Performing Arts

3 members to leave popular idol group King & Prince

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Johnny & Associates, Inc. in Tokyo, January 2021

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:42 JST, November 5, 2022

Three of the five members of the male idol group King & Prince will leave the crew in the spring of next year, entertainment agency giant Johnny & Associates Inc. announced Friday.

Yuta Kishi, Sho Hirano and Yuta Jinguji will be leaving the group on May 22, while the two other members, Ren Nagase and Kaito Takahashi, plan to stick around. The members range in age from 23 to 27.

According to agency, discussions that started last year among the members regarding the path ahead for the group, including on performing overseas, went nowhere, and with diverging views on their own future goals, the decision was made to go their separate ways.

Hirano and Jinguji will also leave Johnny & Associates upon their exit from the group, and Kishi will follow suit in autumn next year.

King & Prince made its debut with a CD in 2018, and next year would mark its fifth anniversary.