Breakup of beloved boyband Smap shocks Japanese pop fans

They have crooned their way into the affections of millions and provided the pop backdrop to generations of Japanese people for more than two decades.

But on Wednesday, it was reported that Smap, one of Japan’s most popular bands of all time, are to break up, leaving a gaping hole in the country’s music scene.

Speculation that the boyband – now on the cusp of middle age – were to split up came after the Nikkan Sports newspaper reported that four of its five members had decided to leave Johnny and Associates, the powerful talent agency headed by the octogenarian pop impresario Johnny Kitagawa.

The cause of the split is the decision by the band’s manager, Michi Iijima, to resign from the agency and, it is rumoured, launch a rival company.

Four of Smap’s five members appeared ready to join Iijima, leaving behind arguably the band’s most popular performer, Takuya Kimura.

Johnny and Associates confirmed the split in a brief statement released on Wednesday, but refused to discuss the reason while the parties were “still in the negotiation phase”.

Iijima, who has managed the band almost since it formed in 1988, has reportedly been at loggerheads with Kitagawa’s sister, Mary Kitagawa, who is said to be the financial brains behind the agency.

Fans were quick to voice their shock on social media. One said: “What will we do without Smap?”, while another wrote: “All the talk at school today has been about Smap. My head hurts.”

The band’s detractors expressed relief. “There is a god!” said a commenter on the Japan Today website.

In the 25 years since their debut single, Can’t Stop!! Loving, Smap – an acronym standing for Sports Music Assemble People – have become one of the most popular boybands in Asia, selling more than 35m records.

Kimura and the band’s other members – Masahiro Nakai, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and Shingo Katori – have released more than 50 singles and 20 studio albums, about half of which topped the Japanese charts.

They also found success in other parts of Asia, including China, the location for their first overseas concert in 2011.

When they are not singing, the band’s members host their own TV variety show, SmapxSmap, and have made numerous appearances in dramas and films, helping Johnny and Associates to become the country’s most successful talent agency.

While Nakai’s tone deafness has become a running joke in the Japanese entertainment world, the band’s inoffensive lyrics and innocuous musical style found audiences among all generations.

Their 2003 single Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana (The Only Flower in the World) was selected as the wakeup call for Soichi Noguchi, a Japanese astronaut on the Space Shuttle Discovery mission two years later.

Steve McClure, the former editor of Billboard magazine’s Asia bureau who has followed Smap’s career for more than 20 years, said their best days were probably behind them.

“For an idol group they have amazing staying power,” he said. “They’re well past their sell-by date as an idol group, so you could say that this is just a belated rite of passage.”

Smap performed last month on Kōhaku Uta Gassen (The Red and White Song Battle), a fixture of Japanese New Year’s Eve TV, which drew the lowest viewing figures in the show’s 65-year history.

“You could say, so goes Kōhaku, so goes Smap,” McClure said. “Smap are from an era when everyone watched the same thing on TV and the market wasn’t as fragmented as it is today. That’s why there probably won’t be another Smap.”