SMAP is a Japanese boy band formed by Johnny & Associates. While originally consisting of six members, the current group members are Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, and Shingo Katori. The group's name is an acronym standing for Sports Music Assemble People.
SMAP debuted their first CD in 1991 and has since released over forty singles and twenty albums. Approximately half the singles and a third of the albums reached the top of the Japanese Oricon music charts. In recent times, the interval between the band's single CD releases has become longer, and are now released approximately once a year.
The members of SMAP have also pursued careers outside of music, including involvement in television variety shows, dramas, commercials, and movies, making them one of the most popular Johnny's groups. Largely due to their popularity, Johnny & Associates became the most successful agency in Japan, with earnings of almost three billion Japanese yen in 1995. Their fanbase consists primarily of Japanese women.
SMAP had finally staged their first overseas concert performance on September 16, 2011 at the Beijing Workers Stadium in China under the theme of "Come on, Japan. Thank you, China. Asia is a united home", as a symbol of gratitude for China's assistance in the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami tragedy, and the strengthening of friendship between the two nations.
Their variety program SMAP×SMAP shows several types of entertainments ranging from cooking, comedy, and games to singing and dancing, often with celebrity guests such as Mariah Carey, Ayumi Hamasaki, Michael Jackson, Will Smith, Hikaru Utada, David Beckham, Tom Cruise, The Backstreet Boys, Paris Hilton, Matt Damon, Madonna, Coldplay, Kylie Minogue, Justin Timberlake, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Sheryl Crow, Richard Gere, Avril Lavigne, Kwon Sang Woo, Tohoshinki, Brad Pitt, Lady Gaga and Quentin Tarantino, though most guests are Japanese tarento.
Besides singing and acting, the group also manages to be active in numerous other forms of media fields as well. In August 1991 a Saint Seiya musical sponsored by Bandai, was shown in the Aoyama theater in Tokyo, Japan. The story recalls the Sanctuary and Poseidon chapter, starring the members of SMAP as the five bronze saints and Poseidon. In 2002, the group released a soft drink called "Drink! SMAP" in order to promote a CD of the same name. They did this once again in 2010 to promote the album "We are SMAP!".
SMAP was also chosen to be official spokespersons for Square-Enix's popular Dragon Quest series of role-playing video games. This actually is not the first time SMAP was associated with the series. SMAP starred in a musical based on the Dragon Quest games.
