Morimoto Ryutaro caught in underage smoking scandal

News has broken that Morimoto Ryutaro has been caught in an underage smoking scandal. A magazine printed photos that clearly showed him smoking when he was 15 and 14 years old.

Johnny's has made an official announcement on the matter stating that Ryutaro confirmed he smoked from time to time in the past. Because it accounts for breaking the law as he is now on indefinite hiatus from working in the entertainment industry.

Arama round up of reports. (English)

It is uncertain how this will affect him and Hey! Say! JUMP in the long term.

Honestly I just feel disappointed. I had thought that HSJ had a good chance of going scandal free for underage smoking/drinking with half of the group of legal age for those things now and the rest not too far behind. And I really can't imagine HSJ not being ten members but I can't see Ryutaro being able to get away with this without having to face some severe repercussions.

EDIT:

There's some new news about Ryutaro's punishment. According to Tokyo Graph's article a couple of things that will occur is that he's getting edited out of the covers of the new single (I'm assuming this must mean for any further printings of it as I got my notification of my order being sent out yesterday from CDJapan) and that he will not be a part of SUMMARY.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)

Bad news for Arashi but some great news for Arashi fans

On June 4th around midnight Ninomiya Kazunari hit a woman on a bicycle at an intersection with his car. The woman suffered a bruise from the collision and Ninomiya was not injured.

Johnny's has since stated that they have banned all of Arashi from driving for the rest of the year because of this accident.

Asahi article. (Japanese only)


On a much brighter note a new original album has been announced for the group. It will be released on August 8th, so it'll probably still be about a week or so before it goes up for pre-ordering, and will contain the singles from Everything to Monster. The track total is being listed as 20, with the single tracks, 10 new songs, 5 solo songs as well as the inclusion of the song Sora Takaku.

A tour has also been announced, set to begin in the end of August at Kokuritsu and will end mid-January in Fukuoka. The show dates are all in dome sized venues and spread out, most likely to give the guys the time needed to do dramas, promotions and the other various activities that are a part of their usual schedule.

Sanspo article. (Japanese only.)

EDIT:

Well it looks like I was completely wrong for how long it would take for the pre-order to open for the new album. I just got an e-mail from cdjapan for it. Of course first thing I noticed is that there is only one version, but it does have a first press edition. So for those wanting to order it immediately here's the link:


Boku no Miteiru Fukei [2CD] / Arashi