-starred in &#8220;BAD BOYS J: The Last Guardian,&#8221; a movie starring Nakajima released in &#8217;13. Their work ethic and attitudes toward work matched, and they have continued to interact with each other ever since. Recently, they have been tweeting together and both Iwamoto and Shigeoka have appeared in commercials together,&#8221; said a source from a major advertising company.</strong></p>
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<p> The strongest ties are the &#8220;00-kai,&#8221; or unofficial talent clubs at the office.</p>
<p><strong> The most famous group is the &#8220;Marshmallow Club. Centered on Sho Sakurai (41), the main members include Tatsuya Ueda (39) of KAT-TUN, Takahisa Masuda (36) of NEWS, Fuma Kikuchi of Sexy Zone, and Junta Nakama (35) of Johnny&#8217;s WEST. Sakurai even went on to Keio University while working at a time when it was not considered necessary for Johnny&#8217;s to have an academic background. There are numerous junior members who respect his attitude. Ueda, in particular, calls Sakurai &#8220;Aniki&#8221; and adores him. and held a meeting with his admirers, so it was called &#8220;Aniki Kai&#8221; by those around him. However, Ueda and the other members looked too tough, so Sakurai decided to at least give it a cute name and called it the &#8216;marshmallow party.</strong></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" An Unexpected Gathering of Hobbyists"></div>
<h2>An Unexpected Gathering of Hobbyists</h2>
<p> It is said that there are currently 11 &#8220;00-kai&#8221; groups, of which the &#8220;Higashiyama-kai&#8221; led by Noriyuki Higashiyama (56) is the most prominent.</p>
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<p><strong> The &#8220;Higashiyama-kai&#8221; is led by Noriyuki Higashiyama (56) and is said to be a group that &#8220;mainly discusses work worries and other issues. The group consists of Domoto Koichi (44) of &#8220;KinKi Kids&#8221; and Inohara Yoshihiko (47) of &#8220;20th Century,&#8221; who are involved in training younger members, and Nakajima Kento, a junior member who is stoic about his work. They do not drink alcohol and sometimes get together at a coffee shop. <br>
Domoto is in a position to train junior members on stage, and Inohara is the president of Johnny&#8217;s Island. When you are in a position of being above others, you often become isolated from the junior members and subordinates you usually work with, not being understood by them. I think that senior and junior staff who can give us their opinions as a third party are valuable to them&#8221; (source from a major entertainment professional).</strong></p>
<p> The most common type of &#8220;00-kai&#8221; is a hobby-based gathering.</p>
<p><strong> The &#8220;Miyata-kai&#8221; led by Toshiya Miyata (34) of &#8220;Kis-My-Ft2&#8221; is famous as a gathering of otaku. Miyata still frequents Nana Mizuki&#8217;s concerts and other events, and once even took a day off from work to attend a live performance of &#8220;μ&#8217;s.&#8221; &#8220;The &#8216;Miyata-kai&#8217; is a well-known group of otaku. When his manager found out, he told her, &#8220;You&#8217;re a nerd. When it was discovered, his manager asked him, &#8220;Since you are in the position to be chased, isn&#8217;t it strange for you to be chasing them? When it was discovered, the manager scolded him, saying, &#8220;You are the one who is supposed to be chased, so it&#8217;s not right for you to be chasing him. However, Miyata&#8217;s nerdiness seemed to be encouraging to his younger colleagues who were also nerds, and before they knew it, Daisuke Sakuma (30) of &#8220;Snow Man&#8221; and others had formed the &#8220;Miyata-kai. Miyata invites them over to his house for takoyaki parties and treats them like friends,&#8221; said a source from the record company.</strong></p>
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<p> In addition to his rather geeky hobbies, such as anime and video games, Miyata also seems to have his own unique celebrity hobbies and gatherings.</p>
<p><strong> The &#8220;Senga Gundan,&#8221; led by Kento Senga (32) of &#8220;Kis-My-Ft2,&#8221; is a group whose hobby is beauty. In particular, he and Shota Watanabe (30) of &#8220;Snow Man&#8221; exchange information on beauty treatments. Although from another agency, Matt (28) is also a member of the group, and words such as &#8216;nicotinamide mononucleotide&#8217; and &#8216;picotoning,&#8217; which are incomprehensible to ordinary people, are thrown around at the drinking sessions.</strong></p>
<figure id="attachment_312845" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-312845" style="width: 2868px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="8f3f4a73"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/05/9d7ec09e132159d4834f466cfb428d22.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-312845" class="wp-caption-text"> (A production insider) &#8220;Higashiyama-kai&#8221; gatherings were once held at Inohara&#8217;s favorite coffee shop. Even the normally cool-headed master of the store was said to have been excited, saying, &#8220;Wow, this is great today! he would say excitedly.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_312852" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-312852" style="width: 1723px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="45d36fc3"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/05/574a089ad686cba0c505bd3dc1117a4a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-312852" class="wp-caption-text"> Maruyama is a teased character, but he actively invites his juniors and stage co-stars, and before he knows it, the bill has been paid.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_312846" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-312846" style="width: 1863px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="c061a72c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/05/04_AJ_B3756.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-312846" class="wp-caption-text"> The Miyata-kai is a group of otaku of the same generation with members around 30 years old. They have a lot of fun talking about anime, games, and other topics.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_312847" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-312847" style="width: 1856px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="0d75b0e2"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/05/fb118d4e7c86c0e0c5a14c8632d0747f.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-312847" class="wp-caption-text"> Kawai, who had a long career in the Jr. group and was the host of &#8220;The Boys&#8217; Club&#8221; (NHK), in which many Jr. members appeared, has contacts with many Jr. members.</figcaption></figure>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" He is a fierce player in Johnny&#39;s internal politics."></div>
<h2>Johnny&#8217;s&#8217;s fierce internal politics</h2>
<p> There are many Japanese talents who take good care of their friends and family, but one who has a surprising side to him is Kazuya Kamenashi (37).</p>
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<p><strong> He says, &#8220;I invite my juniors over to my house, and Kamenashi goes to the supermarket alone to buy groceries and prepare home-cooked meals to entertain them. In winter, he would prepare oden. This group used to be all Jr. members, including Meguro Ren (26) of &#8220;Snow Man,&#8221; but they all later made their CD debuts. They may have been successful because they were originally athletic and could get along with Kamenashi, who is strict about manners and etiquette.</strong></p>
<p> There is also another unexpected person who has a &#8220;XX group.</p>
<p><strong> He is usually quiet, but there is a &#8220;Kyomoto-kai&#8221; (Kyomoto Association), which consists mainly of members of &#8220;Travis Japan. He calls on the members to produce music, and in private he is a strong leader of others.</strong></p>
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<p> At these meetings, the senior members buy dinner for the junior members, but some of them are quite unreasonable, according to the TV station insider.</p>
<p> Tsukada Ryoichi (36) of A.B.C-Z, who is at the center of the Tsukada-kai, is so full of the spirit of service that when asked by a fan to do the Y-balance on the street, he does it. He once took a junior member of Tsukada-kai to dinner so much that he could not pay his rent and had to borrow money from his mother. JUMP&#8217;s Hiroki Arioka (32) and others, and is now the largest group in the group.</p>
<p> The figure below is a summary of the entire &#8220;XX Association. This chart reveals a side of the celebrities that cannot be seen just by watching TV.</p>
<p><strong> The &#8220;XX Association&#8221; has a very strong sense of the inner circle of each association, and even if you wanted to join, you could not easily do so. Fuma Kikuchi belongs to three such associations and has his own association. He belongs to a group of his generation that meets for swimming and other activities, as well as a group that leads to work. In fact, because of his close friendship with Sakurai, he also appeared in the drama &#8220;Daihyoin Sukyo&#8221; (Nippon Television Network Corporation), in which Sakurai starred. He is also a member of &#8220;Janino. He is highly trusted by the office, and can be said to be one of the youngest talents who is strong in internal politics.</strong></p>
<p> It is often heard from their mouths that &#8220;the presence of their seniors and peers in the group has kept them from leaving the office&#8221; through exchanges at these meetings. Enjoy the profound world of the &#8220;XX Association,&#8221; which has a total of 54 members, more than half of whom are from the office.</p>
<figure id="attachment_312848" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-312848" style="width: 2004px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="da4f520e"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/05/82bfee29b52ca998dfdf66b670a297da.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-312848" class="wp-caption-text"> Kamenashi is strict about etiquette. Wataru Yokoo of &#8220;Kis-My-Ft2&#8221; was fired from the KC-kai (Kamenashi Club) for his infrequent participation.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_312850" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-312850" style="width: 1950px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="2e1a4a3d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/05/d1a93e2cfe17c856359cc6510a49404f.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-312850" class="wp-caption-text"> Kikuchi belongs to three different clubs and has his own Fuma Kikuchi Club. He is known for his ability to support his seniors while maintaining an open attitude toward all ages.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_312851" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-312851" style="width: 1898px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="6e1d3d54"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/05/88161d541e17a58d5cf1345568e6114d.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-312851" class="wp-caption-text"> Kyomoto is usually a quiet man, but in front of the members of the Kyomoto-kai, he talks a lot and often organizes his own fun activities.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_312854" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-312854" style="width: 1733px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ff5341a8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/05/TK2K6502.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-312854" class="wp-caption-text"> Recently, when casting dramas, movies, and commercials, the production side sometimes refers to these &#8220;XX associations.</figcaption></figure>
<p><a href="#" data-ident_hash="3c28393f"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/05/WF0602_P039.jpg" alt=""></a></p>
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<p> From the June 2, 2023 issue of FRIDAY</p>


 Yuri Adachi Takahiro Kagawa Takao Kawakami Ikuya Kawasaki Akira Kino Takero Kondo Yusuke Takatsuka Ichiro Todoroki Junsei Nishi Keisuke Nishihara Shu Hama? Shinji Hara Ippei Yamada Kojiro

 Johnny's is an office where interaction among the talent is very active, and there is an unofficial club called the "00-kai". The world of the "00-kai" is a deep one, with more than half of the office's members in it...!

Higashiyama-kai, Marshmallow-kai, Ryuhei-kai… A thorough study of the “00-kai” that exist in Johnny’s!

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