Japanese idol group WEST. will end its group activities on September 30, talent agency STARTO ENTERTAINMENT announced on its official site on September 24. The news comes one month after the agency revealed that two of the group’s seven members, Ryusei Fujii and Nozomu Kotaki, would be leaving WEST. altogether.
According to the announcement, the remaining five members, Daiki Shigeoka, Terushi Kiriyama, Junta Nakama, Tomohiro Kamiyama, and Takahiro Hamada, held repeated discussions with STARTO about how the group could continue, including the possibility of carrying on as a five-person unit. Those talks ultimately led to the decision to end WEST. as a group rather than continue in a reduced lineup.
STARTO said the five members will remain with the agency from October 1 onward and continue their individual talent activities. “We will continue to support all seven of them as they each pursue their own paths,” the agency said in its statement, also apologizing for the time it took to share the news: “We are sorry for the worry and anxiety this delay may have caused.” The agency closed by thanking fans and industry partners for their support of WEST. since its 2014 debut.
Who is WEST.?
WEST. is a Japanese idol group originally made up of seven members: Daiki Shigeoka, Terushi Kiriyama, Junta Nakama, Tomohiro Kamiyama, Ryusei Fujii, Takahiro Hamada, and Nozomu Kotaki. The group made its CD debut in April 2014 with the single “Ee Janaika.” In December 2016, WEST. held its first solo dome concert at Kyocera Dome Osaka, and in the summer of 2022 it completed its first dome tour across the Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka region. The group changed its official name to “WEST.” in October 2023. Its most recent single, “Wessai Soul! / BIG LOVE SONG,” was released in May 2025, and in October 2025 the group held its first-ever fan festival, “WESSION FESTIVAL 2025,” over two days at Osaka’s Expo Commemorative Park. Footage from the festival and accompanying interviews were set to air exclusively on WOWOW between December 2025 and February 2026.
Fujii and Kotaki’s departure from the group was announced on August 30, sparking widespread speculation among fans about what would happen to WEST. as a unit. With this latest announcement, that question has been settled: the group itself is ending, even as five of its members continue their careers together under the same agency.
Author’s Comment
Ah, the classic agency move: announce two members are leaving, let the fandom spiral in silence for a month, then quietly confirm the whole group is over too. I get why STARTO apologized for the delay, because that kind of radio silence is its own kind of cruelty to fans who’ve been counting down since 2014. Still, credit where it’s due, nobody got thrown under the bus here, and all seven are staying employed. In Japan’s idol industry, a soft landing like this is honestly rarer than you’d think. I’ll be watching what Shigeoka and company do next, because a name change and a group ending in the space of two years is a lot of reinvention for one group to survive.
