Tegoshi Yuya held a press conference, expressed his sincere gratitude to NEWS, the fans and Johnny’s Jimusho

Tegoshi Yuya (32) held an urgent press conference at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday and expressed his sincere gratitude to NEWS, the fans and Johnny’s Jimusho.

The former Johnny’s Jimusho/NEWS member said:

I wanted to talk about various things and say things quickly from my own mouth.  I this manner, thanks to the flow of things up to now, I want to thank various people and convey my outlook and ambitions.

First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to NEWS and to the fans who supported us and the staff who supported us on multiple programs. I will always be a fan of Johnny’s Jimusho, NEWS and the fans of NEWS.  I really love you.

There was nothing that happened between me and the members and there was no trouble with the office. 

I love NEWS and I still love wearing the tour t-shirts at home.  I sincerely love my NEWS companions Masuda Takahisa, Kato Shigeaki, Koyama Keiichiro.I have deep gratitude even to those fans who feel I betrayed NEWS, those who support NEWS and those at the office (Johnny’s Jimusho) who helped raise them.

While I’m grateful to the office (Johnny’s Jimusho), one of the reasons for why I went independent was because I had a desire to change myself as a man around 5 to 6 years ago.  In fact, I started talking about it back in March of this year that I was thinking about leaving after I finished the four-part work I had made for the fans (the national tour “STORY”).  As Tegoshi Yuya, a man who is 32-years-old, I wanted to take another one-step challenge without being overwhelmed.

With the four of us NEWS members in a room, I told them that I’m leaving when “STORY” ends.  That the three will continue on together and I am thankful to them.

I had a vision of a future of what I wanted to do and there were many things that I couldn’t do at Johnny’s Jimusho.  There are many things that I couldn’t match.

There are more ideas now for taking part in various genres than ever before.  If I can realize each of them, my fans will say, “Tegoshi Yuya is different from other people”.

I have absolute confidence that I’m going to go on a different side of the path I have made, but I am doing something revolutionary.  Without that thought, I’m not independent.

Tegoshi then took questions from the press.  To prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, media had numbered tickets to avoid crowding, masks and temperature tests were mandatory and each time a reported asked a question, the microphone had to be disinfected.

When asked about going to a Hanami with Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s wife, Akie (58) in late March during the time of self-restraint, Tegoshi said, “Akie-san is a good person who has done well in private and is interested in volunteering. Each time I met her, she has a bright personality and that time of self-restraint, I was a volunteer at various times which was off-the-record.  As for ‘Hanami’, this is not the cherry blossoms but the cherry blossoms in the garden of a restaurant where we went to that were beautiful and we took pictures together.  We talked about how we could brighten the darkness in thew orld and we talked about our vision”.

When asked about his former NEWS members, he said he was thinking about contacting them after the press conference.  Tegoshi said, “Even though I am not a member of NEWS, I still love the group and I have a history with them and I’m a big fan.  If they have a live show, I want to watch it.  I would like to have a meal with all four.  I will contact them after the press conference is over”.

When asked about leaving Johnny’s, Tegoshi said he negotiated through a lawyer and he left after both parties were satisfied.  When asked if there was a conflict between him and Vice President Takizawa Hideaki, Tegoshi said there was no conflict between him and Takizawa.

Tegoshi said that he met with the executives of Johnny’s Jimusho during the discharge negotiations and said that he heard from mutual acquaintances that Takizawa was concerned for him but he would like to meet with him in the future and talk with him and Tegoshi thanked Johnny’s Jimusho once again.

When asked about the news reports of the trouble he was involved in, Tegoshi said, “While at home and seeing the news reports, there were so many false news reported and I wanted to tell you the truth but I couldn’t talk about it.  I had no trouble with Johnny’s Jimusho or members.  I love Johnny’s, I love NEWS and I love the fans.  As a man, I just wanted to take another step up”.

When asked about not being able to work on NTV’s “Sekai no Hate Made Itte Q”, Tegoshi said, “I am very grateful to the program which helped me so much. I was supported by children, their fathers and mothers.  I want to give back to Itte Q”.  Tegoshi said he even told Uchimura Teruyoshi and Miyagawa Daisuke that he was going to leave while he was on the show recording.

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