Smap break-up: Long-running Japanese boyband poised to call it quits after 20 years together
The cause of the split is the decision by the band’s manager, Michi Iijima, to resign from the agency and, it is rumoured, launch a rival company.
They have crooned their way into the affections of millions and provided the pop backdrop to generations of Japanese people for more than two decades. But on Wednesday, it was reported that Smap, one of Japan’s most popular bands of all time, are to break up, leaving a gaping hole in the country’s music scene.
Speculation that the boyband – now on the cusp of middle age – were to split up came after the Nikkan Sports newspaper reported that four of its five members had decided to leave Johnny and Associates, the powerful talent agency headed by the octogenarian pop impresario Johnny Kitagawa.
The cause of the split is the decision by the band’s manager, Michi Iijima, to resign from the agency and, it is rumoured, launch a rival company.
Four of Smap’s five members appeared ready to join Iijima, leaving behind arguably the band’s most popular performer, Takuya Kimura.
Smap are from an era when everyone watched the same thing on TV and the market wasn’t as fragmented as it is today
Johnny and Associates confirmed the split in a brief statement released on Wednesday, but refused to discuss the reason while the parties were “still in the negotiation phase”.