SMAP's impending disbandment - recap on what happened in January 2016

News of SMAP's impending disbandment on 31 Dec this year have hogged the limelight (as expected!) at a time when the media attention was supposed to be on the performance of the Japanese athletes at the Rio Olympics. As the announcement was made rather late at night and somewhat unexpected (although one of the tabloids had said very clearly that the announcement would come out on 14th August but it was actually done mere hours before the clock struck midnight), it is no surprise that everyone seems more taken aback by the swift timing of the announcement rather than the news that the members are going their separate ways. Some of you have posed some questions on this topic on Twitter so I'll just provide the links to my old posts on what happened in January this year for your reference:

First report on SMAP's rumoured breakup

An analysis on the key events which kicked off 2016

SMAP saga Day 2 - Recap of the day's developments

Online campaign by SMAP fans to buy the CD single of "Sekai ni Hitotsu dake no Hana" so as to show support for the group and ask them not to break up

Kimura Takuya talking about the break-up saga on his radio show

SMAP saga Day 6 - Recap of the day's developments

SMAP's public apology on SMAPxSMAP on 18 January for the inconvenience and worry caused by reports of their alleged independence movement from Johnny's Jimusho due to the departure of their longtime manager

There will be a post later today where I will summarise the reports from the various news sources which give more information about SMAP's impending disbandment made last night but with somewhat conflicting accounts on some details. Stay tuned for that!