Domoto and Jesse Star in Episode and Kimutaku YouTube Relying on Junior’s Popularity Amid View Struggles

Actor Takuya Kimura (51) was forced to suspend the broadcast of a commercial in which he appeared last fall due to the late Janie Kitagawa’s sexual assault scandal. Since then, he seems to have been completely absent from TV. His current activities are limited to his radio program “Takuya Kimura Flow” on TOKYO FM and his official YouTube channel, “Kimura San!” on his official YouTube channel.

On February 25th, it was announced that on March 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 24th, members of the dance and vocal group “Sandaime J Soul Brothers,” namely Takanori Iwata (34), Ryuuji Imaichi (37), and Naoki Kobayashi (36), will appear as guests on the same radio program. According to reports, Kimura attended the first day of Sandome’s dome tour in Tokyo last year. In the program, Kimura will share his impressions of the live performance, delve into behind-the-scenes stories, and answer questions from the three members.

“Previously, Kimutaku rarely interacted with boy groups from other agencies. However, the majority of celebrities in their 30s or older are familiar with SMAP members and Kimutaku’s ‘golden era’ as an actor, and they would likely want to collaborate at least once.

However, from Kimutaku’s perspective, the offer to Sandome, which seemed desperate to appeal to its program by borrowing the power of groups from other agencies to increase listeners, conveyed such desperation.” (Entertainment journalist)

Speaking of Kimura, he made headlines early in the year for his debut as a YouTuber. Initially, the number of subscribers to his channel was struggling to grow, but it finally surpassed 500,000 and reached 560,000 (as of February 27th). The channel now features newly filmed videos as well as past episodes of his former program, “Kimura-san!,” which aired on the streaming service “GYAO!” from March 2018 to March 2023.

The notable view count belongs to the video uploaded on January 22nd, which is the only one with over 2 million views, recording 2.03 million views. This episode featured Tsuyoshi Domoto (44) of “KinKi Kids,” who recently announced his departure from SMILE Corporation at the end of March.

In terms of new videos, the one titled “Kimura Takuya Styles SixTONES’ Jesse! What Does the Senior Choose? A Pajama?!” uploaded on February 3rd has garnered 1.68 million views. As the title suggests, it features Jesse (27) from SixTONES.

With 1.68 million views, this is the second-highest view count after Domoto’s appearance. Additionally, two more videos featuring Jesse have been uploaded, with 1.49 million and 1.34 million views respectively. Combined, these three videos have accumulated 4.51 million views, showcasing their popularity.

“Among the new and past videos, only Kimura’s greeting video, the first one uploaded after the channel was created, exceeded 1 million views. It was challenging to earn significant view counts. However, with Domoto’s video, the view count suddenly increased.

Kimura previously featured Snow Man in the New Year’s special program ‘SanTaku’ (Fuji TV), and now SixTONES. Considering that SixTONES is said to be struggling to attract audiences for their Tokyo Dome concert in April, promoting them through Kimura might be a good move.

Typically, if Kimura’s junior members from his agency are ‘appointed’ by him, the offer is likely accepted immediately. Therefore, continuing to introduce popular members from various groups might be the best strategy to steadily increase subscribers.” (Television station insider)

Kimura’s YouTube channel seems to heavily rely on his junior members. However, if Kimura had opened his channel during the ‘glory days’ when he was a member of SMAP and starring in dramas with high ratings, it would be interesting to see how many subscribers and views he would have recorded.

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