While Hirano Sho Experiences Great Success, Kimura Takuya, Aiba Masaki, and Sakurai Sho Face Struggles Despite Past Prominence

On the other hand, last year, following the sexual misconduct allegations involving the late Johnny Kitagawa, companies that had been using talents from the former Johnny & Associates in their advertisements began announcing a policy of not renewing contracts one after another. For instance, even among individual talents reigning at the top, Kimura has seen the end of his contracts with Look Optical Japan, McDonald’s Japan, and Open House since the beginning of this year.

As of March 30th, the official website, FAMILY CLUB Official Site, lists Cube (MARK & LONA), Sega, Nissan Motor, Recruit Jobs (Town Work), Taisho Pharmaceutical, and Japan Sports Promotion Center in the CM section. The new CM for the golf apparel brand “MARK & LONA” began airing sequentially from March 19th, but information on other new TV commercials has not been disclosed.

“Besides Kimura, the number of commercials featuring prominent talents from the former Johnny & Associates has significantly decreased. Prior to the sexual misconduct allegations, Arashi’s Sakurai Sho, Aiba Masaki, and Jr. group Snow Man appeared in commercials for Asahi Beverage Company’s product ‘Mitsuya Cider.’ However, in February of this year, Asahi announced that actor Yokohama Ryusei and the music duo Ikimonogakari (Yoshioka Hitoe and Mizuno Yoshiki) would be featured in the advertisement for the same product. Sakurai’s contract with Aflac Life Insurance and Aiba’s contract with Tokyo Marine & Nichido have also ended” (source).

 

Additionally, according to the FAMILY CLUB Official Site, TOKIO is currently contracted with Fumakilla, Fukushima Prefecture’s “Locally Produced Agricultural, Forestry, and Fishery Products PR Project,” Marugame Seimen, Art Nature (Shimojo Shige), and Marumiya Food Industry (Kokubun Taichi). Previously, Your Meister, Japanet Takata (Kokubun), Sapporo Beer (Matsushita Masahiro), and Vertex (Matsushita) were also listed in the CM section but seem to have been removed since October last year.

STARTO ENTERTAINMENT, the new management company for former Johnny & Associates talents, will officially start operating in April. Will talents under STARTO be able to compete with the momentum of Hirano?