Johnny & Associates

Johnny & Associates, Inc. (株式会社ジャニーズ事務所, Kabushikigaisha Janīzu Jimusho) is a talent agency formed by Johnny Kitagawa in 1962. Johnny & Associates trains and promotes groups of male idols, collectively known as "Johnny's" (ジャニーズ, Janīzu),^[1][2] in Japan.

In 1999, Johnny's agency was involved in a lawsuit against Bungeishunjū, the publisher of Shukan Bunshun, which published articles alleging sexual abuse and coercion to use drugs (alcohol and tobacco) had occurred at the agency. A lower court initially ruled in favor of the agency, awarding ¥8.8 million in damages, but this was lowered upon appeal, with the higher court concluding that sexual abuse had taken place but the reports of drinking and smoking were defamatory.^[3]

History

Johnny & Associates, Inc

1962–1989

In 1962, Kitagawa launched his first group called Johnnys.^[2] In 1968, his group Four Leaves became successful.^[2] Since then, Kitagawa has formed many successful acts such as solo artist Masahiko Kondo, whose song "Orokamono" (愚か者, Fool) won the Japan Record Award at the 29th Japan Record Awards in 1987,^[4] and Hikaru Genji, which became the first Johnny's group to achieve the rare feat of having three top-selling singles on the Japanese Oricon yearly charts in 1988.^[5]

1990–2009

Beginning in the 1990s, Johnny & Associates adopted a policy that they would decline the nominations of awards from organizations such as the Japan Record Awards and the Japan Academy Awards partly due to a dispute with the accurate music genre of one of their groups in the 32nd Japan Record Awards.^[6] Another reason was that the nominations would cause competition between Johnny's groups^[6] and other nominees.^[7]

1991 saw the debut of SMAP and their expansion into many other areas of entertainment such as hosting their own regular television and radio shows, appearing in commercials and acting in dramas and movies.^[8] Due to their omnipresence on television, SMAP gained popularity and their 2003 single "Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana" (世界に一つだけの花, "A Flower Unlike Any Other in the World") sold over 2.57 million copies and became the ninth best-selling single in Japan.^[9] In 1997, the agency started its own record label "Johnny's Entertainment".^[1]

In 1999, the Japanese weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun ran a series of articles alleging that adolescent boy clients of the agency had been sexually abused and coerced into drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco. In response, Johnny's agency sued the magazine's publisher, Bungeishunjū. In 2002, the Tokyo District Court awarded the agency ¥8.8 million in damages from the publisher. Bungeishunjū appealed the decision to the Tokyo High Court. The high court reduced the damages to ¥1.2 million, concluding that the allegations of sexual exploitation were true, but that the reports of drinking and smoking were defamatory.^[3]

In 2006, Oricon sued journalist Hiro Ugaya when he was quoted in a Cyzo magazine article suggesting that Oricon was fiddling its statistics to benefit certain management companies and labels, specifically Johnny and Associates. Ugaya condemned the lawsuit as an example of a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) in Japan.^[10] The lawsuit was later dropped by Oricon and no charges were brought against the journalist.

2010–present

On November 19, 2010, Masahiko Kondo was elected as the winner of the award for the "Best Vocal Performance" at the 52nd Japan Record Award, becoming the agency's first winner of awards from the Japan Record Award in 20 years since Ninja, which rejected a live performance for an award in 1990.^[11]

In response to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Johnny & Associates cancelled or postponed 18 of its upcoming concerts including those of Yamashita Tomohisa and Tackey & Tsubasa. Power generators and transporter trucks as well as two thousand litres of gasoline that would have been used at the concerts have instead been donated to the relief effort.

It was announced on the 29th that Johnny’s Company is starting a fundraising project called “Marching J“ for the Touhoku earthquake victims. The first fundraising event was held from April 1 through April 3. SMAP, Tokio, Kinki Kids, V6, Arashi, Tackey and Tsubasa, NEWS, Kanjani8, KAT-TUN, Hey! Say! JUMP and some Johnny’s Juniors participated in the event, which included talk sessions and small a capella performances.^[12] Johnny’s Company planned to have an event once a month for a year. The next event was held on May 29, a baseball tournament event played by Johnny’s Juniors.^[13]

On September 18, 2011, Johnny Kitagawa was presented with two Guinness World Record awards, for the ‘most No.1 singles produced by an individual’ and ‘most concerts produced by an individual’. From 1974-2010 he produced 232 chart-topping songs and 8,419 concerts. He has produced shows for many of his groups; the concerts have an estimated attendance of 48,234,550.^[14]

Current artists

Johnny & Associates' major bands and artists are subjected to Johnny's Family Club or Johnny's Artist Circle.

Recording artists

Actors

• Toma Ikuta
• Shunsuke Kazama

Former recording artists

• Ex-Otokogumi member: Kenichi Okamoto
• Ex-Hikaru GENJI members: Koji Uchiumi, Atsuhiro Sato
• Ex-NEWS member: Takahiro Moriuchi
• Ex-NEWS member: Hironori Kusano
• Ex-Hey! Say! JUMP member: Ryutaro Morimoto
• Ex-KAT-TUN member: Tanaka Koki
• Ex-KAT-TUN member: Jin Akanishi

Trainees

The trainees of Johnny & Associates are collectively called Johnny's Jrs., and they have yet to debut. Jrs. typically perform both their own songs and the songs of debuted groups on variety shows such as The Shōnen Club as "training" and serve as backup dancers for the agency's debuted groups. Recently, some groups released their works while remaining as trainees and they also sometimes collaborated with non-Johnny's Jr. debuted artists.

Other releases

Former recording artists

Temporary / special units

Former artists

• 1971: Yoshiro Uchida
• 1973: Teruyoshi Aoi
• 1975: Junichi Inoue
• 1975: Jo Toyokawa^[18]
• 1975: Yoshitsugu Tonoi
• 1976: Yasuaki Moriya
• 1976: Mitoyu
• 1977: Mayo Kawasaki
• 1979: Satoshi Akagi
• 1981: Ippei Hikaru
• 1985: Shigeyuki Nakamura
• 2003: Moriuchi(Morita) Takahiro
• 2007: Kusano Hironori
• 2011: Morimoto Ryutaro
• 2013: Tanaka Koki
• 2014: Jin Akanishi

See also

• List of record labels
• Hadaka no Shounen

Footnotes

1. ↑ Members: Toshikazu Fukawa, Masahiro Motoki, Hirohide Yakumaru
2. ↑ Members: Yoshio Nomura, Yashisa Soga, Hachirou Kaga, Kouichi Etō
3. ↑ Members: Shōji Narita, Kazuya Takahashi, Kenichi Okamoto, Koyo Maeda
4. ↑ Members: Susumu Yanagisawa, Naoto Endō, Shinya Masaki, Nobuhide Tagaki
5. ↑ A non-Johnny's artist
6. ↑ A non-Johnny's artist
7. ↑ A non-Johnny's artist
8. ↑ A non-Johnny's artist
9. ↑ A non-Johnny's artist
10. ↑ A non-Johnny's artist

References

1. 1 2 "Johnny & Associates, Inc.". JaME World. 2009-06-03. Retrieved 2009-11-24. 
2. 1 2 3 Campion, Chris (2005-08-21). "J-Pop's dream factory". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-09-04. 
3. 1 2 Fukue, Natsuko, "So, you wanna be a Johnny?", Japan Times, 14 April 2009, p. 3.
4. ↑ "List of Winners from 1959–2007" (in Japanese). Japan Record Award. Retrieved 2009-12-15. 
5. ↑ "嵐、史上初の"CD、DVD4 冠"達成～シングルTOP3独占は光GENJI以来21年ぶり" (in Japanese). Oricon. 2009-12-18. Retrieved 2009-12-18. 
6. 1 2 キムタクが日本アカデミー賞辞退 (in Japanese). Nikkan Sports. 2006-12-20. Retrieved 2009-09-04. 
7. ↑ "Kimutaku Declines Academy Nomination". Japan Zone. 2006-12-20. Retrieved 2009-12-17. 
8. ↑ "Johnny's Jimusho". Japan Zone. Retrieved 2009-12-16. 
9. ↑ 「およげ！たいやきくん」がギネス認定、再評価の気運高まる (in Japanese). Oricon. 2008-02-20. Retrieved 2009-12-17. 
10. ↑ Libel suit attacks free speech: defendant The Japan Times Online
11. ↑ レコ大20年ぶりジャニーズ 転機となるか. Nikkan Sports (in Japanese) (Oricon). 2010-11-20. Retrieved 2010-11-20. 
12. ↑ "Asia Pacific Arts: Johnny's Entertainment fundraiser "Marching J" attracts 389,000". Asiapacificarts.usc.edu. Retrieved 2015-06-07. 
13. ↑ "Johnny’s Company "Marching J" Project". Tokyofever. Retrieved 2011-04-07. 
14. ↑ "Johnny Kitagawa has been presented with two Guinness World Records". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 2011-09-18. 
15. ↑ Toshihiko Tahara - Aisyu Date (1980)
16. ↑ Archived October 17, 2013 at the Wayback Machine
17. ↑ Archived March 6, 2014 at the Wayback Machine
18. ↑ "Jo Toyokawa and Ippei Hikaru" (in Japanese). Retrieved 2010-06-09. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Johnny & Associates.

• (Japanese) Official Japanese website
• (Chinese) (Korean) Official Asia website