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SMAP
 SMAP (Sports Music Assemble People) are a kind of Japanese version
of the Monkees. Besides being the country's most popular boy-band
(and J-Pop's best selling group ever), they also present their
own variety shows, make commercials and frequently appear in trendy
TV dramas. As members of the ubiquitous Johnny's
Jimusho (Johnny & Associates) talent agency, they have a lot of clout
behind them but still have lasted longer than most people expected.
Even rumours of systematic rapes of his young charges by guru
Johnny Kitagawa couldn't dent the group's marketability.
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"Leader" Nakai Masahiro, Kimura Takuya (Kimutaku for short),
Katori Shingo, Kusanagi Tsuyoshi, Inagaki Goro,
and former member Mori Katsuyuki started out as skateboarding
back-ups to popular group Hikaru Genji in 1988. The turn of the
decade saw the end of the so-called 'idol groups' but clever marketing
by their agency ensured that the members of SMAP were everywhere
- TV shows, concerts, musicals, commercials, radio. Kimutaku in
particular became the poster boy for his generation and could demand
huge fees for commercial appearances. Singles such as 'Gambarimasho',
'Celery', 'Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana' have been huge sellers. Even
the departure of Mori in May 1996 to pursue a career as a motorcycle racer couldn't
stop the SMAP juggernaut. Thanks largely to their popularity,
Johnny's Jimusho has become easily the most successful agency
in Japan, with earnings of almost 3 billion yen in 1995.
Ironically there was talk of SMAP breaking away from Johnny's
until Inagaki Goro got himself arrested for turning a simple parking
violation into an attempted hit and run in August 2001. The incident
happened when Inagaki noticed a policewoman standing in front
of his car, illegally parked in the youth culture center of Shibuya
on a Friday night. Inagaki tried to drive away and hit the policewoman
in the process. She was only slightly hurt but more serious damage
had been done to Inagaki's career and SMAP's future. One immediate
casualty was a 200 million yen drama series starring Inagaki that
had been set to air just weeks later. As is the case when a TV
star is arrested, all Inagaki's commercial tie-ins were also cancelled.
Ratings for the popular SMAPxSMAP show hit an all-time low
when the scheduled show was replaced with a rerun.
Kimura Takuya - often voted the sexiest man in Japan (not to mention Taiwan
etc), Kimutaku has gained my grudging respect as
an actor. He has undoubted charisma and screen presence, particularly
compared to the standards set by most 'daikon yakusha' (ham actors)
on TV. Fueled by his popularity, dramas like Beautiful Life,
Long Vacation, Nemureru Mori (A Sleeping Forest) and
Hero have topped the ratings. He received - and refused - a
nomination for best actor at the 2006 Japan Academy Awards for his
role as a blind samurai in Yamada
Yoji's Bushi no Ichibun. His marriage to
popular singer Kudo Shizuka became one of the biggest news stories of 2000 as did the birth
of their daughter Kokomi the next year.
(By the way, a friend once met Kimura at a party and found him
very friendly and talkative, more than could be said for the stunning
model he was with at the time. I guess you can't always judge
people by the company they keep.)
Katori Shingo - forever cast as the baby of SMAP, Shingo-kun has had one of
the most varied careers of all the group members. From nude magazine
photo shoots to a variety of cross-dressing TV roles - witness
the huge popularity of Shingo Mama and her 'O-ha Rock' -
he seems to be fighting any attempts to categorize him while
at the same time sending a lot of ambiguous signals about his
sexual orientation. He also starred in HR, Japan's first ever real sitcom,
though still a pretty sad bit of television. One of his most successful TV stints
is as the host of the SmaStation news/variety show on TV Asahi. It introduced several
new ideas to local TV and used SMAP's considerable reach to even broadcast shows
across competing networks.
Nakai Masahiro - every group has a leader and Nakai-kun is SMAP's. It
doesn't really mean anything except when someone has to be designated to stand
up for the group. Nakai has acknowledged publicly that he can't sing and his
talents clearly lie in the more general entertainment field. He regularly hosts
variety shows and is one of TV's most visible Yomiuri Giants fans. He was an
obvious choice to bring in a younger audience as a emcee on NHK's flagging New
Year's Eve song spectacular Kohaku Uta Gassen. He first did the job in 1997 and 1998,
and was called back again in 2006.
Kusanagi Tsuyoshi - With his skinny frame, drawn face and somewhat shy and
awkward demeanor, Tsuyoshi-kun looks a little out of place in the lineup. He is
also the Korean face of SMAP. Well, kind of. He has an alter ego character called
Chonan Kan, which is the Korean reading of his name. With garish makeup and speaking
a very respectable Hangul, he has been something of a rarity - a bridge between
Korean and Japanese pop culture from the Japanese side.
Inagaki Goro - like Kimutaku, Goro-chan doesn't appear solo that often on
the variety circuit and you're more likely to see him in a TV drama series. He
maintains the most "cultivated" image of the five members.
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