131172 wrote:I am quite shocked to see the site been warned. I have been to the site before. I didn't know that Johnny's would actually asked the site to removed photos of their artists(well.. they have every right) since the site is not from Japan. There is tons of foreign websites with photos of Johnny's artists out there. Every unofficial Johnny's site in Japanese I visited does not have any photo of Johnny's artist, at most drawings of the artists or the face being blurred out. Even in Johnny's official site Johnny's Net, you couldn't find a single image of their artists. Currently, Johnny Kitagawa who is in his early 70s is the chairman of the company with his sister and niece as vice-chairman. In the credits of many Johnny's concerts, events, musical, you could see his name as the producer. A lot of Johnny's gimicks came from his idea. You have to admit he is a talented guy but sexual orientation wise I am not too sure. All along when Johnny Kitagawa is mentioned, the boys always have postive things to say bout him so I think he is well respected by the boys. Then again who will diss his boss. Japan society are very particular about underage drinking and other illegal stuff committed especially by artists. So I think every artists' actions has to be responsible to the society. Johnny's has fired junior in the past for drinking and suspend goro for traffic offence. I even seen news of artists shaving their head bald to show their remorse for their sins. Maybe this is the Japanese attitude. The following link show more revealing photos of Kusano incident http://home.newsch.net/oniti2005/archives/blog129.html. Do u think he looks cool with the face mask.
::IMPORTANT:: After Hiroki Uchi last year, it's now Hironori Kusano, 17, who is accused of drinking in a karaoke box. He has denied the accusations of paparazzi,
but to Johnny's Jimusho, two incidents are too much. It has been decided that
the next single release and lives in march will be done, but at only six members, the two others doing a break. Unfortunately, NEWS will do a break after these events until the end of this year 2006.
The new single has been recorded again without Kusano voice, the calendar has been done again and postened to the 1st of March. The six boys will continue some solo activities like YamaP drama "KUROSAGI" in april. However, there are some good news : three members passed their university entrance examination. Yûya passed Waseda, Hironori passed Hôsei (Career Design), Shigeaki passed Aoyama Gakuin (Law).
Source : http://johnnysentertainment.free.fr/news_news.htm (This site has been warned by Johnny's about artists photos matters...)
So the new single will not have Kusano & Uchi's voice... A little odd and disrespectful towards the band, isn't it?
131172 >> He's super cool with the mask thing ! Hehe, poor little Kusano. And do you know if Johnny is giving his members troubles if they're dating girls? Is he acting like "The girl or your career"... ? I heard that a fan has tempted to do a run-in with acid on Yamashita Tomohisa... I really hate fangirling, especially when they become jealous of someone they admire but they won't probably never meet... or never meet enough to make a relationship with him. They are human & mortals, like everyone, they have right to date whoever they want, whenever they want, otherwise it's a waste for them.
Oh, by the way, Yamashita isn't his real name : his real name is MANATSU TOMOHISA. Anyone know why he changed it? =)
Anyway, all this story makes me hate Johnny more than anything in the Japanese entertainment. Indeed, he's skilled as a manger/producer but what's happening to NEWS is way too HARSH.
Thank you for all the photos, you rock!