STARTO Entertainment filed its 2026 arena touring contracts with the Japan Entertainment Business Association in March, booking the Kyocera Dome and the Saitama Super Arena at per-show guarantees that carry no upstream obligation to the SMILE-UP K.K. victim compensation pool. The pool, funded by asset liquidation from the company that renamed itself SMILE-UP in October 2023, is still paying. The touring revenue is STARTO's.

Johnny & Associates filed the spin-off registration with the Tokyo Legal Affairs Bureau in January 2024, transferring touring contracts, broadcast rights, and sync licensing to STARTO Entertainment while SMILE-UP retained the compensation claims and the asset liquidation schedule that funds them. I checked this at 11pm in a Sheung Wan Family Mart, the 7-Eleven having lost its wifi. The trainees who signed with STARTO signed new paper. The Kitagawa estate is not on it.