Eleven years after he saw "Billy Elliot" in London's West End and was inspired to stage the musical in Japan with a Japanese cast, Yoshitaka Hori, president of leading production company Horipro Corp., could finally stand smiling at a Tokyo press conference called on Dec. 18 to introduce the four boy actors selected to play the title role in the show's runs spanning July 19-Nov. 4, 2017, at Akasaka Act Theater in Tokyo and Umeda Arts Theater in Osaka.