Even in the years when there were no talents, Mr. Johnny was still doing it”… Looking back on the history of “Johnny’s” and “Kohaku”.

Jun Matsumoto of “Arashi” who was considered a surefire host of the white group

This year, Jun Matsumoto of “ Arashi” was considered a sure thing to host the white team due to his leading role in the historical drama “What to do with Ieyasu”. Is Arashi back in this spot?　How many other Johnny’s will appear?　and so on.

However, due to the revelation of the sexual assault scandal involving the late Johnny’s Kitagawa, for the first time in 44 years since 1979, none of the talent from the former Johnny’s office (SMILE-UP.) will appear on the show. However, there is no doubt that the kingdom created by Janie Kitagawa has been a driving force in the Japanese music industry. Let us take a look at the history of “Kohaku” and the former Johnny’s. The Johnny’s office was established in 1962 as “Kohaku” (the “Kohaku” in Japanese).

Johnny’s began operations in 1962 as an affiliate of Watanabe Productions. The first talent was the eponymous Johnny’s. He appeared as a mascot boy in NHK’s “Yume de Aimasho” and “Young Seasons,” in which many of Nabepro’s actors appeared.

He was also a back-up dancer for Yukari Ito’s “Locomotion” at the “Nichigeki Western Carnival” stage. Ito recalls with a laugh, “I was really annoyed that the newspapers gave more prominence to Johnny’s than to me.

In December 1964, Johnny’s made its debut as a singer with “Young Tears,” the song of the month from “Yume de Aimasho” (“Let’s Meet in a Dream”), and in 1965, it proudly made it to the “Kohaku” in Japan. The first “Kohaku” performance by Johnny’s dates back 58 years.

The following year, the group went to the U.S. for full-fledged dance lessons, and although the group broke up after that, no one appeared in the Kohaku the following year, the Four Leaves, who had been Johnny’s backing dancers, made their debut.

Two years later, in 1970, they made their first “Kohaku” appearance, winning the number one bromide sales prize. This was the first “Kohaku” appearance by Johnny’s in five years. The song he sang was “Ashita ga aruku” (“Ashita will be born”).

The composer of this song, Tomohiro Kajisawa, was Mitsuo Kaji, who had a hit with “Seishun no Shirokamachi. He later became a world-renowned jewelry designer and is still active today. A few years ago, Kaji and Toshio E gi, one of the members of the Four Leaves, sang this song together at the “Japan Singers Association Song Festival. At that time, Egi said, “In Kohaku, there was only one microphone for the four of us. When we danced during the prelude and interlude, we spread out, and when we started singing, we gathered around the microphone, and those were the days,” he recalled.

From this point on, the Four Leaves participated in Kohaku for seven years. Hiromi Go joined the group in 1973, but in 1975, Hiromi Go moved to Burning Productions. In 1975, Goh moved to Burning Productions. Since then, she has been the face of “Kohaku” and has continued to make a record number of appearances in the show. From this point until the beginning of the 1980s, there was once again a three-year gap between the members of the Johnny’s office and the rest of the cast of Kohaku.

When I spoke with a former producer of “Kohaku” who had already retired, he told me, “Even if the singers from the office no longer appear in “Kohaku,” Mr. Janney would still show up at New Year’s Eve and rehearsals, saying, “I still want to bring up singers who can appear in Kohaku next year. He said, “I want to bring up singers who will participate in the Kohaku next year.

At the time, “Kohaku” was considered a “national event. To send a contestant to the Kohaku was a sign of being a first-rate singer. It was a time when the competition was nothing compared to what it is today.