I'm picking out a few of the contestants from the first season of Produce 101 Japan. I am not goint to talk about the winner-group JO1 here, because this will be focused on participants who didn't made it to JO1 only ~
What happend to them a year after the show
Raira left Produce 101 Japan on #16 and joined the new agency called "Dream Passport" with a few other participants of Produce. He will debute in a boygroup called BUGVEL in 2021 with Produce 101 Japan participants Hikaru Kitagawa, Minato Inou, Koshin Komatsu and the Produce X participants and ex. YG trainees Mahiro Hidaka and Wang Jyunhao (Guno). They revealed the name of their debut single but a official release date isn't announced yet.
- Name: Kosuke Honda
- Age: 25
- Born: 11.04.1995
Kosuke was originaly member of a boygroup called "WhiteA" but due to specific rules of Produce 101 he had to leave the group to be even able to participate on the show. His members said he could come back to them if he dosn't makes it but even tho Kosuke didn't made it and left the show on #15 he didn't want to go back to WhiteA wich caused the group to disband, because Kosuke realised he would love to work as vocalist and not just be a random dancer who isn't allowed to sing. During Produce Kosuke became friends to Fumiya Sano, Shuta Urano and Katsunari Nagakawa with who he opend up a podcast. Later on all four debuted in 2020 with the boygroup OWV.
- Name: Lee Minhyuk
- Age: 30
- Born: 15.01.1991
Minhyuk moved from Korea to Japan around early 2015 and was active as a youtuber before joining Produce. He ended on rank #42. After the show he still continued to work as Youtuber and made his solo-debut in 2020. Besides this he opend up a second Youtube-channel together with Produce contestant Ryunosuke Nakano and joined a collaborative network from CJ,E&M.
- Name: Taiga Nakamoto
- Age: 19
- Born: 17.02.2001
Before the show Taiga used to be member of the cast on a TV-show called "Highschool of Youth". He finished Produce on #30. He later on revealed to have signed with an Entertainment company and later on surprisingly debuted together with Produce Japan participants Tadashi Fukushi (Ar.ik), Fumiya Kumazawa, Sol Miyazato, Toi Nakabayashi, Ryono Kusano, Hyuga Nakatani, Kyo Yamada and Tsubasa Takizawa as the group ENJIN under Universal. It's not 100 clear for ENJIN if that will be the final line up since it's more like a project than a set boygroup.
- Name: Ryuta Hayashi
- Age: 24
- Born: 23.07.1996
Ryuta used to be vocalist in a boygroup called "Kansai Boys Project" from 2016 to 2017. After this he was cast of a TV-show called "Watashi no Toshishita Oujisama". He left Produce Japan on #43. Later on he joined the survival show "G-EGG" in 2020 and finished on rank #3 joining the debut group called "NIK" together with Produce Japan and G-EGG participant Ryo Mitsui and the other winners of G-EGG called Lee Gunmin, Kang Hyeonsu, Fumiya Miura, Park Hyunsol, Choi Sihyuk, Ko Geun (Kogun), Han Jonghyeon (Parkha), Taichi Ishizaka and Hinata Yonemaru. NIK is suposed to debut in 2021.
- Name: Hikaru Inayoshi
- Age: 20
- Born: 27.07.2000
Hikaru ranked #74 on Produce. After the show he debuted together with the Produce participants Tatsuki Yuki, Yu Ando, Rikuto Omizu and Kaito Okano as group called "Boom Trugger" in 2020.
- Name: Takeru Gutierez
- Age: 19
- Born: 11.12.2001
Takeru ended on #71 and later on debuted with the produce participants Kento Kitaoka, Kanta Migata, Shintaro Segawa and another member called Daisuke Hayakawa as group called "BXW" in 2020 under Churros Entertainment. The group was originaly suposed to have 3 more members called Iori Azuma, Hiroto Ikumi and Reito Kitagawa.
- Name: Hiroto Ikumi
- Age: 18
- Born: 23.08.2002
Hiroto left Produce on #36 and was originaly suposed to debut with BXW. However he left the Churros Entertainment and joined the Korean company RBW Entertainment together with the Produce participants Ryuji Sato, Keiya Taguchi and a nother one called Junpei Sumita as trainee-group called "JBOYZ". It's not official yet when they are going to debut, especially not since it's rumored that 3 of the boys are about to join a Chinese survival show (Chances are good that Hiroto will be one of the participants).
- Name: Masahiko Imanishi (HICO)
- Age: 19
- Born: 07.07.2001
HICO left Produce on rank #17 and debuted in 2020 under the agency "Dream Passport" as soloist. His debut MV was featured with Tomoaki Ando (who was also participant on Produce)
- Name: Kim Heecheon (Heecho)
- Age: 26
- Born: 02.09.1994
Heecho left the show on personal issues. However shortly after him almost all other foreign participants left the show and it accidantly lead to unfortunate rumors that the Korean participants had to leave cause they got bullied for not being Japanese wich is total bullshit and that all just cause Heecho never revealed why he all of a sudden left the show. In 2020 than it was announced he would re-debut with his 2 member of the disbanded KPop-group who was called "HALO" and also participated on Produce Japan called Jung Younghoon and Kim Yoondong together with the Produce Japan participants Jun Uehara (June), Tomoaki Ando (Tomo), Shunya Ozawa and Yugo Miyajima under the label "Dream Passport" togther as boygroup called "Orbit Union" stylised as ORβIT (Orbit). Orbit debuted in 2020.
(sry for some users, just need to get the thread active somehow)
