EIGHT and WEST Operating Normally, While Only Timelesz Faces Renaming Amidst Reasons Behind Three Former Johnny’s Groups’ Fate

“During the concert tour, Junta Nakama (36) posted intimate interactions with a female staff member on social media, which caused a massive backlash. Although he apologized on X in June, his defense of the female staff member only added fuel to the fire. Furthermore, he later posted on X in a way that seemed to identify a private residence, leading to another apology.

The series of controversies may have affected his mental health, as Nakama’s paid blog for fan club members, which had been updated almost daily, stopped updating, causing fans to express their concern. Whether due to this or not, the group’s dome tour from July to August, commemorating their 10th anniversary, saw tickets ‘heavily discounted’, and their YouTube subscriber count has decreased,” said an entertainment reporter.

That said, this incident is largely an individual mishap, and the damage to ‘WEST.’ itself doesn’t seem to be that severe. However, the situation is different for timelesz, which was renamed in April.

 

“In March, Kento Nakajima (30), a central member, unexpectedly left the group, resulting in a three-member lineup. From April, they restarted as ‘timelesz’ with this new lineup. However, while the last single as a four-member group, ‘puzzle’, released in March, had initial sales of around 280,000 copies, the first release of the new three-member lineup, the EP ‘timelesz’ in June, didn’t reach 100,000 copies. Nakajima’s departure, along with Kikuchi starting his own fan club, seems to have led to a loss of fans,” said a record company insider.