International Ventures

While Johnny’s & Associates have mainly stuck to Japan and Japanese male talent they have in recent years reached out to try some international ventures. They tend to be in cooperation with agencies in other countries that J&A have a strong relationship with or are trying to build one from looking at the two groups that have had ties with J&A.


Golf & Mike

Members: Pichaya "Golf" Nitipaisalkul & Pirat "Mike" Nitipaisalkul

This duo are a brother duo from Thailand who are signed under the biggest entertainment company in Thailand, GMM Grammy. They have two older brothers that were also a singing duo before them. While they were trainees under GMM Grammy they performed in a few concerts joint Thai-J-pop concerts that featured Johnny’s, like Tackey & Tsubasa and KAT-TUN.

In 2004 they officially began to tour in Thailand. At the end of 2004 and throughout 2005 they were invited to come to Japan to be special guests at Johnny’s concerts. And in 2005 Golf & Mike made their Thai debut, having a string of popular songs which included a cover of a Tackey & Tsubasa song, Epilogue.

In 2006 Johnny’s brought them over to Japan to debut them there. They started off by being paired with Yamashita Tomohisa to form GYM, a volleyball support unit for that year and released a single, Fever to Future.

They also had activities in Thailand, and joined a group of GMM Grammy trainees to create G-JR, a ten member group that released an album and toured in Thailand. They also continued to do their activities as a duo as well.

In 2007 they released a single and an album in Japan as they continued to work in Thailand as a duo. 2007 was the last of their activities in Japan as they began to concentrate on their careers in Thailand and expansion into the Chinese market, as they began to appear in dramas and eventually decided to go solo.


RTA (Road To Asia)

Members: Xu Hao (Stage name: Xiho) , Zuo Yi (Stage name: Jerry), Zhu Yuanbing (Stage name: Ryan), Liu Junlin (Stage name: Xiao Yan), He Hongchao (Stage name: Marco), Li He (Stage name: Herman), Maejima Yusuke (Stage name: Maezima), Ju Laiti (Stage name: July), Zhang Xiaofeng (Stage name: Seiya), Qiu Riyong (Stage name: Leon) & Maeda Hirotoshi (Stage name: TJ)

This is latest in international experiments Johnny’s & Associates is tied to. It is less direct than what Golf & Mike is with the Chinese station behind this group, Hunan TV, being the ones in charge of the group. The group is made up of eleven members and two subunits, Junior RTA for the four youngest members and Youth RTA for the seven older members of the group. The members of the group come from either China, Malaysia or Japan and one of the Japanese members, TJ, was a Johnny’s Junior.

The group have been mainstays on the Chinese program 天天向上 (Tian tian Xiang Shang) since their creation in 2010. They have released music digitally as a full group and with sub-units.

**NOTE: Unfortunately there is very little information about this group in English, so if you have more information feel free to leave a comment to share.**




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Directory >
Introduction
Johnny’s Juniors, full of rising stars and heartbreak
The Early and Rocky Path to Fame
Kondo Masahiko: Singer, Dancer, Actor, Professional Race Car Driver
Giving a New Meaning to Playzone, Shounentai
Hikaru Genji, Shining the Brightest and Crashing the Hardest

Otokogumi, Rocking It Old School
The Living Legend of SMAP
TOKIO, From Spaceships to the Over 30s World
Victory, Volleyball, Vegetable, Vicylce? V6
KinKi Kids, It's Not What You Think
Arashi, Storming to the Top
The Inseparable Duo, Tackey & Tsubasa
North, East, West, South ... It's big NEWS
Kansai Underdogs,  Kanjani∞
Cartoon? KAT-TUN!
Jumping to Their Dreams, Hey! Say! JUMP
Johnny's Black Sheep, Akanishi Jin
How to Debut Without Even Trying, Ikuta Toma
Kis-My-Ft2, Everybody Go (Roller Skating)!
Yamashita Tomohisa, Johnny’s Golden Boy
Entering the Sexy Zone
The 5Stars A.B.C-Z
International Ventures
Johnny's and Charity 
Odds & Ends