Produce 101 Japan is a Japanese reality competition show bringing 101 trainees with the intention of producing an 11-member permanent boy band. Premiering on April 8, 2021, the second season is being broadcast on GyaO! every Thursday at 9 pm JST (GMT+9). The show is being streamed on YouTube every Friday at 9 pm JST (GMT+9) with English subtitles available in certain countries.[1]
The series is an official spin-off of the South Korean television series Produce 101 and is a co-production between Yoshimoto Kogyo and CJ E&M. Weekly highlights are also being aired on TBS.
In November 2020, Yoshimoto Kogyo and CJ E&M announced they would be co-producing a 2nd Japanese version of the Produce 101reality competition show with the intention of debuting an 11-member boy band in 2021 for the global music market.[3][4] The group created from the show would be permanent and would be handled by Lapone Entertainment.[5] Auditions for the show took place from December 4 to Dec 6, 2020, for male Japanese residents aged 15–27 years old who were not tied to any talent agency.[6][7] On January 30, 2021, all 101 trainees profiles were revealed and Fuma Murata was shown to have withdrawn; the show's theme song, "Let Me Fly" was also revealed.[8][9] Prior to the show's airing, another contestant, Fujisawa dropped out, totaling two withdrawing and leaving 99 trainees to compete on the show.[10][11]
Cast
The show was presented by Hideyuki Yabe and Takashi Okumura of the comedy duo Ninety-nine, who had previously hosted the Asayan talent competition series in 1999.
The ranking announcement for the top 60 trainees is aired, with trainees ranked 61-101 being eliminated. All trainees also voted for the top 3 of 5 positions. (Visual, Fashion, Dance, Rap and Vocal) and other positions.
Visual: Yudai Sano, Shunsei Ota and Hiroaki Morii
Fashion: Hiroto Nishi, Rihito Ikezaki and Takeru Goto
Dance: Hiroto Nishi, Shogo Tajima and Masaya Kimura
Rap: Shogo Tajima, Kaiho Nakano and Renta Nishijima
Vocal: Kyosuke Fujimaki, Anthonny Iinuma and Hiromu Takatsuka
1
"Episode 1"
April 8, 2021 (2021-04-08)
The 1st ranking announcement for the 60 trainees begins, with the studio having seats arranged in a pyramid numbered 1 to 60. Each trainee sits on the seat corresponding to their current rank, with Masaya Kimura taking 1st place. The trainees also perform their audition songs by team, and each trainee is graded individually from A to F, based on their overall talents, organizing them into temporary classes for training.
2
"Episode 2"
April 15, 2021 (2021-04-15)
The trainees practice the choreography for the theme song, "Let Me Fly (～その未来へ～)", after which they will undergo a re-evaluation and have their grades reassigned. The contestants film themselves performing the song individually. Each video is then watched and evaluated by the mentors. The boys are then given their new grades.
3
"Episode 3"
April 22, 2021 (2021-04-22)
The trainees vote for their center pick for the theme song from the new set of A-class trainees, with Masaya Kimura chosen to be the center. The first evaluation, the Group Battle, is announced, and they are organized into 10 teams of 6 members each; 2 teams compete against each other on a pop song. The options are "I Need U" by BTS, "AGEHA" by Generations from Exile Tribe, "&LOVE" by King & Prince, "Your Number" by SHINee, and "Infinity" by JO1. The teams practice and then perform the songs, with each individual being voted on separately by the studio audience, and with the members on the winning team for their song receiving a bonus of 3,000 votes.
4
"Episode 4"
April 29, 2021 (2021-04-29)
The rehearsals and performances of the rest of the teams are shown. Hiromu Takatsuka takes 1st place and is further revealed to have taken first place overall as his team won the group battle.
5
"Episode 5"
May 6, 2021 (2021-05-06)
The events leading to the 1st elimination are shown. The trainees reveal their nightly routine at their hotel rooms through vlogs. Trainees vote for their visual picks, with Hiroto Nishi, Renta Nishijima, and Hiroaki Morii voted as the top 3. The first round of elimination takes place. Anthonny Iinuma, Nalu Okubo, Takeru Goto, Hiromu Takatsuka, Yudai Sano, Renta Nishijima, Takumi Ozaki and Hiroto Nishi take 11th to 3rd places, respectively. Masaya Kimura and Shogo Tajima are revealed to be the top 2 trainees, with Masaya Kimura being voted 1st with 1,476,946 votes. Masaki Uchida and Wataru Takahashi are revealed to be the candidates for 40th place, with Masaki Uchida taking 40th place. Trainees ranked 41-60 are eliminated. Naoki Kose reveals that he has dropped out from the competition due to complications caused by COVID-19; resulting in Wataru, the 41st placer, being saved and continuing on to the second round.
6
"Episode 6"
May 13, 2021 (2021-05-13)
The next evaluation is announced to be the position battles. The trainees are tasked to perform live in groups, based in positions they choose: vocal, dance, or rap. There are 3 songs for vocals (Ikimonogakari's "Sayonara Seishun", Shota Shimizu's "Hanataba no Kawari ni Melody wo", & Official Hige Dandism's "Pretender"), 3 songs for dance (Seventeen's "Fallin' Flower", Nissy's "NA", JO1's "Oh-Eh-Oh"), 2 songs for rap (Ken the 390's "Overall" and "Nobody Else"), and 1 hidden song (later revealed to be BTS' "Dynamite"). The first-place trainee in each group will receive a bonus of 10,000 votes, with the exception of the hidden song, where the first place will gain a 20,000 vote bonus. The first-place trainee overall in each category will receive a 100,000 vote bonus. The practices and performances of several teams are also aired in this episode.
7
"Episode 7"
May 20, 2021 (2021-05-20)
The remaining position battles are shown. In the second half of the episode, the trainees gather again to reveal their new rankings, with many high-ranked trainees dropping. It is also announced that there will be no elimination for this round, and all 40 trainees will perform in the concept evaluations.
8
"Episode 8"
May 27, 2021 (2021-05-27)
This episode shows the live performances for the concept evaluations. "Goosebumps" group takes 1st place, with Shogo Tajima being the member with the most votes. "Shadow" group came in 2nd, "Step" came in 3rd, "Another Day" came in 4th and "A.I.M" came in last.
9
"Episode 9"
June 3, 2021 (2021-06-03)
The 2nd eliminations take place, with the top 20 trainees moving on to the finals. Shogo Tajima and Masaya Kimura are revealed to be top 2, with Shogo being confirmed as the 1st place. Koshin Terao is announced to be in 20th place. The top global producers' pick is revealed to be Kouki Sakamoto, saving him from elimination.
10
"Episode 10"
June 13, 2021 (2021-06-13)
The finale starts off with the reveal of the group name, which was "INI". The final debut evaluation performances commence, in which Masaya Kimura is revealed as the center for "ONE" and Toma Nakamura as the center for "RUNWAY". They also perform the final ballad song "One Day". The top 21 trainees then perform the theme song "Let Me Fly". The boys are also shown their audition tapes as well as messages from their loved ones.
Voting soon comes to a close, and ranking announcements begin. The ranking announcement started from the contestant who ranked at 10th place which was Yudai Sano, followed by Rihito Ikezaki at 9th, Xu Fengfan at 8th, Jin Matsuda at 7th, Hiroto Nishi at 6th, Takumi Ozaki at 5th, Kyosuke Fujimaki at 4th, and Shogo Tajima at 3rd, confirming them to debut. The top 2 trainees are revealed to be Masaya Kimura and Hiromu Takatsuka, with Masaya Kimura taking 1st place. It was then announced that the 11th and final member of the debut lineup was Takeru Goto.
Rankings
The top 11 contestants, which determined the members of the final group, were chosen through popularity online voting at Produce 101 Japan GyaO!'s homepage, AR square app, VR square app and audience's live voting. The results were shown at the end of each episode.
For the on:tact, first voting period, viewers were allowed to select 11 trainees per vote. For the second round, the system changed to 2 trainee per vote. For the final round, the system changed to 1 trainee per vote and added live online votes.
The ON:TACT voting period took place between February 1 at 12 am and February 10 at 11:59 pm (JST).
#
Episode 0-1 (Online votes)
1
Masaya Kimura
2
Shogo Tajima
3
Yudai Sano
4
Hiroto Nishi
5
Takeru Goto
6
Shunsei Ota
7
Xu Fengfan
8
Hiromu Takatsuka
9
Anthonny Iinuma
10
Renta Nishijima
11
Rihito Ikezaki
First voting period
The first voting period took place between April 8 at 9 am and April 30 at 5 am (JST). The total number of votes accumulated was 25,355,977.
#
Episode 2 (Online votes)
Episode 3 (Online votes)
Episode 4 (Live votes)
Episode 5 (Total votes)
Name
Votes
Name
Votes
1
Shogo Tajima
Masaya Kimura
Hiromu Takatsuka
3,108
Masaya Kimura
1,476,946
2
Masaya Kimura
Shogo Tajima
Nalu Okubo
3,078
Shogo Tajima
1,402,055
3
Yudai Sano
Hiroto Nishi
Hiroto Nishi
3,069
Kyosuke Fujimaki
1,135,900
4
Hiroto Nishi
Kyosuke Fujimaki
Kaiho Nakano
3,067
Hiroto Nishi
1,128,968
5
Yudai Sano
Takumi Ozaki
Haruki Yamamoto
3,064
Takumi Ozaki
1,087,177
6
Takumi Ozaki
Yudai Sano
Hiroaki Morii
3,058
Renta Nishijima
975,241
7
Renta Nishijima
Renta Nishijima
Mizuki Shinohara
3,056
Yudai Sano
966,407
8
Nalu Okubo
Nalu Okubo
Kenta Muramatsu
3,045
Hiromu Takatsuka
899,044
9
Takeru Goto
Anthonny Iinuma
Tomoki Nishiyama
3,043
Takeru Goto
843,923
10
Xu Fengfan
Xu Fengfan
Jin Matsuda
3,041
Nalu Okubo
829,447
11
Anthonny Iinuma
Takeru Goto
Kyosuke Fujimaki
3,040
Anthonny Iinuma
761,184
Notes
On Episode 4, an additional 3,000 points were given to all the members of the winning groups, which were combined with the votes given by the live audience.
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 May 6 at 11 pm and May 28 at 5 am (JST). The total number of votes accumulated was 9,285,810.
#
Episode 6 (Online votes)
Episode 7 (Live votes)
Episode 7 (Total votes Ep6-7)
Episode 8 (Live votes)
Episode 9 (Total votes)
Name
Votes
Name
Votes
Name
Votes
1
Masaya Kimura
Syunji Koike
110,159
Shogo Tajima
Shogo Tajima
100,018
Shogo Tajima
738,955
2
Shogo Tajima
Kouki Sakamoto
110,147
Masaya Kimura
Syunji Koike
20,0XX
Masaya Kimura
711,278
3
Renta Nishijima
Kaiho Nakano
110,132
Kyosuke Fujimaki
Renta Nishijima
20,0XX
Kyosuke Fujimaki
524,051
4
Hiroto Nishi
Takumi Ozaki
20,142
Syunji Koike
Hiroto Nishi
20,0XX
Renta Nishijima
457,123
5
Kyosuke Fujimaki
Wataru Takahashi
10,146
Hiroto Nishi
Rihito Ikezaki
20,0XX
Hiroto Nishi
456,053
6
Daigo Kobayashi
Jin Matsuda
10,135
Renta Nishijima
Kaiho Nakano
20,0XX
Syunji Koike
377,619
7
Takumi Ozaki
Kyosuke Fujimaki
10,134
Daigo Kobayashi
Hideaki Sasaoka
20,0XX
Daigo Kobayashi
357,404
8
Yudai Sano
Shogo Tajima
10,115
Takumi Ozaki
Masato Ueda
20,0XX
Takumi Ozaki
350,768
9
Hiroma Takatsuka
Hiromu Takatsuka
10,111
Kaiho Nakano
Yudai Sano
350,580
10
Syunji Koike
Masaya Kimura
144
Kouki Sakamoto
Shunsei Ota
345,747
11
Koshin Terao
Xu Fengfan
137
Shunsei Ota
Takeru Goto
338,013
Notes
On Episode 7, an additional 10,000 votes were given to the winner of each group and an additional 100,000 votes to the winner of each position category. These benefits were doubled for the winners of the HIDDEN category. Position winners also received an interview on regular TV, as well as in Anan and Oricon.
On Episode 8, the winning group received a total of 240,000 additional votes: 20,000 votes for every member besides the one who placed first, who instead received 100,000 votes.
The ranking for Episode 9 is the result of combining online votes and live votes from the previous episode.
INI released their debut Maxi single "A" which featured the promotional singles "Rocketeer" and "Brighter" on November 3, 2021.
Some trainees formed/joined groups:
Ota Shunsei (14th), Kaiho Nakano (19th), Toma Nakamura (20th), Yotsuya Shinsuke (22nd), Kohei Kurita (23rd), Shu Kobori (24th), Wataru Takahashi (30th), and Kose Naoki (17th on Episode 5 but left due to COVID-19 diagnosis) signed with Yoshimoto Kogyo and debuted in boy group Octpath on February 9, 2022. Renta Nishijima (16th) was announced as an additional member on November 19, 2023.[19]
Daisuke Morisaki (68th) signed with Keystone Entertainment and debuted in boy group BLANK2Y under stage name Mikey on May 24, 2022.
Daigo Kobayashi (13th) and Renta Nishijima (16th) signed with Wake One Entertainment and were added to boy group TO1 as new members on June 17, 2022.[20] On September 22, 2023, Renta announced that he had withdrew from the group and label.[1]
Fuma Murata (withdrew before program aired) participated in "&AUDITION - The Howling" and debuted in boygroup &TEAM under Hybe Labels Japan on December 7, 2022.[21]
Shoya Fukuda (32d), Vasayegh Hikaru (33rd), Masato Ueda (38th), Yusei Tekoe (39th), Rick Yasue (47th), Ryusuke Kodama (53rd) and Reiji Fukushima (57th) debuted in KEN THE 390-produced boy group Maison B on February 15, 2023, after pre-debuting on August 19, 2022.[22]
Okubo Naru (12th), Terao Koshin (17th), Hiramoto Ken (34th), Fukuda Ayuta (35th) debuted on May 10, 2023 as 6-member boygroup DXTEEN under Lapone Entertainment.[2]
Anthonny Iinuma (18th) debuted in 4 member boy group TOZ with their debut EP "Flare" on the 27th September 2023.[23]
Neo Yoshii (85th) joined WARPs DIG new boy group ONE OR EIGHT under Avex Management as additional member on May 7th 2024.[24]
Some trainees signed with labels:
Neo Yoshii (85th) announced that he signed with Avex Management on November 7, 2021.[25]
Okubo Naru (12th), Terao Koshin (17th), Hiramoto Ken (34th), Fukuda Ayuta (35th) signed with Lapone Entertainment as trainees and were revealed in December 2021.[26]
Syunji Koike (15th) and Hiroaki Morii (29th) appeared on YouTube channel 'Peche' on March 21, 2022, and are actively promoting while in Korea as trainees.[27]
Anthonny Iinuma (18th) signed with YY Entertainment.
Some trainees became independent artists:
Hideaki Sasaoka (25th) released 'purple' as a digital EP in April 2022.[28]
Some trainees joined other survival shows:
Kouki Sakamoto (21st) and Mizuki Shinohara (28th) joined Sony Music's TORA Project in November 2021 and appeared on 'Boku Debut?' (a joint project with Sony and Yoshimoto Kogyo) airing on BS Yoshimoto in July 2022.[29]
^ ab"韓国の人気オーディション番組 吉本と組んで日本上陸". Nikkei Sports (in Japanese). September 21, 2019. Archived from the original on September 23, 2019. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
