Early Life and Pre-fame
Born in Tokyo, Kimura lived in Minoh, Osaka until he was six years old. Then, he lived and attended elementary school and junior high school in Chiba. One of his relatives sent in the application to the Johnny & Associates talent agency, which specializes in young male teen idols, and he became a member of Johnny's Juniors, a group of trainees, in 1987. Then he became one of the 12 members in a unit called "Skate Boys". Skate Boys used to be backup dancers of Hikaru Genji, which at the time was a very popular group. In 1988, SMAP was created, and he joined. The group then consisted of six members: Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Katsuyuki Mori, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Shingo Katori; Katsuyuki Mori later left SMAP to pursue an autoracing career in the mid 90s. After SMAP was formed, each member pursued an individual career by starring in B-list television dramas. Their first single "Can't Stop!! Loving" was released in 1991, but it received mixed reviews.
Read more about this topic: Takuya Kimura
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“There is no intrinsic worth in money but what is alterable with the times, and whether a guinea goes for twenty pounds or for a shilling, it is ... the labour of the poor and not the high and low value that is set on gold or silver, which all the comforts of life must arise from.”
—Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733)