• As one of Johnny & Associates’ new generation of acts, SixTones members (from left) Juri Tanaka, Yugo Kochi, Jesse Lewis, Taiga Kyomoto, Hokuto Matsumura and Shintaro Morimoto have embraced social media with official Instagram and YouTube accounts and appearances on the YouTube channel, The First Take. | COURTESY OF JOHNNY & ASSOCIATES
    As one of Johnny & Associates’ new generation of acts, SixTones members (from left) Juri Tanaka, Yugo Kochi, Jesse Lewis, Taiga Kyomoto, Hokuto Matsumura and Shintaro Morimoto have embraced social media with official Instagram and YouTube accounts and appearances on the YouTube channel, The First Take. | COURTESY OF JOHNNY & ASSOCIATES
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On the first day of 2022, The First Take, a YouTube channel that gets Japanese musicians to perform their hits in one go, posted a video of J-pop act SixTones performing their track, “Imitation Rain.” It’s an elegant, stripped-down orchestral version of the rock ballad that marked the group’s debut on Jan. 22, 2020.

Jan. 22, 2020 … what’s significant about that date? Ah, yes, six days earlier, Japan saw its first confirmed case of COVID-19. As we now know, a pandemic can really put a spanner in the works of your group’s national debut — even when you have a powerhouse like Johnny & Associates backing you.

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