Taking over a well-loved show with a long-standing history is understandably a huge feat. But often right beside the heroes of any such show are another group of artists supporting them to move the story along and make the production whole. What does it entail to perform this role?    

IMPACTors is a seven-member unit from Johnnys’ Jr., a group of trainee talents under the idol agency Johnny & Associates. Officially formed in October 2020, IMPACTors have appeared on stage, on television, and in movies, both as a group and as solo talents. As Johnnys’ Juniors, they often act as support for debuted groups in concerts and other productions, which provide them with an important avenue where they can learn from their seniors in the agency and hone their own skills. One of the biggest where IMPACTors play a significant role is Takizawa Kabuki ZERO. 

Like Kabuki, Johnny’s is built on a legacy where the passing of the torch from senpai (senior) to kouhai (junior) is a vital tradition. Earlier, we had learned from Snow Man about the legacy Takizawa Kabuki has within Johnny’s and the industry, and how they hope to promote both Japanese popular culture and the Johnny’s brand of entertainment through it. Snow Man had also spoken about their strong desire to impart the valuable lessons from working on the show to their juniors. 

In the second part of our Takizawa Kabuki double feature, IMPACTors take us for a closer look behind the scenes of the production and a glimpse of what life is like for Johnnys’ Juniors. What does it mean to be part of a show designed to showcase Japanese culture and Johnny’s to the world? What is its significance to what they as a group aim to accomplish? How have their experiences working with their seniors contributed to this?

Much like Takizawa Kabuki is a show filled with a colourful collection of stories for audiences to enjoy, the artists in the production also have their own unique stories to tell. Bandwagon sat down on a video call with IMPACTors’ Arata Sato, Shunsuke Motoi, Taiga Suzuki, Takuya Kageyama, Minato Matsui, Yuki Yokohara, and Taiga Tsubaki to find out theirs.

(Interpretation was provided during the interview.)

You’ve been involved in Takizawa Kabuki ZERO for at least a couple of years now. How has the experience been for you, especially as the main support for Snow Man? 

Motoi: It's been an incredibly formative experience to be part of this highly regarded stage show. Some of us have actually been part of Takizawa Kabuki for a little bit longer than the others, so since the beginning and up to this year, the fact we’ve been able to take on more and more responsibility and participate in a lot more has been really important to our growth as talents. The show itself is full of memories for us, given how much it takes up in the course of all our work, and it's a great way for us to build teamwork as a group, especially since we only officially formed rather recently compared to other groups. 

In Japan, we call these sorts of shows where everyone comes together on set for multiple years, a “company”. It’s a word that implies not so much the corporate element, but rather just the sense of camaraderie that everyone is working towards a shared goal, towards the production of something that is incredible and really something we want to be proud of. This is a feeling that has really stuck with us.  

Kageyama: As IMPACTors’ leader, one thing that has really touched me is working with Snow Man’s leader, Hikaru Iwamoto. Hikaru-kun is just an incredible person and has really helped through our connection as leader-to-leader. His leadership has benefited us not only in the context of a senpai-kouhai (senior-and-junior) relationship but also in the sense that Snow Man had been the ones who started this particular role and are now passing the torch to us within the context of the show. 

Sato: Also because Takizawa Kabuki has been around for so long, it's a show we’ve heard a lot about over the years. Now that we are part of it, in the flesh, to be able to actually see and feel and experience it for ourselves is truly a very different experience.  

How do you prepare for Takizawa Kabuki season? Aside from rehearsals, is there a specific training regimen you go through and do you also take any special lessons?

Tsubaki: In a sense, yes and no. Because it’s a very unique stage, and there are a lot of unique performances in there, we do have certain elements that we focus a bit more on preparing for. But we don’t actually do anything that special, especially within our role where we don’t necessarily perform the really high art elements, which are reserved for Snow Man. So, there’s not really much that we do that we would consider particularly special compared to how we train for our regular concerts and other productions we put on and participate in.

Matsui: What we do focus on, though, because the show is important to so many people and we really want to express what we’re capable of, is a lot of self-reflection and also taking a lot of advice and critique from the members of Snow Man and from Takizawa-san himself. We also listen to each other’s comments, like, “Oh, you know that thing you did there just now, that could actually be better…” We want to know how we can really bring this to the next level to surprise the audience who come to see the show, and how we can keep pushing ourselves. So, in that sense, it is a special regimen that we undergo, but it’s one that’s sort of self-imposed, not so much for the artistic element of the show, but rather to provide a true entertainment experience for the fans.  

Can you take us through what a regular day looks like for you during Kabuki season? Please include details about your daily warm-ups or preparations and what usually you do during downtime, too.

Motoi: Everyone has a little bit of a different routine, but one thing that is obviously important to us is just making sure that we get there early enough so that we’re not quite so rushed when we get ready to start the show. So, what we’ll do is, we’ll arrive at the venue a little bit earlier and go ahead and do our hair and makeup, and allow ourselves some kind of relaxed downtime to just mentally prepare ourselves for the day’s event. When we can, we also go to the baths together after the day’s performance.  

Yokohara: Every day after the show, Kageyama will often review the day’s performance with Snow Man’s Iwamoto-kun and [Tatsuya] Fukazawa-kun. We would usually have the show recorded from the sides or the back, or have our manager kind of take some field footage. Then, Kageyama, Iwamoto-kun and Fukazawa-kun will review that, so they can take some notes and be able to just kind of understand what we did wrong, what we did right… And as the leader, Kageyama will then pass that information on to the rest of us. This sort of routine helps us ensure that the very next show we do is even better than the last.  

Aside from supporting Snow Man, Takizawa Kabuki also gives you an opportunity to learn from and, in a way, also be supported by your senpai  – for example, Iwamoto-san choreographing your dance number and Meguro-san designing your costumes. Are there similar or any other production roles you yourselves are already trying out or would also like to do?

Suzuki: The chance that we’ve had to work with Snow Man has been really, really amazing, mostly because both we and Snow Man are very focused on self-production in many ways. We both have tremendous experience trying to figure out exactly for ourselves what kind of show styling works and the like. As you’ve mentioned, Iwamoto-kun has choreographed some of our numbers including the song we received for this Kabuki, and [Ren] Meguro-kun has been very instrumental in designing our costumes. These are also things that we’ve wanted to take on for some time and have experimented on in different capacities. For example, Tsubaki and I have been involved in planning out the overall visual element of our costumes for our Summer Paradise concerts. So this year, Meguro-kun giving us input and designing for us something new for Kabuki was such an honourable experience, and it made us really want to push ourselves to also be able to create this for IMPACTors.    

Motoi: Arata and I are very interested in doing things like working more with lighting and overall set design. We want to be able to put our own stamp on our shows and take it to the next level in terms of being a truly IMPACTors-produced product. 

You’ve also appeared in other stage plays, mostly produced by Johnny & Associates (J&A) and some by other companies. Can you tell us more about those? How do they compare to your experience with Takizawa Kabuki ZERO?

Motoi: We’ve been very privileged to have lots of experience not only within J&A-produced shows but also in other theatrical productions. The biggest thing is that those shows are very different kinds of media with different objectives. Johnny’s shows are more focused on concert production, not necessarily theatre, but more like a showcase of things. So, these don’t really let us stretch our legs in certain aspects of, say, acting. When we’re in a Johnny’s show, it’s often as part of a group and we’re able to show off all our talents while also just having fun. 

On the other hand, in external productions, we’re able to do things like learn longer lines and have more dialogue, and really kind of fine-tune the elements of acting between characters and express a story. The great thing about this is that we’re able to bring back what we’ve learned from these other productions to our Johnny’s shows and make them even better. I think that’s ultimately the purpose of Johnny’s shows – for us to be able to come together and showcase the skills we’ve developed.  

Kageyama: When I did Uchoten Sakka! I was really able to learn from actors who have a lot more experience than me and work with other people on set who have different perspectives. It’s made me realize that even with the training that we’ve received to be really stellar talents in Johnny’s, there’s still a lot that we don’t know or understand about how things work in media and such. I really appreciate being able to experience that and further develop myself as an actor in the process, and like Motoi said, to bring that back to Johnny’s so that we can make our shows an even better experience for our fans. 

Since the production has already concluded for this year, please share with us your favourite memory from this season.

Sato: Anything is fine, right? There’s this present I received from [Daisuke] Sakuma-kun to commemorate my entrance to the agency, a pair of shoes. It’s very special to me, because in Johnny’s we have this tradition of receiving costumes from previous generations to use on stage, but this time I received something more personal from Sakuma-kun. To me, that spoke of a very special bond between us as senpai and kouhai. 

Kageyama: Speaking of costumes, something that’s special about those is how they represent the generational aspect of a show that has been going on for many years, such as Takizawa Kabuki. To be able to find among the costumes, props or equipment, things that had significant memories for the people we look up to – for example me to Hikaru-kun – and now be able to use them ourselves is something that is very touching to me personally.   

Suzuki: Tsubaki and I had this long dialogue in the play which we found to be really special. It was the same script that Iwamoto-kun and Fukazawa-kun had done back when they were still Juniors. So, it’s not just things like costumes and props that are passed on to us, but we’re also able to inherit from our senpai pieces of the show itself. I think this really underscores how much we’ve learned from those who have done this before us. 

What are IMPACTors’ goals for the future? How do you see yourselves in the next three years? 

Kageyama: Obviously, the goal for any Junior group is the major CD debut, because it represents a different level of respect and recognition within the industry. As Johnnys’ Juniors, we of course already get to enjoy things that many other artists, even debuted mainstream artists in Japan, don’t get to. But it’s different being a big fish in the little pond of Johnnys’ Jr. versus actually being officially recognized talents who can do more in the industry at large. 

This reminds me of a conversation I had with Meguro-kun this year, about what it really means to be a Junior. I was very touched by what he said, that to Meguro-kun, being a Junior is the most important because you’re the backbone support for your senpai. He said, even though you may feel small because you’re not the main star and mostly remain in the background, the truth is this experience is what helps you become a big star; because it becomes your job to get the audience to recognize you even though they may have not come to the show for you. 

Hearing that advice and applying it to IMPACTors really gave me a new perspective. Having this mentality as we support our senpai’s shows then emboldens us to really turn it up to the max when we go on to do our solo shows so that everyone can also love and adore us as much as they do big stars like Snow Man. I guess, in a way, one of my goals now is for Snow Man’s fans to also love IMPACTors just as much – obviously, not to steal them (lol), but for us to be able to push through Snow Man’s incredible light and be able to shine just as bright. 

Sato: More than having a CD debut, what is really important to me is that we get to debut as the group that we currently are, for all seven of us to cross that line together. I want us to be able to take our experiences together as Juniors with us to that future. 

Motoi: Debuting is the big goal, but instead of thinking of just that, what I really want to focus on is making the most of the time we now have as Juniors and making sure we’re not wasting any of it. I want us to really just do the best that we can with every show, even if there’s not necessarily any guarantee of a next or future success or doing anything bigger than what we’re doing now. I hope we never forget what it is to struggle and strive as Juniors, so that all seven of us can really break through the limits. So that if we actually do get to debut, we’d be able to propel ourselves to heights that no other Johnny’s group has experienced before. 

Besides Snow Man, which other artists do you look up to?

Matsui: For us as a group, it’s KAT-TUN. Because our concept, the vision we have for our image as IMPACTors is very similar to theirs. KAT-TUN’s cool, mysterious sexiness is something that we aspire to bring to our own brand, and you can see this in our performance style, not just in the KAT-TUN covers that we do, but also in our original songs. So, we hope to refine this flavour for our group image and use it to stand out. Especially because, since KAT-TUN, we haven’t really seen something exactly like this within Johnny’s.    

Yokohara: I also really look up to ARASHI. Their image is very, very different from ours, but I just think it’s super cool that even after being around for more than 20 years as a group, the members of ARASHI are still such very good friends. I hope IMPACTors can maintain a similar bond, and that 20 years from now, we’d also be able to show our fans that same kind of eternal friendship. I also admire how Jun Matsumoto-kun produces ARASHI concerts. Not just because it shows how amazingly talented he is, but also because it shows how ARASHI’s cohesion as a group allows them to know themselves so well as to be able to produce shows for each other.  

Finally, what do you want overseas fans to know about IMPACTors?

Motoi: I want them to immediately see our unique concept as a group. Like, with the way our logo is designed, the ‘IMPACT’ is in all caps and then the ‘o-r-s’ is in small letters and the colour magenta. Especially when that’s laid against black, it kind of has this cool, mysterious flavour to it. I hope with that, people can be pulled in, like, “Hmm, this kind of looks weird, but why? Why this strange colour?” and I hope that drives them to learn more about us and be captivated by our own coolness and mysteriousness as a group through our performances. 

Kageyama: It’s in our name itself, IMPACTors — we want people to feel the impact of our existence! 

Everyone: (lol)

Suzuki: Our original songs, ‘Top of the World’, ‘Wildfire’, and ‘Fighter’, which we performed in Takizawa Kabuki ZERO, have a lot of English lyrics because we want foreign fans to be able to understand what’s being sung, too. So that, though they’re still very much J-pop songs, international fans can also enjoy them in a way that’s more accessible. We want to practise our English pronunciation more, too, so that everyone can understand us better and be really part of our music experience. Like we sing in ‘Top of the World’, we hope IMPACTors can be a group that makes it worldwide.   

Matsui: Actually, when Takizawa-san formed IMPACTors, he had envisioned for us to break through and really kind of appeal to everyone from around the world. So, we really hope we can accomplish that. 

Kageyama: If you want to get to know IMPACTors more through our original songs and performances, please check out Johnnys’ Jr. Channel PLUS on YouTube!