Arashi Gossip

Discussing articles mainly related to Johnny's Entertainment. Not an official translator - just doing this for fun. My apologies if you see any mistakes or incorrect information. Rumours will be tagged as such. Feel free to ask me anything.

[arashi-gossip]

JUN AND SHO'S FRIENDSHIP

Since I don’t follow along with the Arashi fandom as much as I used to, I have no idea if this episode has been provided with subtitles. It probably already has. Fansubbers for JE groups have always been very dedicated and I greatly respect the time and effort they put in.

Anyways, since the very lovely user @sleepystrawberry told me that Jun guested on Abunai Yakai recently, I looked up a snippet of the show and found their conversation very entertaining.

The clip is called 嵐の中で松潤と中が一番いいのは？ or “in Arashi, who is Matsujun the closest to?” Please note that the following translation is done by me so I cannot guarantee they are 100% accurate. This is my own interpretation and understanding of their conversation.

Ariyoshi: How are things between the two of you? Sho: How things are…? Ariyoshi: It’s like, let’s see, with Sakurai-kun, well, he seems close to people like Aiba-kun but here it seems like you get along the worst! Jun: (straightfaced) Sho: It may seem like that. Jun: It’s not that we don’t get along. Sho: A bunch of us can gather and go out for a drink but with the other members, only two of you hanging out is kinda… Ariyoshi: Inviting only one of them right? To be honest Matsumoto-kun, who in Arashi do you match with the most in terms of their personality? Jun: (thinking) Sho: (awkwardly looking elsewhere) Jun: … none of them I guess. Ariyoshi: No one?! Sho: (nods) Mhm.

I have linked the video in the source! Since I am unaware if this show has been subbed please let me know if you would like to know about other clips the YouTube user has posted.

[arashi-gossip]

Hi :) I'm kinda new to the Arashi fandom but I read the post you made that says that Sho and Jun are kinda awkward sometimes and I'm so curious why :D Did they get into a fight? thank you

Hi oh my goodness! Sorry I haven’t logged in a very long time. I have a lot of gossip articles to catch up on.

Basically it’s speculated that Jun and Sho, despite being very close in the past, have drifted and become super awkward. For example they would hardly talk to each other and wouldn’t have any skinship during TV shows. To give you one example, there should be a hover-hand GIF from the Himitsu no Arashi-chan 2 hour SP episode with Akashiya Sanma somewhere on the Internet, I’m sure.

Obviously their friendship or closeness behind the scenes is not something that can be confirmed unless you know the members personally but at the very least, Nino has debunked the whole Arashi are BFF theory.

My personal opinion is that after spending a lot of time with someone over many, many years you will have things that you love, hate, respect and admire about that person regardless of what is actually said or done.

I hope that helps you out a little, and thank you for visiting my blog even though it has been empty for so long!

[darkilk]

You mean this one? (^_^;;;;;) 

[sleepystrawberry]

To add my two cents: When they were still juniors, Jun was a total Sho fanboy. They used to be quite close, but he older they go and especially every since Jun hit his late-bloomer awkward teenage-phase (as he is the youngest, let’s not forget), they have drifted apart and just don’t have anything in common anymore. Jun was a guest on Sho’s show a few weeks ago and they pretty much said they aren’t friends, just work colleagues who are together a lot because of work. I mean, they do get along. Arashi wouldn’t work if they didn’t. But they are two completely different personalities in a lot of ways and I do believe Jun had a bit of an inferiority complex for a long time too, especially towards Sho who archieved so much even outside of Arashi.

[arashi-gossip]

Hi sleepystrawberry, I had absolutely no idea that Jun had even guested on Abunai Yakai (I’ve been out of the loop for months sadly) but thank you for letting me know your thoughts on this matter! I’ve watched hundreds, maybe even thousands of episodes of Arashi’s shows and interviews over the years and I agree with you about how different Jun and Sho appear to be. For starters, Sho is very privileged, he had an excellent education and his father has a high social status as a government employee. Jun seems to be quite a perfectionist who just wanted the best for the group and since Sho is the shadow leader, he was probably the only one who would dare going against Jun. I’m sure they have had many disagreements in the past but now they’re all well into their thirties now, hopefully they have matured since then!

[sleepystrawberry]

Well, we all know that Arashi doesn’t really have arguments. They mainly don’t go there because they know what is at stake, should they ever really fight about something. Also, they do get along really well because they are all so different and they compliment each other: Ohno is calm, Aiba is energetic and a little awkward sometimes, Jun is (as you said) a perfectionist, Nino doesn’t give a fuck and Sho likes to do things well.

They all have their good and bad sides, obviously, but the beauty of Arashi is that they all fit together perfectly. Jun and Sho not exactly being friends is probably just an issue of interests, not perspectives. I do believe the both care about doing their job and doing it well and not disappoint anyone. They both take care of their responsibilities and since they both pretty much know there is no way to get out of them, they care about being as good at their job as possible.

That being said, Jun has a lot of interests, he likes going out, he likes socializing and he is rumored to party a lot. Still, he is serious and dedicated and doesn’t like to be embarassed or put in awkward situations. Sho on the other hand is just super organized about everything, he is more mature, more calm, more accomplished in a lot of ways. He goes abroad and travels a lot, but he doesn’t seem to go out at all and he is still friends with people he met in college. If I had to say it seirously, I think Sho is much more forward-thinking, he likes to plan, he is probably even more responsible than Jun and because of that could come across like a bit of a stick in the mud.

[arashi-gossip]

I understand how you feel and I really appreciate your input into this discussion, especially since you weren’t the OP and so became interested in the topic by pure chance. Despite some of the sarcastic comments that I may make when I’m translating or summarising articles, I try to refrain from assuming that I know their true personalities as some people don’t even understand their own personality very well. But of course everyone is entitled to their own opinions and judgements!

I am somewhat of a natural skeptic, and there is an image that JE wants their idols to portray. As high-profile celebrities, there are likely to be rehearsed scripts, jokes, interactions etc, all planned with the intention of appealing to fans. There are snippets of their personalities we can see from behind the screen such as Sho planning his leisure time down to the very minute, to the point where it’s almost frustrating, in one of their Hawaii SP episodes. Probably Arashi ni Shiyagare.

I would agree with you that as a group, it is unlikely that Arashi have fought, but I do think it’s entirely possible for members to have one-on-one disagreements. Also, some of the members have talked about wanting to give up in the past. I hope more than anything that Arashi are still together because they love their job and they are truly happy, not like that train wreck where SMAP almost disbanded and had to apologise on broadcast looking incredibly depressed. I should read up on that actually.

[arashi-gossip]

YET ANOTHER MAOJUN ARTICLE

Please note the rumour tag. This means that the article I am discussing is potentially (and in most cases, probably) a bunch of lies.

So apparently it’s still popular for gossip sites to speculate on Matsumoto Jun and Inoue Mao’s seemingly inevitable marriage date. It’s supposed to be set between summer and autumn this time. There always seems to be one or two articles for every season in every year making predictions about their marriage.

I didn’t care about the gossip, I just found it interesting that even after all this time they’re still going with this, especially now that Taichi’s gotten married and broken that alleged one-marriage-per-group rule.

Personally I’d like to see someone from KinKi Kids get married.

[arashi-gossip]

KAT-TUN’s 10th Anniversary

Since I’ve been out of the loop for so many months, it’s best to start off with something small I suppose.

Here’s some background information. KAT-TUN were supposed to be the next JE success story back when Arashi weren’t doing too well. They were formed in 2001 and they had a bunch of concerts like Okyakusama wa Kamisama and Live Kaizokuban. They were on Shounen Club basically every episode. Kame and Jin ended up starring in very popular dramas Nobuta wo Produce and Gokusen 2 (Anego and Suppli weren’t very good so let’s just ignore those two).

KAT-TUN debuted on March 22, 2006 with an overwhelming amount of popularity behind them. They performed in Tokyo Dome. They released their debut single along with a best-of album which doesn’t even make any sense, but they both sold like hotcakes anyway. There was a DVD as well. A nationwide tour. They even got their own record label.

Long story short, ten years on, Arashi have achieved worldwide J-pop domination and KAT-TUN only has four members left but Taguchi’s leaving in May to get married and have adorably tall babies or something.

Anyways, the article which I linked to briefly discusses KAT-TUN’s history and how Koki and Jin are holding up these days, but the part I found interesting was how on March 22, 2016, or KAT-TUN’s 10th anniversary date, Jin tweeted his congratulations, and Koki tweeted the message Happy B’day but then explained that since it was the middle of the night, only a few people saw it and he didn’t want to cause any more trouble, so he deleted it.

Well, there’s always someone watching when you’re in the public eye. I have nothing more to say about the matter. At least Jin had the decency to keep his tweet up after calling it quits so early in the game.

[arashi-gossip]

Hi :) I'm kinda new to the Arashi fandom but I read the post you made that says that Sho and Jun are kinda awkward sometimes and I'm so curious why :D Did they get into a fight? thank you

Hi oh my goodness! Sorry I haven’t logged in a very long time. I have a lot of gossip articles to catch up on.

Basically it’s speculated that Jun and Sho, despite being very close in the past, have drifted and become super awkward. For example they would hardly talk to each other and wouldn’t have any skinship during TV shows. To give you one example, there should be a hover-hand GIF from the Himitsu no Arashi-chan 2 hour SP episode with Akashiya Sanma somewhere on the Internet, I’m sure.

Obviously their friendship or closeness behind the scenes is not something that can be confirmed unless you know the members personally but at the very least, Nino has debunked the whole Arashi are BFF theory.

My personal opinion is that after spending a lot of time with someone over many, many years you will have things that you love, hate, respect and admire about that person regardless of what is actually said or done.

I hope that helps you out a little, and thank you for visiting my blog even though it has been empty for so long!

[darkilk]

You mean this one? (^_^;;;;;) 

[sleepystrawberry]

To add my two cents: When they were still juniors, Jun was a total Sho fanboy. They used to be quite close, but he older they go and especially every since Jun hit his late-bloomer awkward teenage-phase (as he is the youngest, let’s not forget), they have drifted apart and just don’t have anything in common anymore. Jun was a guest on Sho’s show a few weeks ago and they pretty much said they aren’t friends, just work colleagues who are together a lot because of work. I mean, they do get along. Arashi wouldn’t work if they didn’t. But they are two completely different personalities in a lot of ways and I do believe Jun had a bit of an inferiority complex for a long time too, especially towards Sho who archieved so much even outside of Arashi.

[arashi-gossip]

Hi sleepystrawberry, I had absolutely no idea that Jun had even guested on Abunai Yakai (I’ve been out of the loop for months sadly) but thank you for letting me know your thoughts on this matter! I’ve watched hundreds, maybe even thousands of episodes of Arashi’s shows and interviews over the years and I agree with you about how different Jun and Sho appear to be. For starters, Sho is very privileged, he had an excellent education and his father has a high social status as a government employee. Jun seems to be quite a perfectionist who just wanted the best for the group and since Sho is the shadow leader, he was probably the only one who would dare going against Jun. I’m sure they have had many disagreements in the past but now they’re all well into their thirties now, hopefully they have matured since then!

[arashi-gossip]

Hi :) I'm kinda new to the Arashi fandom but I read the post you made that says that Sho and Jun are kinda awkward sometimes and I'm so curious why :D Did they get into a fight? thank you

Hi oh my goodness! Sorry I haven’t logged in a very long time. I have a lot of gossip articles to catch up on.

Basically it’s speculated that Jun and Sho, despite being very close in the past, have drifted and become super awkward. For example they would hardly talk to each other and wouldn’t have any skinship during TV shows. To give you one example, there should be a hover-hand GIF from the Himitsu no Arashi-chan 2 hour SP episode with Akashiya Sanma somewhere on the Internet, I’m sure.

Obviously their friendship or closeness behind the scenes is not something that can be confirmed unless you know the members personally but at the very least, Nino has debunked the whole Arashi are BFF theory.

My personal opinion is that after spending a lot of time with someone over many, many years you will have things that you love, hate, respect and admire about that person regardless of what is actually said or done.

I hope that helps you out a little, and thank you for visiting my blog even though it has been empty for so long!

[darkilk]

You mean this one? (^_^;;;;;) 

[arashi-gossip]

I knew someone would be able to work out which gif I was talking about! That’s it :) Thank you for posting a link for the OP!

[arashi-gossip]

Hi :) I'm kinda new to the Arashi fandom but I read the post you made that says that Sho and Jun are kinda awkward sometimes and I'm so curious why :D Did they get into a fight? thank you

Hi oh my goodness! Sorry I haven’t logged in a very long time. I have a lot of gossip articles to catch up on.

Basically it’s speculated that Jun and Sho, despite being very close in the past, have drifted and become super awkward. For example they would hardly talk to each other and wouldn’t have any skinship during TV shows. To give you one example, there should be a hover-hand GIF from the Himitsu no Arashi-chan 2 hour SP episode with Akashiya Sanma somewhere on the Internet, I’m sure.

Obviously their friendship or closeness behind the scenes is not something that can be confirmed unless you know the members personally but at the very least, Nino has debunked the whole Arashi are BFF theory.

My personal opinion is that after spending a lot of time with someone over many, many years you will have things that you love, hate, respect and admire about that person regardless of what is actually said or done.

I hope that helps you out a little, and thank you for visiting my blog even though it has been empty for so long!

[arashi-gossip]

RUMOURS ABOUT MATSUMOTO JUN’S FAMILY

Even though there are several facts known about Arashi’s family (such as Aiba’s family running the restaurant Keikarou, and Sho’s father Sakurai Shun becoming the Vice President of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Communications), not much is known about Jun because he doesn’t talk about his private life much. Please note the rumour tag, I have no idea if these are true or not.

- Jun has a sister two years older than him. Her name is Megumi (恵). Jun joined JE because Megumi liked KinKi Kids. After Jun joined the entertainment industry, Megumi stopped inviting friends over to their house out of consideration for her brother. Apparently when Megumi got married, the Arashi members celebrated at the wedding with her and sang her a song.

- Nino remarked in VS Arashi back in 2010 that Jun’s family has a chicken farm. Jun’s family is rich and the eggs they harvest are delicious and have a good reputation. It costs 500 yen just for one egg (at current exchange rates, $4 USD). The eggs are supposedly being sold on the online shopping mall Rakuten and being exported out to Europe and the United States.

- There was a Rakuten shop selling eggs called “MatsuJun Tamago” or MatsuJun egg, so the shop became a topic of interest and fans became confused. When the address of the chicken farm was published by a site that believed it was really MatsuJun’s family selling the eggs, a huge number of fans went to the address, hoping to catch a glimpse of Jun’s family home.

- Jun was originally going to be named with the kanji 純, which means genuine or pure. It was the kanji taken from his grandmother’s name, but apparently it was too hard to write and the balance was off, so he was named with 潤 instead, which means moisture.

- In Arashi no Waku Waku Gakkou 2012, Jun pulled out a piece of paper from a box that had a story written about his birth. Jun’s birth was a difficult one (obstructed labour) and a Caesarean section was required, which has many risks and as a result, his mother was extremely grateful he had been born safely, at a weight of 3584g.

- Generally it seems like Jun’s family are very understanding about his entertainment activities, and the Matsumoto household is a loving family.

[arashi-gossip]

NINO’S SAD 32ND BIRTHDAY

Arashi’s Ninomiya Kazunari turned 32 years old on June 17, and it seems to interests the fans to hear what the members get each other as gifts every year.

On Nino’s radio show BAY STORM (bayfm), he commented on the July 5, 2015 broadcast that he celebrated his birthday with the “Haha to Kuraseba” cast members (the movie will be released on December 12, 2015). The director, Yamada Yoji, gave him flowers and his cast member, Yoshinaga Sayuri, gave him a fountain pen and a ballpoint pen with his name engraved in it. He said it was the most extravagant birthday he’s ever had in his life.

Usually, Sakurai Sho gives Nino a pair of sandals as a birthday present, but the colour differs each year. Therefore, the week after on BAY STORM’s July 12, 2015 broadcast, a listener asked Nino what he received this time. Sadly, Nino responded that even though a month has already passed, he didn’t receive a single gift from the members and as a result, he’s going to place a curse on each member one by one.

Nino then continued to remark how he’s also going to curse everyone who didn’t wish him a happy birthday as well, because you only get one chance a year to tell someone congratulations. I guess Nino’s not too happy about feeling left out. Maybe next year he’ll get something nice?

[arashi-gossip]

JOHNNY’S APRIL 2015 DRAMAS

The survey asked which April JE drama people were looking forward to seeing the most, and I have no details about what kind of people answered this survey, but there were 5,319 votes, and here are the results:

6th place: V6′s Inohara Yoshihiko, “Keishichou Sousa Ikka 9-gakari 10/Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s First Division #9 Investigation Team Season 10“ with 39 votes (1%)

5th place: Hey!Say!JUMP’s Inoo Kei, “Tatakau! Shoten Girl/Fight! Bookstore Girl” with 56 votes (1%)

4th place: Kanjani8′s Ohkura Tadayoshi, “DoS Deka/Ms. Sadistic Detective” with 92 votes (2%)

3rd place: Arashi’s Aiba Masaki, “Youkoso, Wagaya e/Welcome to Our Home” with 551 votes (10%)

2nd place: SMAP’s Kimura Takuya, “I’m Home” with 1,299 votes (24%)

1st place: Yamashita Tomohisa, “Algernon ni Hanataba wo/Flowers for Algernon” with 3,282 votes (62%)

I think I was expecting I’m Home to rank a little higher but surveys like this don’t matter much, you just need to look at the ratings to work out what’s popular. I’m Home is currently on top with an average audience rating of 15.51%.

[arashi-gossip]

TANAKA KOKI’S POOR ALBUM SALES

Koki’s band INKT (pronounced Ink) released their second mini-album, Saisarisu, on April 25. Their first week of sales came to 3,819 copies, and were placed 17th in the Oricon Weekly Ranking for albums. Their music is being criticized as a rip-off of ONE OK ROCK (pronounced one o’clock), whose vocalist is Taka, a former NEWS member.

Just to compare sales (these are first week figures), Jin’s first album Japonicana (2012) sold 69,887 copies, KAT-TUN’s mini album Kusabi (2013) sold 168,209 copies, Jin’s second album #JustJin (2013) sold 38,542 copies, and KAT-TUN’s eighth album Come Here (2014) sold 75,026 copies.

So basically everyone has been doing well except Koki.

[arashi-gossip]

ARASHI’S VARIETY SHOW RATINGS

Even though Arashi’s CD and DVD sales can’t be beat, their variety show ratings don’t seem to be meeting expectations.

The ratings for VS Arashi (Fuji TV) were around 10-14% from the start of the year, but lately ratings have dropped under 10%. Arashi ni Shiyagare (NTV) suffered from low ratings this year between 9.1% to 11.8% and changed things up by sending Arashi members out on location shoots. The 90-min SP on April 11 had ratings of 13.1%, but the regular episode on April 18 was already back down to 9.3%.

Also, Sakurai Ariyoshi Abunai Yakai (TBS) and Nino-san (NTV) both have ratings averaging around 7-10%, whereas Aiba Manabu (TV Asahi) has ratings between 4-8%.

This is disappointing compared to how well TOKIO’s Za! Tetsuwan! DASH!! (NTV) and SMAP’s SMAPxSMAP (Fuji TV) are doing. But both of these shows have been airing for so long, people don’t watch as much TV as they used to... and I hate to admit it, but Arashi’s shows just aren’t that interesting sometimes.

[arashi-gossip]

SHO’S YOUNGER BROTHER

Just a little article about Sho’s brother, Sakurai Shu (and a paragraph about Sho’s sister Mai). Shu’s a third-year at Keio University studying Economics just like Sho did, and at 173cm and 73kg, he’s been playing rugby ever since his high school days. He’s currently a regular team member on the Keio University rugby team.

2,984 people came to watch one of Shu’s matches at Chichibunomiya Stadium (also called Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium), and Sho was one of the people who turned up. But if people think Sho will come and watch Shu’s matches, there might be a lot more than 3,000 spectators in the future.

One person commented on how Shu’s face looks just like Sho‘s, but the body is different so things look unbalanced. Another person commented on how amazing Shu’s family is, with a super-idol brother and a father working as a government official for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

[arashi-gossip]

[rumour] SASAKI NOZOMI & WATABE KEN DATING

Rumoured to previously have dated Nino, it seems like Sasaki Nozomi has moved onto Watabe Ken, from the comedic duo Unjash. I didn’t realize Watabe was 42, maybe she has a thing for youthful faces.

Apparently, Nozomi and Nino kept breaking up and getting back together again, but she eventually gave up on having a future with him and bought an apartment worth 130 million yen. Watabe was caught with a spare key to Nozomi’s apartment on April 15, and he left around 1PM the next day. Also, on April 17, Nozomi was spotted picking up Watabe from work.

Seems like it’s better for Nozomi to date someone like Watabe, who’s known for being a gourmet so he likes to go out for meals often, compared to Nino who she could only have dates at home with.

There are a few comments about how her standards have dropped but they personally prefer Watabe over Nino, having dates at home all the time was probably really boring, she looks like she’s in a hurry to get married, and marrying Nino would have been impossible because of the crazy fangirls anyway.

Just like when Aiba bought an 150 million yen apartment and the press went wild, Japan always seems to assume that whenever a celebrity starts buying property, they’re ready to settle down and start making babies.

[arashi-gossip]

OHKURA TADAYOSHI CALLED A “DAIKON” ACTOR

The ratings for Ohkura Tadayoshi and Tabe Mikako’s new drama DoS Deka weren’t bad for the first episode at 12.7%, but now that the second episode’s ratings have fallen down to 8.0% the complaints have already started.

There are people complaining about Ohkura being cast for the role, and he’s basically being called out for being a crappy actor, since daikon (radish) are considered to be common, cheap and flavourless vegetables, nothing special. You only call someone a daikon if their acting really blows.

Tabe Mikako’s not a bad actress, but she’s being criticized too. Apparently she was perfect for the role at first, but now that they’re in single-digit territory, her character is way too intense for viewers. Tough crowd.

[arashi-gossip]

NINO AND OHNO’S THOUGHTS ABOUT THE HAWAII DVD

Arashi’s Blast in Hawaii DVD was released just a few days ago on April 15 and has already reached 1st place on the Oricon weekly DVD and Blu-Ray ranking. However, on Ohno’s Arashi Discovery radio segment (FM Yokohama) which he hosts every weekday morning, he confessed that although he received the DVD, he probably won’t watch it because he’s too embarrassed and he’ll probably send it over to his parents’ house instead.

Over on Nino’s radio segment BAY STORM (bayfm), for the March 29 recording he was reading an advertisement for the DVD. He announced that you don’t just get to watch the concert, they’ve included a documentary of Arashi enjoying themselves in Hawaii, along with candid photos and rehearsals. Nino commented that he has absolutely no recollection of this advertised bonus footage.

[arashi-gossip]

apparently (i just saw a post on it on twitter and nowhere else, so i'm not really sure) one of arashi's former managers released/is releasing a book detailing arashi's romantic relationships and fights. do you know anything about this?

Hello! I do not live in Japan, so I cannot access the book, and the only information I can provide you is what I have read from the news articles and gossip sites. 

I have already released a post summarizing the romantic relationships stated in the book over here. Since you have requested it, I’ll make a post soon about the fights aspect of the book.

It is supposed to be released by Arashi’s former manager from their debut days. Please be aware that these are all just rumours though. The validity of these statements cannot be proven unless Arashi or JE addresses the situation.