Tachibana Keita, a member of the dance/vocal unit w-inds., was not a member of a Johnny’s group and w-inds. was looked at as a rival of the Johnny’s group Arashi.
But Tachibana took to Twitter to pay his respects to Kitagawa Johnny, the popular producer of Johnny’s Jimusho who passed away on the 9th from complications from a subarachnoid hemorrhage suffered on June 18th.
Tachibana wrote on Twitter:
素敵なグループを数多く生み出し、僕は沢山の影響を受けました。
ジャニーさんがいらっしゃらなかった
僕は歌って踊る事を始めていなかったかも知れません。
今いるダンスボーカルグループは皆んなそうだと思います。ジャニー喜多川様のご冥福を心よりお祈り致します。
— Keita Tachibana (@Official_Keita) July 9, 2019
He created a lot of great groups that influenced me a lot.
If it wasn’t for Johnny, I might have not started singing or dancing.