Sexy Zone

Timelesz (stylized as timelesz, formerly known as Sexy Zone) is an eight-member Japanese boy band managed by Starto Entertainment (formerly of Johnny & Associates).

As Sexy Zone, the group consisting of Shori Sato, Kento Nakajima, Marius Yo, Fuma Kikuchi and Sou Matsushima, debuted in 2011, with their group age average 14.2, breaking the record in the agency for the youngest group to debut. They were the 5th group from Johnny & Associates to debut as special supporters for the "FIVB World Cup Volleyball", after V6 (1995), Arashi (1999), NEWS (2003) and Hey! Say! JUMP (2007). In 2013 they appeared in Kouhaku for the first time. They sold 3 million copies in Japan. Yo left the group and retired from the entertainment industry in 2022. Nakajima left the group on March 31, 2024.

As Timelesz, they started official activities on April 1, 2024 with the three remaining members. Almost a year later, a new era of timelesz started on February 15, 2025, after releasing an audition project to add members to the group, of which 5 new members were chosen.

Career

As Sexy Zone

Sexy Zone was announced as a group in a press conference on September 29, 2011. Johnny & Associates's CEO Johnny Kitagawa said, "The group name came from Michael Jackson's sexiness". The members were revealed to be Kento Nakajima, Fuma Kikuchi, Shori Sato, So Matsushima, and Marius Yo. Kitagawa chose the members considering the "sexiness of men". The average age of the members at the debut was 14.2 years, breaking the record held by Hey! Say! JUMP, which was 15 years.

After the press conference, the members appeared in ''Teigeki Johnnys Imperial Theatre Special "Kis-My-Ft2 with Johnny's Jr."'', and premiered their debut song "Sexy Zone", which was subsequently released on November 16, 2011, from Pony Canyon. This song was also the image song of the 2011 FIVB Women's World Cup and the 2011 FIVB Men's World Cup, with the group becoming the events' special supporters, the fifth group in the agency, after V6, Arashi, News and Hey! Say! Jump. Sexy Zone would repeat as Musical Ambassadors for the FIVB Volleyball World Cup on March 2, 2015, where they performed their 10th single, Cha-Cha-Cha-Champion and announced the players as they entered the court. They continued supporting the Japanese volleyball team via their songs "With you" (2012), Kimi no tame noku ga iru" (2012), "Shouri no hi made" (2016), and others.

By May 2014, Sexy Zone was working as three groups: Matsushima was paired with Kaito Matsukura and Genta Matsuda, now members of Travis Japan, then of Johnny's Jr., as "Sexy Matsu"; Marius was paired with Genki Iwahashi and Yuta Jinguji, former King & Prince members (Johnny’s Jr. at the time), as "Sexy Boyz"; and the main group (which would keep the name of Sexy Zone), that would focus on Nakajima, Kikuchi and Sato. The three groups, together with the fans (called "Sexy Girls"), would become known as "Sexy Family". It would be the first time that a group would not have a fixed number of members. Three would remain as core, and the other members would be picked from the "younger sibling groups" (Sexy Matsu and Sexy Boyz). It was reported by Nikkan Sports in 2014 that the group's then-upcoming single, their seventh, "Otoko Never Give Up", was recorded by only three of its five members, as later did their eighth "Kimi ni Hitomebore" and ninth single "Cha-Cha-Cha Champion", featuring only members Kento Nakajima, Fuma Kikuchi and Shori Sato. This resulted in rumors amongst fans about the future of Marius and Matsushima, the two youngest members of the group. However, they were guaranteed that the two youngest would not be leaving, they would just be expanding the range of the group by working in their own projects. For their 10th single, "Colorful Eyes", released in December 2015, Marius and Matsushima returned to Sexy Zone, resuming activities as a 5-member group.

The Japanese release of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, released in 2023, uses their song "Try This One More Time" as the ending theme.

The group performed in their last concert stage as Sexy Zone on December 26, 2023, following their decision to change the group's name as a consequence of the agency's sexual abuse scandal. This decision was revealed in their official fan club, and by member Kento Nakajima in an Instagram post in October. It was revealed on January 8, 2024, that the name change would take place on March 31, and that Nakajima would leave the group the same day, but would remain in the agency as a talent and actor.

On March 31, 2024, the group had their last performance via a streamed live, carried by their official fan site, their group and individual official Instagram accounts, and on their YouTube channel. Former member Marius Yo also appeared via video call. The four-men group performed a total of ten songs, interspersed between talking moments, ending with Nakajima giving his last "Sexy thank you".

As timelesz

On April 1, 2024, the three remaining members appeared in a streamed live, in which they announced, not only the group's new name, but a new project. The group, now called "timelesz", which was taken as a reminder of their origin (from the song "Timeless", one of the last sung as a 5-men group, and the "sz" from the group's previous name), announced they would be holding auditions for new members, as well as a 7-city, 25 concert tour. They also announced the name for the fandom, "secondz", with the reading of the name ("secondz" or "secandz") being put to a survey. Regarding the concert series, "We're timelesz Live Tour 2024 episode0", it will take place from June 22, 2024 (Hokkaido), till August 25, 2024 (Osaka)

The group released their first extended play under the new name in June 2024. The eponymous single, out in three formats (deluxe edition, limited edition, and standard edition), will include the previously released songs "Honne to Tatemae", "Jinsei Yūgi", and "Puzzle". The lead song from the new EP, "Anthem", was written and produced by Tomohisa Yamashita. Yamashita's comment on the song: "I wanted them to sing about the strength of turning the impossible into the possible. I wrote these lyrics because I thought that having them sing this song now would give courage and hope to many people!". The song was premiered on their radio program "timelesz's QRZONE", the music video was released the following day in their official YouTube.

As revealed in April, the group held auditions for new members. Out of 18,922 candidates, 350 passed to the second stage. This part of the recruitment was taped for the Netflix series " timelesz project -AUDITION-", with the members screening every candidate. The Netflix series started distribution on September 13 in Japan, and later worldwide. A sort of "director's cut" backstage series, with comments by the members, has been shared in YouTube under the name "timelesz behind the audition" as companion series to the Netflix one.

Their tour "We're timelesz Live Tour Episode 0", first one after the name change, started on June 22, 2024, in Makomanai, Sapporo, and ended on August 25 in Osaka.

A single, "Because", was released on November 20, and was their collective 27th single, but the first as timelesz.

The last episode of the Netflix series, aired on February 15, 2025. After singing the last pair of songs ("Run" and timelesz' new single, "Rock This Party"), the winners of the project to be the new members were revealed: Shuto Inomata, Taiki Shinozuka, Masaki Hashimoto, as well as Starto members Takuto Teranishi and Yoshitaka Hara. The new members were introduced to the press 5 minutes after the end of the program. In the press conference, Kikuchi proposed a toast, giving each of the new members a colored drink, which ended being the color each one was to adopt: Shinozuka, white, for him to "look for your own color"; Teranishi, light blue, "support the people around while being calm, trustworthy, and mature"; Hashimoto, pink, "cute, yet strong and passionate"; Inomata, yellow, "kind, loving and positive mind" (Hara added that Inomata is like the sun "I hope that the sense of closeness will permeate the fans", while Kikuchi joked on the choice of color, not knowing if he should have chosen " Yamabuki color"). As Sato started the toast, Hara blurted out that his drink was bitter, and Matsushima smiled saying "let's go on with this". Hara asked Kikuchi if he had prepared a normal, "refreshing drink", and he answered "Sorry, it was a mistake". Hara's color is yellow-green.

The new group formation released a digital single, "Rock This Party", on February 28. The single is accompanied by a compilation album, released under the name ''Hello! We Are Timelesz'', which is a selection of 12 songs, mostly of the Sexy Zone era.

The 8-member group had its first appearance on television on "Nino san", of which Kikuchi is a regular.

Two days after the end of the Netflix documentary, the 8 members were involved in Fuji TV's Dokkiri GP, of which Kikuchi is a member. The program, aired on March 15, 2025, had a section called "Dokkiri GP Presents 'timelesz project-Audition-' Special Edition", showing the 5 new members being the victims of pranks by the 3 original. Called to a campground location in Chiba, the 5 new members (together with the original) are to film Timelesz' new (fake) crown program, and find themselves with (slightly nervous instigators) Sato and Matsushima facing a table with silver dome lids, which hides a pie bazooka, where the new members are supposed to guess what high-class ingredients are hidden. They end up covered in cream. A laughing Kikuchi, who comes out from hiding, calls out "Today's prank is also an audition to see if the new members will be hooked on "Dokkiri GP"". At the end, surprise pranks, with Kikuchi's scream of "I can't forgive this!" echoing through the campsite, have the new members laughing and celebrating too.

Timelesz had their first musical performance on television, under the new system, on NTV's "with Music" on March 8, 2025.

Timelesz will have their first crown program, "Timelesz man", with the concept "Just give it your all in everything you do and sweat it out!". The program will be about peoples dreams, and the effort to reach them. It will start airing on April 20, 2025, on Fuji TV.

Timelesz announced the release of their first album, "Fam", on June 11, 2025, as well as the music video for their single "Rock this Party" on March 21 on their official YouTube. The music video was filmed in Hawaii, with the theme being "first family trip", and both the video and the album's concept being "big family", with the new members, the people behind the scenes and the fans (secondz) in mind. The album's 13-song playlist includes "Rock this Party", a new 8-member version of "Anthem" and other new songs (name yet to be decided).

Members

*
*
*
* Shuto Inomata (猪俣周杜)
* Taiki Shinozuka (篠塚大輝)
* Masaki Hashimoto (橋本将生)
* Takuto Teranishi (寺西拓人)
* Yoshitaka Hara (原嘉孝)

Former Sexy Zone members
*
*

Timeline

Discography

Studio albums

As Sexy Zone
* ''One Sexy Zone'' (2012)
* ''Sexy Second'' (2014)
* ''Sexy Power3'' (2015)
* ''Welcome to Sexy Zone'' (2016)
* ''XYZ=Repainting'' (2018)
* ''Pages'' (2019)
* ''Pop × Step!?'' (2020)
* ''The Highlight'' (2022)
* ''Chapter II'' (2023)

As timelesz
* ''Fam'' (2025)

Filmography

Television

As Sexy Zone

* ''Yan Yan Jump'' (April 2011- TV Tokyo

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases