Johnny’s Jimusho denies Bunshun article that Kimura Takuya opposed the company name change

On October 5th, Johnny’s Jimusho released a comment denying the weekly magazine report about Takuya Kimura not wanting Johnny’s Jimusho to change its name as “baseless.”

In the October 5th issue of Weekly Bunshun, a source affiliatd with Johnny’s Jimusho was at the decision meeting and Kimura said, “Even if we decided to change the company name, ‘Why are we changing it?'”. It was reported that he was reluctant on Johnny’s changing its name (to “SMILE-UP”) and was not convinced, and that he had stopped filming the drama because he was not motivated, saying, “Now is not the time”.

Johnny’s Jimusho denied the article, saying, “All of what is written is unfounded. We strongly protest against unfounded articles that seriously damage the honor and credibility of the talent”.

Kimura Takuya received a lot of heat due to his Instagram post (which was later deleted) of him writing “Show must go on!” after the Sept. 7th press conference. Anti’s tend read those as words that something Kitagawa Johnny would say and those who are anti’s who dislike Kimura were attacking him on SNS prompting the actor/singer to delete the post.

This is an ongoing issue with anti’s as Kimura received a lot of heat on social media for not leaving Johnny’s Jimusho when SMAP disbanded back in 2016, some going so far to attack his wife, singer Kudo Shizuka for allegedly making him stay.

And now this latest rumor, with anti’s trying to create more hate of saying Kimura Takuya opposes the name change. With Kimura Takuya being one of the most popular veteran members still with Johnny’s Jimusho, unfortunately due to this incident, he and a few others are targets by anti-fans.