HIRO to retire from EXILE
HIRO (43) of EXILE has announced that he will retire from being an EXILE performer by the end of the year. Though he will no longer stand and perform on stage, he will continue to be the leader and producer of the group. After 13 years of being in EXILE, HIRO has decided to concentrate on developing young talents within his agency, LDH.
He commented that when EXILE changed from a 7-man group to a 14-member group in 2009, he was already thinking about retiring and was just waiting for the right timing to do so.
SOURCE
this greatly saddens me but I will support HIRO all the way!