Draft:Starto Entertainment

Starto Entertainment (スタートエンターテインメント) is a Japanese entertainment company that provides artist management services established on October 17, 2023. The CEO is Atsushi Fukuda. Many of the groups and artists formerly affiliated with Johnny & Associates belong to this company. It began full operations from April 2024.

Background of Company Formation
The founder of Johnny & Associates, the late Johnny Kitagawa(Died in 2019)'s sexual abuse was revealed in 2023.

In October 2, Julie Keiko Fujishima, the niece of his successor, Kitagawa, decided to compensate the victims and close the business. The name “Johnny” was erased from the company name because of Fujishima's desire to “erase all traces of Johnny Kitagawa from this world. Johnny & Associates changed its name to Smile-Up and decided to concentrate on compensating the victims.

While the establishment of a new company was being sought to ensure the continued activities of the talent belonging to Johnnys & Associates, Atsushi Fukuda, president of consulting firm Speedy Inc. was chosen to serve as CEO.

Fukuda has previously served the vice-president of Sony Pictures Entertainment and also previously the president and CEO of Sony Digital Entertainment, and has been involved in corporate management and the talent agency business since founding Speedy Inc in 2017. Fukuda was chosen as a candidate for CEO because Smile Up is interested in promoting “agent contract,” a free work style for its talent in the future. Fukuda is known for having re-launched the actress Rena Nonen, who had been in a slump after quitting her agency, and is said to be well versed in the field of talent agent contracts.

New company name "Starto Entertainment" was announced on December 8, 2023. The company name was chosen after much discussion from among 140,156 entries from fan club members. The meaning of the name is “The name is derived from ‘Star’ and ‘To,’ as in ‘to head toward the future,’”. On its official website, the company says, “We will accompany the current stars and those who will emerge in the future, following their individual personalities and goals. And from here, we will start a new legend. This is what we are trying to express”.

In establishing Starto Entertainment Inc, 10 million yen in capital was invested by management and employees, and none of Smile Up, its affiliated companies, or Julie Keiko Fujishima, the founding family member and president of the former Johnny & Associates, invested in the company. At a press conference on December 9, 2023, CEO Fukuda announced that the company has found a way to obtain a loan from a financial institution for several hundred million yen in working capital for the time being.

Starto announced that it began full-fledged operations on April 10. As of April, it had 295 performers under contract in 28 groups and 185 staff members. Many of the staff had previously worked for Johnny & Associates and were not involved in sexual abuse. Starto also said that it has established internal and external reporting channels for early detection of problems.

2024
On April 10, a concert ''We Are! Let's get the party Starto!'' was held at Tokyo Dome, featuring artists from Staro, giving the impression that the new company was in full swing. The event was directed by Jun Matsumoto (Arashi) and Tadayoshi Okura (Super Eight), and featured a total of 13 groups and 72 artists. This performance was also held on May 29 and 30 at Kyocera Dome Osaka. A portion of the performance on May 29 was streamed live on YouTube, and the performance on May 30 was streamed for a fee.

In response to the 2024 Noto earthquake that occurred on January 1, a charity song “We are” was released by Starto artists of 14 groups of 75 people. The song will be available for digital release on April 10th and CD release on June 12th, and all proceeds will be donated to support earthquake relief efforts.

Recording artists

 * Groups
 * 20th Century
 * TOKIO
 * KinKi Kids
 * Arashi
 * NEWS
 * Super Eight
 * KAT-TUN
 * Hey! Say! JUMP
 * Kis-My-Ft2


 * Timelesz
 * A.B.C-Z
 * West.
 * King & Prince
 * SixTones
 * Snow Man
 * Naniwa Danshi
 * Travis Japan
 * Ae! group


 * Sub-units
 * Busaiku


 * Soloists
 * Takuya Kimura
 * Yuma Nakayama

Actors/Entertainers

 * Actors
 * Kōji Uchiumi
 * Takuya Kimura
 * Atsuhiro Satō
 * Kenichi Okamoto
 * Hiroki Uchi
 * Tomoyuki Yara
 * Jun Hasegawa (actor)
 * Keito Okamoto
 * Shota Hayashi
 * Ryuta Muro
 * Sho Takada
 * Takuto Teranishi
 * Yoshitaka Hara
 * Kento Nakajima


 * Entertainers
 * 4U (entertainers)
 * Yuki Koshioka
 * Yusuke Matsuzaki
 * Yuta Fukuda
 * Yudai Tatsumi
 * KAMIGATA BOYZ
 * Super Eight
 * West.
 * Naniwa Danshi
 * Fumito Kawai (entertainer)

Trainees
A group or individual who belongs to an agency but has not yet debuted with a CD. Also called "junior". New trainees are being recruited starting May 25, 2024.

Notable Groups

 * HiHi Jets (ja) - formed 2015
 * Bi Shonen (美 少年) - formed 2016
 * 7 Men Samurai - formed 2018
 * Shonen Ninja (少年忍者) - formed 2018
 * SpeciaL (ja) - formed 2018
 * Go!Go!Kids (ja)- formed 2022
 * Lil Kansai (Lil かんさい) - formed 2019
 * Boys be (ja) - formed 2020
 * AmBitious (ja)- formed 2021

Executives

 * Atsushi Fukuda - Chief executive officer
 * Shinichiro Tsukuda - Chief operating officer
 * Yoshihiko Inohara - Chief marketing officer
 * Kazuhiro Tatsuki - Chief financial officer
 * Mika Wada - Chief customer officer
 * Yuichi Yoshimura - Audit ＆ Supervisory Board Member