West
West. (stylized as WEST.), formerly known as Johnny's West (ジャニーズWEST, Janīzu Uesuto) (stylized Johnny's WEST), is a boy band consisting of seven members formed under Johnny & Associates, now managed under Starto Entertainment. The members are Daiki Shigeoka, Junta Nakama, Takahiro Hamada, Akito Kiriyama, Tomohiro Kamiyama, Ryusei Fujii, and Nozomu Kotaki. The group's name comes from the fact that it originated within the Starto Entertainment talent agency and that the members are from Kansai, the west region of Japan. They are the first group from Kansai Junior. that has debuted in ten years, the last being Super Eight. They debuted in 2014 with the single "Eejanaika (ええじゃないか)".
The group changed their name to West. before the 10th anniversary of their debut. Their new name was announced through an online stream on October 18, 2023. A period (.) in the new name is added to "declare" that they are (people from) the west (Kansai), and that "though it's a small dot, it's filled with infinite possibilities". However, this change has occurred in the midst of Johnny Kitagawa's sexual abuse scandal revelations, which saw many talent groups – those who were founded under the previous brand and transferred to Starto Entertainment – undergoing similar rebranding efforts.
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