In a move that shocked fans, popular Japanese boy band Arashi said Sunday that it will go on hiatus at the end of 2020.
"Around the middle of June 2017, I told other members that I wanted to end the activities as Arashi for now and that I wanted to live freely," Satoshi Ono, the leader of the five-member idol group, said in a hastily arranged news conference in Tokyo. "I've discussed this many times with other members and decided that the date will be the end of 2020."
"I wanted to get away from this world and experience a normal life," he said, adding that he started thinking about this possibility about three years ago.