Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Legendary STARTO ENTERTAINMENT boy band KAT-TUN is disbanding on March 31 after a whopping ~25 years since being formed. Once a six-member outfit, departures from 2010-15 have reduced them to a trio, but they’ve continued to hit #1 on Oricon for just about everything as they have basically their entire careers.
The trio had not released a single since 2022, were working on their individual careers, and there were rumors about their status, but now it’s finally confirmed. In a statement, STARTO says that Kamenashi Kazuya will leave the company, while Ueda Tatsuya and Nakamaru Yuichi will remain.
“KAT-TUN signed a contract with our company in April 2024 and have continued their activities since then, but after approximately a year of discussions with the members, we have decided as a company that it would be better for the members to take down the KAT-TUN sign and choose their own paths when the second year of their contract begins on April 1, 2025. Looking ahead, Kamenashi Kazuya will leave the company when his contract expires on March 31, and Ueda Tatsuya and Nakamaru Yuichi will continue their contracts with us as individuals.”
Aside from their starring careers, I just want to point out that the evolution of their name has been equally entertaining. As it once represented the first letter of their last names (Kazuya Kamenashi, Jin Akanishi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda, Yuichi Nakamaru), but at the moment it’s an amusingly convoluted acronym (Kazuya Kamenashi, Tatsuya Ueda, Yuichi Nakamaru).
— starto archives (@startoarchives) November 1, 2024
: KAT-TUN
: Break the Records -by you ＆ for you- (2009)
:「RESCUE」pic.twitter.com/wUr10E4fUF
Oddly fitting that I have to find their old media on random social media accounts rather than official ones, but I digress.
A throwback.
