<h3>Talent belonging to the newly established &#8220;STARTO ENTERTAINMENT&#8221; will be&#8230;</h3>
 On December 8, as part of the new structure of the former Johnny&#8217;s (now SMILE-UP.), it was announced that the name of the new company, which will sign individual agent contracts with individuals and groups and take charge of their management, will be called &#8220;STARTO ENTERTAINMENT. The name of the new company, STARTO ENTERTAINMENT, was announced.
 The new company, STARTO ENTERTAINMENT, will position the content from the former Johnny&#8217;s as &#8220;Japan&#8217;s treasure,&#8221; and will offer its own music distribution service, global expansion into the U.S., Korea, and other countries, entry into the Metaverse business, and other business activities. The establishment of the new company itself was announced in October.
 The establishment of the new company itself was announced at the press conference held on October 2, at which it was also announced that young talents would be able to belong to the new company, while the current talents and artists belonging to SMILE-UP. would sign an agent contract. CEO Fukuda&#8217;s announcement also stated that the new company would sign agent contracts and manage talent in the same way as other agencies.
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 For example, if existing Junior (formerly Johnny&#8217;s Jr.) groups became affiliated with STARTO ENTERTAINMENT as a whole group, would it be possible that they would be treated as an independent entity, effectively a debut group, rather than a &#8220;Junior&#8221; of the new company?
<figure id="attachment_347739" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-347739" style="width: 944px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="855080aa"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/12/db47319ed97ffbeb29e7ac6644c46fc1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-347739" class="wp-caption-text"> We will modernize the entertainment industry.&#8221;&#8230;Jun Fukuda, CEO of STARTO ENTERTAINMENT, speaking to the press (PHOTO: Kyodo News)</figcaption></figure>
<h3> Possibility that talents who are not part of the former Johnny&#8217;s</h3>
 Although it is only a complete delusion, we can imagine various &#8220;possibilities&#8221; of such a STARTO ENTERTAINMENT only now, when the details are still unknown.
 There is, of course, a good chance that someone who is not a member of the former Johnny&#8217;s will be affiliated with STARTO ENTERTAINMENT,&#8221; says one entertainment journalist.
 says an entertainment journalist. The possibility of joining a new agency means that STARTO ENTERTAINMENT could have new talent as well as agent contracts with former Johnny&#8217;s. &#8220;I mentioned this at the press conference in October,&#8221; said one entertainment journalist.
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 As mentioned at the press conference in October, what we want to achieve is to eliminate the color of Johnny&#8217;s and Janie Kitagawa as much as possible. 
 To that end, there may be a variety of new talents and artists to be hired by the new company in the future. 
 It is highly likely that they will be a different type of talent from the image of the past Johnny&#8217;s talents. By having a wide range of faces, the new company may give the impression that it is a completely different agency from the previous one. 
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The &quot;resurgence&quot; of female talent!"></div>
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<h3>The &#8220;resurgence&#8221; of female talent! </h3>
 One of the fantasies is even the possibility of belonging to a female talent.
 I am sure there are many people who know that there was a time when female talents were affiliated with the company, but if female talents were to be born again, it would surely attract a great deal of attention (laughs).
 For example, the Three Yankees, a trio of girls who formed in conjunction with a women&#8217;s baseball program broadcast on Fuji Television in 1978 and released the single &#8220;The Baseball&#8221; (the baseball-related part is typical of the old Johnny&#8217;s), debuted in 1984, (The baseball-related part is typical of the old Johnny&#8217;s), and the Orange Sisters (this group is the last female talent to date), a three-member group that debuted in 1984.
 Incidentally, the first female talent from the former Johnny&#8217;s office was Sumiyo Iino, who represented Japan in the Miss Universe pageant in 1968. The first female talent from the former Johnny&#8217;s office was Sumiyo Iino, who represented Japan in the Miss Universe pageant in 1968, and Jun Shimada, who represented Japan in Miss Universe in 1970. VIP is a five-member mixed gender group that includes former members of &#8220;JOHNNYS&#8217; Junior Special,&#8221; and Keiko Julie Fujishima, who also played a student in &#8220;3 Years B Class Kinpachi Sensei. Surprisingly (?) Female Johnny&#8217;s existed in the past.
<figure id="attachment_347747" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-347747" style="width: 742px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="85e10c77"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/12/29ea9b8ee96abefe8f6226a4ea9adc00.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-347747" class="wp-caption-text"> The first female talent from the former Johnny&#8217;s office was Sumiyo Iino, who represented Japan in the Miss Universe pageant in 1968 (PHOTO: Kyodo News).</figcaption></figure>
 New Generation!&#8221; was announced as the successor to &#8220;The Shonen Club,&#8221; which had been broadcast on NHKBS. . So far, Shonen Club has only featured Johnny&#8217;s Jr. and other Johnny&#8217;s talents (except for guest performers), but NHK has announced that the program will also feature female idols and artists. 
 NHK has announced that female idols and artists will also appear on the program, and it may even send a new female idol group of its own origin to this female idol slot. 
 When NHK announced &#8220;New Generation! was announced, many fans were concerned about performing with female idols, but will the presence of women in the company&#8217;s own talent, even though it once existed, make fans even more concerned?
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<figure id="attachment_347740" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-347740" style="width: 1707px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="1b4529c2"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/12/c29c9baac8847c218c7de7b3cff1788a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-347740" class="wp-caption-text"> In the video announcing the new company name, Director and COO Inohara appeared with CEO Fukuda to discuss the plans and thoughts of the new company, STARTO ENTERTAINMENT (PHOTO: Kazuhiko Nakamura).</figcaption></figure>
<h3> Possibility of &#8220;e-sports,&#8221; &#8220;YouTube,&#8221; and &#8220;comedian&#8221; affiliations?</h3>
 The revival of female talent would be quite a drastic change, but other possibilities are also possible.
 Ikuto Kawai of A.B.C-Z has announced that he will leave the group in December to pursue his career as an MC and other individual talent. 
 There have been former Johnny&#8217;s such as Shunsuke Kazama and Toma Ikuta who specialized in acting, but I don&#8217;t think there have been any individual Johnny&#8216;s who have specialized in acting or MCing. 
 Furthermore, just as Hey! Say! JUMP&#8217;s Ryosuke Yamada has pioneered a new path as a game distributor, it is not impossible that e-sports, YouTube, and other affiliations, or even virtual idols and Vtubers from the new company will make their debut. 
 It is also conceivable that the company will actively expand the nationalities of its members in preparation for global expansion.
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 Business alliances and dual appointments are also possible.
 For example, &#8220;For the Kansai Johnny&#8217;s Jr. regular program &#8216;Maido! Journey&#8221; (BS Fuji), a regular program of Kansai Johnny&#8217;s Jr. 
 Kansai Jr. also has strong ties to Shochiku, including performances at the Shochikuza Theater and movie distribution. It would be interesting if, for example, the new company were to take on a full-fledged comedy career and make the most of its skills in a dual role with Shochiku Entertainments.
 The fantasies are endless, but how far will the new company, STARTO ENTERTAINMENT, be able to take its image to a whole new level? We will continue to keep an eye on it.

 Writer, editor, interviewer. He has been a writer since he was a student, and currently writes mainly entertainment-related articles and interviews for websites and magazines.

 Satoru Ota

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