Around 60 people gathered at YouTube Space Tokyo on Tuesday to welcome Johnny & Associates to the 21st century. It was a day before the launch of the talent agency's first official YouTube channel, devoted to its Johnny's Jr. acts. It's a huge development for a company that has viewed the web as one big Cambridge Analytica-type threat since the 1990s.
So how does a talent agency celebrate its arrival on a platform known for creators who embrace creativity and spontaneity? Why, with a press conference of course!
Johnny's one-toe-in-the-water approach to YouTube may signal a shift toward the internet among those in the mainstream entertainment industry, but old habits die hard. Getting into the event required signing various nondisclosure forms and an outline of how media could use the official photo with a story — if no image is included with this article, I must have missed something.