Random Facts & Trivia Bits
Below, you can find a list of random facts and trivia about Kimura Takuya. I try to keep this page as accurate as possible, but if you should come across something that isn't correct (or no longer correct), please let me know so that I may edit it. Thank you!
- He was voted "Best Jeanist" (the man who looks best in jeans) for five consecutive years from 1994 to 1998, until the people at the awards' organization had to create a "Jeans Hall of Fame" just to place him in, so that other men could have a chance at winning the title too.
- In November of 1999, he became the first Asian star to model and advertise for Levi's Jeans Company.
- In 1996, he became the first man to ever advertise for women's cosmetics in Japan- specifically, lipstick by Kanebo's Testimo II brand. Sales figures almost tripled within the first month after their campaign launched.
- The first TV series he had starred in was called Sono Toki Hato wa Nusummareta (1992), which was also the first time he acted in a kissing scene.
- He did an interview with Matt Dillion in 1994 (whom he had said was someone he had always hoped to meet) for Nonno magazine.
- His income in 2003 was approximately 255,000,000 Yen, while in 2004, it was roughly 271,680,000 Yen.
- Many people had predicted that his career would end due to his marriage with Shizuka in 2000, but it was proven otherwise when Hero aired the following year with very high TV viewing ratings (approx. 36.8%). *Note: In Japan, an idol's popularity will often go down rather significantly after they get married due to the view that the said idol is now "not available".
- He was voted "Favorite Man" by AnAn, which is a Japanese women's magazine, for twelve consecutive years until he had finally had to be excluded from the voting process.
- In 1998, TBC (a women's beauty clinic) hired Takuya to advertise for them. As a result, TBC ended up receiving numerous inquiries from men about the clinic, which then led TBC to eventually open Japan's first beauty clinic for men.
- He broke Japanese TV drama records with Hero, when it received over 30% viewing ratings for all 11 episodes.
- The Japanese ice hockey league gave Takuya a Japan National Team's uniform with the name and number for Halu (the character he played in Pride) as a show of appreciation for attracting interest in hockey after the series aired.
- He was once the target of major bashing in magazines, due to photographs showing him coming out of a bar with a girl that was not his girlfriend at the time. He later (years later) commented that he believed the entire incident was a set up planned by the girl and paparazzi who were waiting outside to snap his picture.
- After Takuya joined Johnny's Jimusho in 1987, he was selected to be one of the 12 "Skateboys" - the background dancers for the super popular idol of that time, Hikaru Genji. Soon after that, Takuya was pulled out of Skateboys in order to form SMAP.
- He read the part of the male lead for Hana Yori Dango's CD books.
- In 1994, he got his left ear pierced- something that was against his management's policy.