Produce 101 Japan

## Social Media

Official Website

***Produce 101 Japan*** is a 2019 Japanese reality competition show and a spin-off of the South Korean television series *Produce 101*. The show follows 101 trainees with the intention of producing an 11-member boy band. The members, group name, and concepts are selected by viewers, referred to as "national producers". The series was first announced in April 2019 as a co-production between Yoshimoto Kogyo and CJ E&M and is set to premiere on September 25, 2019, with the first and final episodes airing on TBS while the full series will be streamed on GyaO! beginning September 26, 2019.

## Background

In April 2019, Yoshimoto Kogyo and CJ E&M announced they will be co-producing a Japanese version of the *Produce 101* reality competition show with the intention of debuting an 11-member boy band in 2020 for the global music market. The group created from the show will be permanent and will be handled by Lapone Entertainment. Auditions for the show took place from April 11 to May 31, 2019 for male Japanese residents aged 16–30 years old who are not tied to any talent agency. Additional exams were held in June and July 2019. A total of 6,000 people auditioned for the show, and all 101 trainees were revealed on September 3, 2019, with the show's theme song, "Tsukame (It's Coming)". Prior to the show's airing, two contestants had dropped out, leaving 99 trainees to compete on the show. Contestant Kenya Hata later dropped out of the series before the show was broadcast.

Several episodes were shot in Paju, South Korea, before returning to Japan. The mentors for the trainees consist of Hidenori Sugai and Sayaka Yasukura as vocal instructors; A-NON and Warner as dance instructors; and Cypress Ueno and Bose as rap instructors. Hideyuki Yabe and Takashi Okumura from the comedy duo Ninety-nine, who had previously hosted the *Asayan* talent competition series in 1999, will be the MCs for the show. The series is set to premiere on TBS on September 25, 2019 and GyaO! on September 26, 2019 for a total of 12 episodes. Only the first and final episodes will be broadcast on TBS, while GyaO! will stream the entire series.

In light of the Mnet vote manipulation investigation, the production committee stated in November 2019 that they are not affiliated with the Korean production team and have a separate voting system, with votes analyzed by a group of third-party lawyers. Following the departure of South Korean contestants Kim Hee Cheon, Kim Youn Dong, and Jeong Young Hoon, the production committee issued a statement explaining that the contestants were eligible for the show, as they were living in Japan at the time, and that their mandatory military service was not a reason why they left. In addition, they issued an official warning to viewers not to spread malicious rumors about the contestants on social media.

## Contestants

*Main article: List of Produce 101 Japan contestants*
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## Rankings

The top 11 contestants, which determines the members of the final group, are chosen through popularity online voting at *Produce 101 Japan GyaO!*'s homepage and audience's live voting. The results are shown at the end of each episode.

For the first and second voting period, viewers are allowed to select 11 trainees per vote. During the third round, the system changed to 2 trainees per vote and added votes from *Softbank Line Friend*. For the final round, the system changed to one trainee per vote and added live online votes.

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### First voting period

The first voting period took place between September 26 at 12 AM and October 18 at 5:00 AM (JST). The total number of votes accumulated was 33,847,705.

NotesOn Episode 4, an additional 1,000 points are given to the individual of the winning teams and an additional 3,000 points were given to the 1st place in song from 2 group while 10,000 points were given to the winner of each category (vocal position, rap position and dance position).

* The ranking for Episode 5 is the result of combining online votes and live votes from the previous episode.

### Second voting period

The second voting period took place between October 24 at 11:30 PM and November 8 at 5:00 AM (JST). The total number of votes accumulated was 18,945,494.

Notes* On Episode 7, The individual winner of each group gets a 20,000 point bonus, the overall individual winner gets a 50,000 point bonus, and the overall group winners get a 100,000 point bonus.

* The ranking for Episode 8 is the result of combining online votes and live votes from the previous episode.

### Third voting period

The third voting period will take place between November 14 at 11:30 PM and November 29 at 5:00 AM (JST). The total number of votes accumulated was 8,356,702.

Notes* On Episode 10, an additional 20,000 points were given to each member of the winning group except for the one with the most votes, who received an additional 100,000 points instead.

* The ranking for Episode 11 is the result of combining online votes and live votes from the previous episode.

### Result

*Main article: JO1*
The finale online voting period will take place between December 5 at 11:00 PM and December 11 at 5:00 AM (JST) and The finale was held on December 11 at 7:00 PM (JST), and open online voting period was broadcast live. The total number of votes accumulated was 3,242,751. Ninety-nine announced the unit boy group name, JO1.

## Discography

### Extended plays

* Label: Lapone Entertainment
* Formats: Digital download
 *Produce 101 Japan — Final* | * Released: December 12, 2019
* Label: Lapone Entertainment
* Formats: Digital download

## Aftermath

* JO1 released their debut single *Protostar* on March 4, 2020.
* Some trainees formed/joined with groups:
	+ Miyajima Yugo (12th), Shunya Osawa (13th), Tomoaki Ando (14th), Jun Uehara (20th), Jeong Young-hoon (21st), Kim Yoon-dong (22nd), and Kim Hee-cheon (35th) formed a boy group called ORβIT under label Orbit Union.
	+ Kosuke Honda (15th), Fumiya Sano (23rd), Shuta Urano (34th), Katsunari Nakagawa (63rd) signed with Yoshimoto Kogyo and formed a boy group called OWV.
	+ Masanami Aoki (29th), Akihito Furuya (44th), Koki Nishio (53rd), Takehiro Okada (54th), and Akira Takano (67th) formed an unnamed unit with temporary name New Unit Project.
	+ Kaito Okano (33rd), Yu Ando (47th), Rikuto Omizu (64th), Hikari Inayoshi (74h), and Tatsuki Yuki (80th) formed a "KJ-Hop" group called Boom Trigger under World Entertainment.
	+ Kento Kitaoka (48th) and Takeru Gutierez (71st) joined a group called BXW under agency Churros. Reito Kitagawa (26th) and Hiroto Ikumi (36th) who also had joined the group subsequently left due to difference in the direction of activities.
* Some trainees signed with agencies:
	+ Masahiko Imanishi (17th) signed with agency Dream Passport and adapted a stage name Hico.
	+ Tatsutoshi Miyazato (28th), Sho Fukuchi (30th), Taiga Nakamoto (32nd), Tsubasa Takizawa (37th), Kyo Yamada (45th), Ryono Kusachi (51st), Toi Nakabayashi (55th), Hyuga Nakatani (57th), Fumiya Kumazawa (97th) signed with Showtitle, a subsidiary company of Yoshimoto Kogyo. The nine ex-trainees formed a stage play creation project called Enjin that will also incorporate singing and dancing.
	+ Kengo Hata (86th) signed with Ito Company.
	+ Satoshi Yamada (85th) signed with YKA Entertainment.
* Some trainees debuted as actors:
	+ Naoki Ozawa (29th) starred in a stage play K.B.S Project *Super Youth Chorus Comedy "SING!"-2020*.
* Some trainees participated in other survival shows:
	+ Ryo Mitsui (41st), Ryuta Hayashi (43rd), Gen Suzuki (82nd) joined *G-EGG*.

## Notes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kim Yoon Dong, and Jeong Young Hoon also announced they were leaving the show after announced ranking in Episode 11.