TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Japan's long-running, all-male pop group SMAP to break up
Change Size
An illustration of a music performance. The five members of SMAP will go their separate ways at the end of this year, after performing together for more than two decades. (Shutterstock/-)
T
he on-again, off-again breakup of an all-male Japanese pop group with a strong following in much of Asia is back on: The five members of SMAP will go their separate ways at the end of this year, after performing together for more than two decades.
The group's agency, Johnny & Associates, announced Sunday that SMAP would disband, according to Japanese media reports. The agency said its members would focus on their solo careers, Kyodo News service reported.
A possible split was widely rumored in January, until the group's members made an unusual television appearance to say they would stay together and apologized for causing concern among their fans.
It was decided that #SMAP of the Japanese idol group will dissolve on next December 31. That’s so sad..💧 #SMAP解散 pic.twitter.com/hvXLD74apy
— Didier Merah (@DidierMerah) August 13, 2016
Johnny & Associates said that it had recently proposed the band take a hiatus, but that some members wanted to break up for good, according to the media reports.
"We judged it difficult for them to continue activities as a group," Johnny & Associates said, according to Kyodo.
SMAP, which stands for "Sports Music Assemble People," was formed in 1988 as a six-person teenage boy band. Its first CD came out in 1991, and the group surged to stardom with choreographed singing and dancing.
(Read also: Seven classic Japanese 'dorama' that we miss)
SMAP's members now range in age from 39 to 43, and it remains a popular group that is a staple of entertainment shows and commercials. Each member has also performed individually in variety shows and films.
