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NEWS Band Member Yuya Tegoshi Leaves Group, Johnny's Agency

The Johnny & Associates agency (Johnny's) announced on Friday that the contract between Yuya Tegoshi from the four-member NEWS idol group and Johnny's has been canceled.

The group's remaining three members Keiichiro Koyama, Takahisa Masuda, and Shigeaki Kato will continue to perform.

Johnny's announced on May 26 that Tegoshi would go on hiatus from the entertainment industry. The announcement confirmed an unspecified weekly publication's prior allegations that Tegoshi had attended a drinking party with numerous women in Tokyo in late April, when the country was still under a state of emergency and advising people to avoid large social gatherings. However, the announcement claimed that certain details in the report were inaccurate. The announcement added that the company had been advising Tegoshi to be careful with his actions, but that he "failed to understand."

Fellow NEWS member Koyama took a hiatus from his professional activities in June 2018 after the agency learned that he drank alcohol with an underage girl. He returned from the hiatus after three weeks.

The NEWS group formed in 2003 with nine members, but took a hiatus in 2006 when two of its members were accused of underage drinking in 2005 and 2006. The group has performed theme songs for the One Piece: Mega Mecha Soldier of Karakuri Castle film, the second season of The File of Young Kindaichi Returns, and for the live-action television series of Yasutaka Tsutsui's The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Toki o Kakeru Shōjo) novel.

Sources: Johnny's website, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web