Takanori Iwata (岩田 剛典, Iwata Takanori; born March 6, 1989, in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese dancer and actor. He performs with the J-pop groups Sandaime J Soul Brothers and Exile. As a member of Sandaime J Soul Brothers, he has received the Japan Record Awards twice. He earned his first leading role as an actor in the film Shokubutsu Zukan ("Evergreen Love") in 2016, which won him the "Newcomer of the Year Award" at the 40th Japan Academy Film Prize. Since then, he has appeared in many more television dramas and films. In 2019, he starred as Junichi Wakamiya, the Japanese version of Dr. Watson, in Fuji TV's drama Sherlock: Untold Stories.
On September 15, 2021, he debuted as a singer with the single "Korekara".
Takanori Iwata is a graduate of Keio University. His nickname is Gun-chan (がんちゃん, Gan-chan).
Contents
Biography
Early life
Takanori Iwata was born into an upper-class family in Nagoya on March 6, 1989. Both his grandfather and father are graduates of Keio University, so he was expected to follow the family's tradition. To live up to such an expectation, he started to attend juku ("cram school") after classes when he was still in elementary school while also meeting with a tutor at home at the same time. Eventually, he successfully enrolled in Keio Futsubu School (an all-male junior high school) and moved from Nagoya to Tokyo with his mother to attend it. He was admitted to Keio Senior High School subsequently, and began to play Lacrosse as an extra-curricular activity. He chose Lacrosse because it is only available as an extra-curricular activity for high school or higher education, so he thought he could have what it took to play on the same level as everyone else. He even made it to the short list of the Japan national Lacrosse team for the AFC U-19 Championship.
Iwata started dancing (Krumping) after seeing RIZE, an American documentary film about Clowning and Krumping. He used "GUN" as his stage name, which is another pronunciation for the first character (岩) of his first name Iwata (岩田). He performed publicly for the first time at the cultural festival in his senior 3, and he was so overwhelmed by the elation of dancing that he decided to quit Lacrosse and focused on dancing in university. After his enrollment in the Faculty of Law at Keio University, Iwata joined Dancing Crew JADE, a dance club on campus, and later became its 22nd leader. He met Krump dance group Twiggz Fam at a dance battle event held by JUN aka Twiggz, the pioneer of the Japanese Krump scene. He joined the group after the event and used the alias Boi Twiggz as a member of Twiggz Fam. In 2009, he also participated in 2009 Mr Keio Contest, an event whose winners are determined via online voting.
Career
Iwata did not initially pursue a career in dancing. Like any other normal university students, he already had a job offer from a big company in his final year of university. However, as LDH announced that they wanted to revive J Soul Brothers and form Sandaime J Soul Brothers ("The Third Generation of J Soul Brothers") in July 2010, Naoki Kobayashi, the appointed leader of the new group and Iwata's friend from Twiggz Fam, invited him to participate in the audition for performers of Sandaime J Soul Brothers. On 18 September, at the rehearsal for Exile's Exile Live Tour 2010 'Fantasy' in Noevir Stadium Kobe, Hiro, producer of Sandaime J Soul Brothers, announced that Iwata had passed the audition and was selected as one of the performers of the group. Despite the objection of his parents, Iwata declined the job offer he previously got from a big company and pursued a career in the world of entertainment instead.
On September 27, 2010, Iwata made his first public appearance as a performer of Sandaime J Soul Brothers during the Fantasy Goya-sai: Exile Tamashī (FANTASY後夜祭～EXILE魂～; FANTASY Late Night Festival ~EXILE Soul~) live performance from Exile at Toyota Stadium. On 10 November, Iwata made his major debut as a member of Sandaime J Soul Brothers with the release of the group's first single, "Best Friend's Girl", which debuted at number three on the Oricon Singles Chart. At the time of his debut, he was still a university student. He graduated in March, 2011.
In September 2013, Iwata started his acting career with the play "Attack No.1". In 2014, he was cast in his first film role, playing the grotesquely scarred Hiroki Shibata, head of Kurosaki Industrial in Toshiaki Toyoda's Crows Explode, a sequel to 2007's Crows Zero and 2009's Crows Zero 2. On March 6, 2014, his 25th birthday, Iwata released his first photo-book G Takanori Iwata Sandaime J Soul Brothers from Exile Tribe. Meanwhile, on April 27, 2014, Iwata was chosen to join Exile as a new performer along with four othernew members after he won the "EXILE PERFORMER BATTLE AUDITION" final held in Nippon Budokan. He joined Exile while remaining a member of Sandaime J Soul Brothers. In October of the same year, he appeared with Satomi Ishihara and Nao Matsushita in Fuji TV's drama Dear Sister, in which he played Eito Sakuraba("Hachi"), the best friend of Satomi Ishihara's character Misaki's best friend. As his character was dreaming of becoming a professional skateboarder, Iwata spent lots of time practicing skateboarding to finish the skateboard tricks in the drama.
In 2015, Iwata appeared in two NTV dramas, Wild Heroes in April and High＆Low: The Story of S.W.O.R.D. in October. Starring alongside Exile Tribe's members Takahiro, Sho Aoyagi, Shuhei Nogae, Masayasu Yagi, Taiki Sato, and Keiji Kuroki, he played Harutaro Saeki("Choko"), a former bad boy and a handsome Karaoke manager who was loved by all older women in town in Wild Heroes. On 21 October, the first season of the drama High＆Low: The Story of S.W.O.R.D. was broadcast, which was part of the High&Low franchise, the action and music franchise produced by the Exile Tribe. Iwata played Cobra, leader of Sanno Hoodlum Squad, which was one of the gangs that controlled the S.W.O.R.D. area in the world of the High&Low franchise. As the High&Low franchise continued to produce more films,concerts, games, manga in the following years, Iwata continued to reprise his role in those follow-ups. On 15 October, Iwata teamed up with Sandaime J Soul Brothers' vocalist Hiroomi Tosaka and performer Naoki Kobayashi to form dance and vocal group The Sharehappi from Sandaime J Soul Brothers from Exile Tribe, and released their one and only single, Share The Love, which is a theme song used in the advertisement for Pocky. The Pocky Dance (Pocky Sharehappi Dance) used in the song and the Pocky advertisement became quite a national hit as people around the country continual to imitate the dance move.
Personal life
Iwata got fairly good grades as a student and was ranked top in the national mock examinations for elementary school students. He is a graduate of Keio University. When he was looking for jobs in his university day, one of the jobs he applied for was the position of NTV's anchor.
He is a fan of Christopher Nolan.
Participating groups
Sandaime J Soul Brothers from Exile Tribe (10 November 2010–present)
Exile (27 April 2014–present)
AG Pound (2015–present)
The Sharehappi from Sandaime J Soul Brothers from Exile Tribe (2015–unknown)
Twiggz Fam
Street Kingdom Japan
Filmography
Dubbing
Jurassic World Rebirth (Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey))