More details have been released as Kimura Takuya returns from Hawaii from a holiday with his family a couple of days ago.
As the story goes, SMAP had decided to take a break from activities in June this year following the previous disband commotion that eventually didn’t happen. Kimura then decided to go for a holiday in Hawaii with his family and while he was away, Katori Shingo went to the company and said that he prefers a disbandment of SMAP. Hearing that, neither Kusanagi Tsuyoshi nor Inagaki Goro objected. That led to Nakai Masahiro making the stand and requested for an official disbandment since majority of the members no longer wish to stay together. The company understood the situation and officially announced the disbandment to major TV networks. All this while, Kimura had no idea what had been going on until the official announcement, which he learnt of in Hawaii.
All members have more or less talked a little about it on their radio appearances and stuff, but as I didn’t follow in detail, I don’t have any more information than the above. So SMAP will officially bow out at the end of the year., but the members are doing well individually anyway, so why does it matter?
