1995-2001 Before debut Tsubasa Imai said of his impression of Takizawa when he first met him, "His eyes looked exceptionally serious, unlike the others." In 1998, he had also hosted
8 Jida J, a variety show featuring Johnny's trainees. He had been an assistant to Johnny Kitagawa as an interviewer at auditions since he was just 14 years old, shortly after he joined the company. In 2002, He made CD debut with mini-album
Hatachi as the duo
Tackey & Tsubasa with Tsubasa Imai.
2002-2018 Performing career Takizawa worked mainly as an actor on TV and stage in addition to his activities as Tackey & Tsubasa after his debut. He starred in many TV series after his debut, including
Boku dake no Madonna, but his best-known work was the 2005
NHK Taiga Drama Yoshitsune. He played the lead role of
Minamoto no Yoshitsune and became popular along with veteran actor
Ken Matsudaira, who played Yoshitsune's famous follower
Benkei. He was also active on the stage, becoming the youngest director of a musical performance at various theaters, including
Mask (1998) at the Osaka Shochikuza and
Takizawa Enbujo (2006) at the
Shinbashi Enbujo.
Takizawa Kabuki was Takizawa's signature stage series and was said to be a condensed version of the Japanese entertainment created by
Johnny Kitagawa and Takizawa. Then until Takizawa retires from performing in 2018 and hands over the direction to Snow Man in 2023, Takizawa has starred in and produced
Takizawa Kabuki, which was known as a place for many junior trainees to perform and gain stage experience. In 2017, Takizawa starred in his first film role in
Kodomo Tsukai. In August 2017 he was appointed
Japan-
UAE goodwill ambassador by
Taro Kono, the
Minister of Foreign Affairs. In September 2017, it was announced that he take a pause in his activities as Takky & Tsubasa. In September 2018, it was announced that he would retire from performing at the end of the year to focus on producing. It was reported that this was because Johnny Kitagawa himself had appointed Takizawa as his successor. Takizawa had initially planned to work as a producer while continuing his entertainment career, but decided to retire from show business because he felt that he could not handle human life half-heartedly.
2019-2022 As an executive at Johnny's In January 2019, Takizawa became president of a new company, Johnny's Island, a production company for trainees at Johnny's. After the death of
Johnny Kitagawa on July 9, 2019, Takizawa was appointed executive
vice president of the Johnny & Associates on September 27 of the same year. At Kitagawa's "family funeral" on July 12, Takizawa held a portrait of Kitagawa in front of his chest and sat in the passenger seat of the
hearse. At this funeral, because Takizawa was in the position where Kitagawa's relatives would normally sit, and the close relationship between Kitagawa and Takizawa was brought to renewed attention by the tabloid magazines. After the death of Johnny Kitagawa, Takizawa was sometimes called "Chi-sana Johnny-san" (Little Johnny) because he was the person who most inherited Kitagawa's ideas about entertainment and character development. In August 2019, the trainees' concert was held at
Tokyo Dome for the first time in 19 years. It was also the first time for Johnny's to offer the entire live concert on a pay-per-view basis. To Takizawa's credit, it is said that the opening of this channel has made the trainees more widely known to the public. In 2019, he produced a music video of trainee's group
SixTones' new song "Japonica Style." It was released on YouTube, was Takizawa's first produced work and was praised as a groundbreaking piece that incorporated Japanese elements with a cool atmosphere. Takizawa is said to have trained trainee members of Snow Man for his theatre production
Takizawa Kabuki series. Some of the
Snow Man members have appeared in this stage performance series since the beginning, and in 2012, in
Takizawa Kabuki 2012, the formation of a six-member Snow Man was announced, named by Takizawa. Furthermore, in 2019, the production was renamed
Takizawa Kabuki Zero and the lead actor was changed Takizawa to
Snow Man. Takizawa continued to produce the stage performances, and Snow Man made a new start as a nine-member group with the addition of
Ren Meguro,
Koji Mukai, and
Raul from the previous six-member group. The play was also made into a movie in 2020. In 2020, Snow Man and SixTones debuted at the same time for the first time since the passing of Johnny Kitagawa. This was reportedly a decision Takizawa and Kitagawa discussed and decided on June 16, 2019, two days before Kitagawa fell ill from a
subarachnoid hemorrhage. On October 31, 2022, it was announced that Takizawa had departed from Johnny's. Upon hearing of his intention to quit, the company persuaded him not to resign, but finally they respected Takizawa's firm intention to move on to the next stage of his career and allowed him to leave.
2023 Independent, as a president of Tobe On March 21, 2023, Takizawa announced on his
Twitter Space that he was creating a new talent agency
Tobe. He became president. Many artists who used to belong to Johnny's transferred to Tobe during 2023. Among them,
Sho Hirano,
Yuta Jinguji, and
Yuta Kishi, who left
King & Prince to form the new group
Number_i, caught the most attention. Their
YouTube live-streaming by Number_i on October 15 received a sizable response and was viewed by 670,000 people. In March 14 to 17 2024, a joint concert
to HEROes: Tobe 1st Super Live by all the artists in the group was held at
Tokyo Dome. On the 21st of the same month, Takizawa made a comment as the first year of the company's establishment. "We are confident that we will continue to do more than you can imagine. We are still small as a company, but we want to be dynamic in what we do. Dreams are not something to be seen, they are something to be fulfilled,” he said, expressing his determination. On February 6, 2025, Takizawa was announced as director of the opening ceremony for IG Arena in Aichi. The event is scheduled for March 31. ==Personal life==