A few weeks ago, popular actor Yu Shirota announced at the end of a D-BOYS performance that he would be graduating from the group. On July 6, he wrote on his official blog that he had just graduated, but he followed it up with another post this past Friday saying a bit more about his status.

According to Friday's entry, Shirota claims that there won't be any significant changes, and that he still expects to be working with the other D-BOYS members. He also mentioned that he had heard that some fans were shocked, but he urged them to not take it so seriously and to think of it as just another step as an adult.

The D-BOYS website itself still lists Shirota as a member and does not include his graduation under the news topics. It is not yet clear how much impact Shirota's graduation will actually have.