Do we like them?

Do we like Jin Akanishi?

Our score: 5 out of 10. Nothing harmful found in what we could see, but there's too little verified on his words, causes or conduct to score him higher.

Jin Akanishi is a Japanese pop singer and actor who first became a star as part of KAT-TUN, one of the big boy bands from the Johnny's talent agency. He was active in the group's early years and was touring the United States as a solo-leaning name by 2010.

The biggest turn in his story is leaving that world. He stepped away from show business for a stretch and Anime News Network reported his return after a 17 month hiatus in 2013, which tells you he was prepared to walk away from a very comfortable system.

In 2012 he was reported to have left the lead of a remake of the TV drama GTO, in the same period he confirmed his marriage. In early 2014 the agency said his contract had ended on 28 February, with both sides agreeing not to renew it, which made him an independent artist.

On the harm test, we searched his name against LGBTQ+ people, women, vaccines, climate, migrants and politics and found no statements, campaigns, donations or co-workers that point the wrong way. That's an absence of evidence in largely English-language results rather than a deep dive, so treat it as a soft pass.

On the good-person side, nothing turned up in court records or credible reporting, and we found no verified charity work or standing up for others at a cost to himself either. We also couldn't open the full articles to check detail, so the evidence boxes are empty and nothing recent has been confirmed.