Ikimonogakari’s Mizuno Yoshiki released a statement on Yamashita Hotaka leaving the group

Yamashita Hotaka (38) announced he is leaving Ikimonogakari this month and that he is leaving the entertainment world.

Guitarist Mizuno Yoshiki (38) has been a childhood friend of Yamashita since the first grade of elementary school and said about his friend’s retirement, “I met when him when I was 6 years old, we became friends, and became members. When I was 18 years old, I was planning to do something like this with Hotaka on the bench at a community center in my neighborhood. Now that I’m 38 years old, when I look back, I can say ‘it was fun’, so I think we were happy. Because, if we were together, we would probably say, ‘Hey, it worked. It was awesome, really. That’s unbelievable’. From now on, we will do different things for the first time in a long time, so let’s enjoy it as much as possible. Thank you”.