Masaya Kimura (木村 柾哉, Kimura Masaya; born October 10, 1997) is a Japanese singer, dancer, and actor. He debuted as a member and leader of the Japanese boy band INI in 2021 after placing first in the second season of Produce 101 Japan. He made his debut as an actor in the television series I Will Be Your Bloom (2022) and made his film debut with Atashi no! (2024).
Career
Pre-debut
Kimura was initially influenced to learn dancing by his brother, who was a dancer. In 2013, while in high school Kimura was introduced to K-pop and was convinced by his classmates to join the school's dance club. In August 2015, he won second place in the Mr.Solo category of the National High School Dance Drill Championship 2015 and competed in the International division in Los Angeles. After graduating from high school, he studied dance for two years at Nihon Kogakuin College (日本工学院) majoring in hip hop and jazz.
Following graduation, Kimura worked as a back-up dancer and appeared in the works of lol and Seventeen in 2018 and worked alongside Ren Kawashiri of JO1 to form a dance unit. Between 2019 and 2020, Kimura worked as a dance instructor and choreographer at Noa Dance Academy, specialising in R&B and hip hop.
