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:
“Love is the hardest thing in the world to write about. So simple. You’ve got to catch it through details, like the early morning sunlight hitting the gray tin of the rain spout in front of her house. The ringing of a telephone that sounds like Beethoven’s “Pastoral.” A letter scribbled on her office stationery that you carry around in your pocket because it smells of all the lilacs in Ohio.”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“I hold all human life dearly, Stearne, especially my own.”
—Michael Reeves (1945–1969)