Shintaro Morimoto

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**Shintarō Morimoto** (森本慎太郎, born July 15, 1997, Heisei 9th Year), is a Japanese singer, actor, and talent. He is currently a member of the japanese boy-group, SixTONES. He also has a brother, named Ryuutarō Morimoto, who previously was a member of another Johnny's group, Hey! Say! JUMP.

## Biography

Shintarō was born in Kanazawa city, Ishikawa prefecture, and raised in Kanagawa prefecture, Japan.

#### Entering The Agency

When he was in the third grade of elementary school, Morimoto was eating a meal with his family at a chinese restaurant on the way home from a KAT-TUN concert where his brother, Ryuutarō, was performing as a backdancer. Johnny Kitagawa passes by and, mistaking him for his brother, called out to him. After that, he was invited to perform at Takizawa Hideaki—now CEO of Johnny's Island—solo concert. At the time, Morimoto was focusing his self doing karate and so he refused the offer, because he had just acquired his black belt.

On the third phone call they exchange, however, Johnny Kitagawa offer him to watch the behind the scene of a stage play they are working on at the time, which then Morimoto and his mother accept and went to. He then participated in the rehearsal and was fascinated by the dancing in the play while experiencing it for the first time. He then decided to quit karate and join the agency. Auditions were exempted from his admission, partly due to the recommendation from Kitagawa himself.

### Career

Morimoto was scouted by the late Johnny Kitagawa, head of Johnny's Ent. at the time, to join the talent agency Johnny & Associates and start working immediately from the agency Yokohama branch in 2006 as a Johnny's Jr. trainee.

In 2007, Morimoto made his first concert appearance at the "2007 New Year Johnny's Jr. Concert". He then entered the Johnny's Jr. group, Tap Kids, along with his brother. He also participated in the stage play "2007 Takizawa Enbujou" and "DREAM BOYS", as well as starred in the TV dramas "The Goddess of Exams" and "Love and Devil ~ Vampire ☆ Boy" as a supporting role to expand his field.

In 2009, Morimoto passed the audition to starred as the lead role, Shota Harada, in the movie "Snow Prince – Forbidden Love Melody". On October 15, 2009, the movie premiered in Antwerp, Belgium and he was appointed as the "Friendship Ambassador of Flanders Tourism Board, Belgium" alongside a Jr. trainee, Yuma Nakayama, and the movie screenplay writer, Koyama Kundou. On November 1, 2009, Morimoto was appointed as the leader of a newly formed temporary Johnny's Jr. choir unit, Snow Prince, consisting of 11 members. The group later made a CD debut titled "Snow Prince" on December 2, 2009.

In the same year, Morimoto also does voice acting work in the Crayon Shin-chan OVA, as the snow prince, Shota Harada.

In 2012, he starred as the lead role, Tatsuya Sakuragi, in NTV's Bakaleya Highschool. The drama was later extended to a movie sequel, in which he retained the same lead role as Tatsuya Sakuragi. On September 8-9, the six cast of Bakaleya then ask the late Johnny Kitagawa for permission to perform a song together, wich they did in "Johnny's Dome Theater - SUMMARY 2012" concert. He also appeared in "GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka" in the same year, which was a remake of the live adaption drama series in 1998. In the following year, Morimoto appeared in another school drama, "Ghostly Girl".

In May 2015, Morimoto became a part of the Johnny Jr. unit, SixTONES, which consist mostly of Bakaleya main cast, that was announced at the "Johnny's Ginza 2015" concert.

Morimoto graduate from Horikoshi Private Highscool in 2016.

In 2019, Morimoto starred in prime-time drama series "Kansatsui Asagao" as Takuma Morimoto.

SixTONES then make their CD debut on January 22, 2020. Alongside with the group, Morimoto co-starred in a few stage plays, such as the long historic *Shounentachi*, for every year since 2015–2019 with another Johnny's Jr. (now also debuted) group Snow Man.

## Personal life

Less than a year after entering the agency, he immediately casted in the TV drama "The Goddess of Exams" alongside his brother. He commented that while he was working for the role, he felt immature since he doesn't have any acting experience before. He also felt extreamly lonely since his work as a child actor hinder him from playing with his friend which made him felt lonely.

Morimoto feels that the drama "Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou" which he did with other Jr. trainees is a turning point of his life. The time he spent with the now five member of SixTONES is precious, since he actually have comrade and friends while shooting the drama and thus doesn't felt lonely anymore. Even thought the Bakaleya Six (group nickname before receiving official name) then goes their seperate ways, they then meet again and perform as a group in Johnny's Ginza 2015. They reveal their official group name at the concert as SIXTONES (later changed to SixTONES by Johnny Kitagawa).

### Special Skill and Hobby

He mentioned in an interview that he was good at soccer, karate, swimming, and surfing.

in junior high, he belonged to the gymnastics club, and manage to learned techniques such as floor excercises, pommel horse, vault, and high bar. In particular, he stated that floor excercise is the technique his best at. As such, acrobats are assumed to be a special skill in Morimoto's career and he often shows it off on the stage.

### Admired Senior

He named Takuya Kimura as the "senior who, as a man, he wants to be like". He says his goal is to be friendly to all Jr. trainees like Kimura does, and to become a big brother-like role, who's always kind and longed for by his junior. In addition, he also named Takizawa Hideaki as the "senior who, as an entertainer, he wants to be like", which he claimed to has both leadership and acting skills, embodies the agency world view, and has a strong stage presence.

## Discography

* Unit Songs
* Solo Songs

  2021  | LOUDER |  CITY  | Jesse

## Filmography

* TV Drama
* Spin-off Drama
* Movie

## Trivia

* He enjoy doing Hip-Hop dance routines, along with other Johnny's talent, such as Shō Hirano and Kaito Takahashi from the group King & Prince.
* He can easily do backflips and thus considered to be the "*tantou*" or "in-charge" of doing acrobatic movements at concerts.
* He is the youngest member on the group.
* His hobby (as of 2021) is scuba diving.
* Even thought he likes to play around and is a very cheerful person in general, he actually considered to be the most serious out of all member in the group while doing his work.

## References

1. ↑ 「夏の特別講座 ジャニーズJr. 森本慎太郎」from 日経エンタテインメント! August 2012 Issue, page 28
2. ↑ Shintarō Morimoto (2009). Shintaro Morimoto's Interview. Interviewer: Hiromi Tanahashi. Infoseek楽天. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
3. ↑ “森本らジャニーズ最年少ユニット結成”. nikkansports.com. (2009-11-02). Retrieved 2016-04-03.
4. ↑ 最新情報 (Japanese). *『映画 少年たち』公式サイト*. 松竹. Retrieved on November 17, 2018.
5. ↑ 燃えよ剣. *eiga.com*.