West (band)

West. (stylized as WEST.), formerly known as Johnny's West (ジャニーズWEST, Janīzu Uesuto) (stylized Johnny's WEST), is a boy band consisting of seven members formed under Johnny & Associates, now managed under Starto Entertainment. The members are Daiki Shigeoka, Junta Nakama, Takahiro Hamada, Akito Kiriyama, Tomohiro Kamiyama. The group's name comes from the fact that it originated within the Johnny's talent agency and that the members are from Kansai, the west region of Japan. They were the first group from Kansai Johnny's Junior. to debut. They debuted in 2014 with the single "Eejanaika (ええじゃないか)". In 2023, the group changed their name to West., before the 10th anniversary of their debut. Their new name was announced through an online stream on October 18. The period (.) in the new name was added to declare that they are (people from) the west (Kansai), and that "though it's (a) small (dot), it's filled with infinite possibilities". The name change occurred in the midst of Johnny Kitagawa's sexual abuse scandal revelations, which saw many of the agency's groups as well as the agency itself undergoing similar rebranding. Ryusei Fujii, and Nozomu Kotaki announced their departure from the group in August 2026.