What do the most popular male celebrity in Japan and a star of Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" have in common?
Aside from being handsome, 35-year-old SMAP heartthrob Takuya Kimura and actor Kazunari Ninomiya, the 25-year-old who played a young soldier in Eastwood's film, belong to the same male talent agency, Johnny and Associates, named after founder Johnny Hiromu Kitagawa.
These "Johnnies," who typically start their careers as teenagers and attempt to climb the ladder to stardom, are practically indispensable to the Japanese entertainment industry.