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The story
Following the arrest of Timelesz member Shuto Inomata on assault charges, commercials he appeared in are being pulled one after another. The limited-edition ABC-MART ad was taken down just 5 days after release, and a total of 6 ads — including Nissin Foods’ “Chicken Ramen,” AOKI, mobile battery rental service “CHARGESPOT,” and even a Google Pixel ad — disappeared within days. On the thread, reactions ranged from surprise that ads featuring other members got pulled too even though only one was arrested, to talk about the group’s rename from Sexy Zone to Timelesz, and speculation that the penalty fees could run into the hundreds of millions of yen.
“Following the announcement, each company acted immediately. On the 19th, when the arrest was reported, ABC-MART took down the ad images and commercial video for the limited-edition ‘TEKWEN’ model featuring Timelesz. The commercial had only gone up on the 14th, meaning it was shelved after just 5 days.
Nissin Foods also pulled its ‘Chicken Ramen’ commercial, which featured Inomata alongside fellow members Masaki Hashimoto and Daiki Shinozuka, and he also disappeared from the fermented beauty supplement ‘ByGLOW,’ where he had been serving as its first-ever solo brand ambassador.
The next day, the 20th, ‘AOKI’ and smartphone charger rental service ‘CHARGESPOT’ followed suit, and by the 21st Google had removed related images and videos for ‘Google Pixel’ as well. It’s essentially become a total wipeout of his commercial work” (entertainment reporter)
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Sure got a lot of racy-sounding group names lately, typical Johnny's
Elementary/Middle Schoolers' Top 'Oshi': Snow Man's Ren Meguro; Top YouTuber: 'Only'
July 22, 2026
Asked which idol or idol group they support, Snow Man's Ren Meguro came in #1 among both elementary and middle schoolers. Timelesz's Shuto Inomata was 2nd with 90 votes, and M!LK's Juutaro Yamanaka was 3rd with 67 votes.
https://asset.watch.impress.co.jp/img/kit/docs/2126/726/sub7_o.png
Impressive they worked under it as long as they did
And yet Timelesz still managed to set that battery company ablaze (i.e., dragged them into the backlash)
https://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv351441019
Is it really fine for him to be on regular TV with a criminal case going on?
you barely hear that even going back to the Showa era
He's the odd one out, some ex-painter or whatever — should've never let him in
Actually, flip side — since it aired right after the incident there wasn't time to swap the segment out,
so Juice=Juice's part aired just fine
Those guys probably have some messed-up kinks of their own too
https://contents.oricon.co.jp/upimg/news/2470000/2469321/20260722_111011_p_o_85077281.jpg
Doesn't look the type at all, but turns out he's a domestic-violence guy
He's good-looking and has that ex-Johnny's pedigree, he'd probably blow up huge
Host clubs would probably be the ones scouting him now
Background and Key Points of This Story
Commercial contracts commonly include an ‘image clause’ that allows immediate termination and penalty claims if a scandal occurs, so it isn’t unusual for multiple ads — in this case ABC-MART, Nissin Foods, AOKI, CHARGESPOT, Google Pixel, and others — to get pulled all at once within days of an arrest, as happened here. What stands out is that even commercials Inomata himself didn’t appear in got caught up and cancelled along with the rest of the group’s campaigns, which is what fueled the thread’s surprise that ‘one person’s screwup wiped out everyone’s ads.’ Note that Timelesz is the renamed version of Sexy Zone, and this arrest itself has no direct connection to the former Johnny’s Office’s (now Starto Entertainment) past issues. The thread included speculation tying the agency’s past problems into the story, along with baseless jabs at the victim, but since none of that has been confirmed by reporting, this article doesn’t address it.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “Timelesz: One Member’s Screwup Wipes Out All 6 of the Group’s Commercials — Penalty Fees Could Hit the Hundreds of Millions.”
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