Johnny's Jimusho is a talent agency that was established by Kitagawa Johnny and his sister Mary back in the early 60's. It has dominated the Japanese boy band market ever since. Just about all the top male groups on Japanese television today are members of this stable. Most of them not only dominated the music industry, they are also known for appearing everywhere from doramas to TV commercials.
Johnny's Jr. consists of young boys, probably around early teens, being "trained" to sing and dance. When they reach a certain age they move on to debut as part of a group, duo, trio or even solo. Most "juniors-in-training" end up being back up dancers for their seniors who already debuted. The Juniors are divided into groups with leaders.
:: Inactive debuted groups ::
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◘ 1962: Johnnys
Members: Maie Hiromi, Iino Osami, Aoi Teruhiko
◘ 1967: Four Leaves
Members: Kita Kouji, Aoyama Takashi, Egi Toshio, Orimo Masao
Former Members: Nagata Eiji
◘ 1981: Shibugakitai
Members: Fukawa Toshikazu, Motoki Masahiro, Yakumaru Hirohide
◘ 1983: THE GOOD-BYE
Members: Nomura Yoshio, Soga Yashisa, Kaga Hachirou, Etou Kouichi
◘ 1985: Shōnentai
Members: Kazukiyo Nishikiori, Katsuhide Uekusa, Noriyuki Higashiyama
◘ 1987: Hikaru Genji
Members of Hikaru: Koji Uchiumi, Mikio Osawa
Members of Genji: Kazumi Morohoshi, Hiroyuki Sato, Yamamoto Junichi, Akira Akasaka, Atsuhiro Sato
◘ 1987: OTOKOGUMI
Members: Shoji Narita, Kazuya Takahashi, Keniji Okamoto, Koyo Maeda
◘ 1990: Ninja
Members: Yanagisawa Susumu, Endou Naoto, Masaki Shinya, Tagaki Nobuhide
Former Members: Shiga Yasunobu, Furukawa Eiji
Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Goro Inagaki, Shingo Katori
Former members: Katsuyuki Mori
◘ 1994: TOKIO
Members: Tomoya Nagase, Masahiro Matsuoka, Taichi Kokubun, Tatsuya Yamaguchi, Shigeru Joshima
◘ 1995: V6
Members of 20th Century: Masayuki Sakamoto, Hiroshi Nagano, Yoshihiko Inohara
Members of Coming Century: Go Morita, Ken Miyake, Junichi Okada
◘ 1997: KinKi Kids
Members: Koichi Domoto & Tsuyoshi Domoto
◘ 1999: Arashi
Members: Masaki Aiba, Jun Matsumoto, Kazunari Ninomiya, Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai
◘ 2002: Tackey & Tsubasa
Members: Hideaki Takizawa & Tsubasa Imai
◘ 2003: NEWS
Members: Tomohisa Yamashita, Ryo Nishikido, Keiichiro Koyama, Takahisa Masuda, Shigeaki Kato, Yuya Tegoshi
Former Members: Hiroki Uchi, Hironori Kusano, Takahiro Moriuchi
◘ 2004: Kanjani8
Members: Yū Yokoyama, Subaru Shibutani, Shingo Murakami, Ryūhei Maruyama, Shota Yasuda, Ryō Nishikido, Tadayoshi Ōkura
Former Members: Hiroki Uchi
◘ 2006: KAT-TUN
Members: Kazuya Kamenashi, Jin Akanishi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda, Yuichi Nakamaru
◘ 2007: Hey! Say! JUMP
Members of Hey! Say! Best: Kota Yabu, Yuya Takaki, Kei Inoo, Hikaru Yaotome, Daiki Arioka
Members of Hey! Say! 7: Keito Okamoto, Ryosuke Yamada, Yuto Nakajima, Yuuri Chinen, Ryutaro Morimoto
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