Fans were disappointed to hear KAT-TUN’s “Notice of Refund of FC Membership Fees.

KAT-TUN, a three-member group from STARTO ENTERTAINMENT (formerly Johnny’s), will disband on March 31, and on February 12, the company suddenly announced the group’s breakup and Kazuya Kamenashi’s departure from the group, sending fans on the Internet into a frenzy. Unconvinced fans used hashtags on social networking sites such as <#KATTUN dissolution withdrawal>, hoping that the decision would be reversed. ……

KAT-TUN was originally formed by Kazuya Kamenashi, Hitoshi Akanishi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Sei Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda, and Yuichi Nakamaru, and made their CD debut with their first single “Real Face” released in March 2006. However, Akanishi, Tanaka, and Taguchi subsequently left the group, and since April ’16, Kamenashi, Ueda, and Nakamaru have continued the group’s activities.

Many STARTO debutant groups place importance on their “anniversary,” and at each five-year milestone, they go on a large-scale tour, hold an event, or release a best-selling album.

In the case of KAT-TUN, their 20th anniversary will be celebrated next March, and fans have been anticipating that the group’s activities would be in full swing for the anniversary year. Member Nakamaru was suspended indefinitely last August after some media reported his problems with women, but he announced his return on January 3 of this year. It was thought that the three of them would resume their work together.

Company’s Decision

However, on February 12, STARTO announced on its official website, “KAT-TUN signed a contract with our company in April 2024 and has continued its activities, but after about a year of discussions with the members, we have decided that for the second year of the contract starting April 1, 2025, the members will drop the KAT-TUN sign and choose their own path. The company decided that it would be better for the members to choose their own paths in the second year of their contract from April 1, 2025. Kamenashi will leave the office when his contract expires on March 31, while Ueda and Nakamaru will continue their contracts with the company on an individual basis.

In addition to the sudden announcement, fans are voicing their doubts about the sentence, “The company has decided that it is better for the members to choose their own paths in the future. Fans opposed to the dissolution of KATTUN posted their thoughts on X (formerly Twitter) with tags such as “#KATTUN withdraws from the group” and called for a withdrawal of the dissolution.

In March, however, the members of the fan club finally received an e-mail informing them of the closure of the fan club and the refund of their membership fee,

I don’t want a refund of my membership fee, please give me back KAT-TUN!

I wanted to be notified about the live concert, not about the refund.

We don’t want the KAT-TUN fan club membership fee, so please put it towards the concert!

KAT-TUN’s fan club sent me an e-mail about the refund, but they’re not going to do anything until the end of March, when KAT-TUN will break up?

The fans were not happy with the situation.