For nearly three decades, millions of Japanese have clamored for their every album, lined up with breathless anticipation for their concerts and gathered on Monday nights for their hit television show.

近30年来，成百上千万的日本人哄抢他们的每张专辑，满心期待地排队入场参加他们的演唱会，在星期一的晚上收看他们的热门电视节目。

Now, the nation is awash with anguish over word that SMAP — Japan’s longest-running boy band, if it can still be called that with its youngest member pushing 40 — is splitting up.

如今，日本组团时间最长的男孩组合（如果还能叫“男孩”的话，因为其中最年轻的成员也已经将近40了）宣告解散，令整个国家悲痛不已。

The news has dominated newspaper headlines and television talk shows since the band’s announcement this month. Even the mayor of Tokyo and two members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet have weighed in. One said he was worried about the effect on the Japanese economy, the world’s third-largest.

自从乐队在本月宣布这个消息以来，报纸和电视谈话节目里铺天盖地全是相关新闻。就连东京都知事和安倍晋三内阁的两名成员都加入讨论。其中一人表示，他为这件事对目前位居世界第三的日本经济可能产生的影响感到担心。

“We will not let them stop!” a grieving fan wrote in one of more than a dozen petitions on change.org pleading with the aging heartthrobs to remain together. “If we let them go and disband, it means Japan is finished.”

“我们不会让他们停止！”一个悲伤的歌迷在petitions on change.org网站上写道，网站上已经有几十个歌迷痛苦地请求这个已经不再年轻的偶像团体不要解散。“如果我们让他们解散，那意味着日本也完蛋了。”

To understand the bedlam unfolding here, think of the Beatles’ breaking up, the airing of the final episode of “Seinfeld” and the “conscious uncoupling” of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin all rolled into one — the end of an era on the Japanese cultural landscape.

要想搞清楚眼前的这种混乱，不妨设想披头士(Beatles)的解散、《宋飞传》(Seinfeld)最后一集播出时的气氛，以及演员格温妮斯•帕特洛(Gwyneth Paltrow)与克里斯•马丁（Chris Martin，酷玩乐队主唱——编注）“完全清醒地分手”三者加在一起——它意味着日本文化界一个时代的终结。

SMAP’s most famous saccharine single, “The Only Flower in the World,” is regularly taught in Japan’s schools. But SMAP is not just a wildly popular band whose albums have sold more than 35 million copies, making it one of the most successful musical acts in Japanese history.

SMAP最著名的甜歌《世界上唯一的花》(The Only Flower in the World)经常在日本的学校里被教唱。这是一个极度流行的乐队，专辑卖出了3500多万张，是日本历史上最成功的音乐团体之一，然而还不止如此。

For two decades, its five members — Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and Shingo Katori — have also hosted one of Japan’s top-rated television programs, “SMAP X SMAP,” a family-friendly variety show in which they cook for celebrity guests, compete in games, perform comedic skits and, of course, sing. Each has starred on his own in numerous television series, movies and commercials. The frontman, Mr. Nakai, has been a newscaster for several Olympic Games.

20年来，它的五名成员——中居正广、木村拓哉、稲垣吾郎、草彅刚和香取慎吾还主持着日本收视率顶尖的电视节目SMAP X SMAP，这是一档全家皆宜的综艺秀，他们在其中为名人嘉宾烹饪、进行游戏比赛，表演喜剧小品，当然，也唱歌。他们每人都出演过数不清的电视剧、电影和广告。领队中居正广还曾经在若干届奥运会转播中担任解说员。

The group, whose members started out as teenagers performing on skateboards and now range in age from 39 to 44, managed to both broaden its audience beyond adolescent girls and hold on to them over the years. Many of their most ardent fans are women who grew up with them.

这个乐队的成员一开始以滑板少年出道，现在的年龄39~44岁不等，他们的观众超出了青春期少女的范围，一直保持了多年。其中很多最忠诚的歌迷是跟随他们一起成长的女性。

SMAP, an acronym for Sports Music Assemble People, also has legions of fans in China, South Korea, Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia. In 2011, it performed in Tokyo for Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier at the time, and then gave a rare concert in Beijing — which may have helped ease tensions after a Chinese trawler collided with Japanese coast guard ships in disputed waters of the East China Sea.

SMAP是“运动、音乐将人们联合在一起”(Sports Music Assemble People)的首字母缩写，它在中国、韩国、台湾和亚洲其他地方亦有大批歌迷。2011年，它在日本为当时的中国总理温家宝演出，之后少有地在北京举办了演唱会，当时中国的一艘渔船在东海有争议的水域同日本海上保安厅的船只发生了冲突，这场演唱会对于缓和其后的中日紧张关系或许起到了一些作用。

Much of the drama and commentary surrounding SMAP’s breakup has been tied to suspicions among fans and industry analysts of skulduggery by the talent agency that manages the group, Johnny & Associates, which has dominated the Japanese boy-band scene for nearly four decades.

围绕SMAP的解散存在种种说法，歌迷和业界的分析人士怀疑是这家乐队的经纪公司杰尼斯事务所在捣鬼；在将近40年的时间里，这个事务所一直统治着日本的男团界。

Founded by Johnny Kitagawa, now one of the most powerful figures in the Japanese entertainment industry, the agency recruits boys and puts them through a rigorous training program of singing and dancing. They start out as backup performers before the agency assembles them into new bands that it promotes and tightly controls, leveraging the success of its other acts.

该事务所由约翰尼•喜多川(Johnny Kitagawa)所创立，如今他已是日本娱乐业中最有权势的人之一，该事务所招募男孩，对他们进行唱歌和跳舞的严格训练。他们以伴唱伴舞演员的身份出道，之后事务所再把他们重新包装成新乐队，对他们进行推广，并实行严格控制，然后用他们的成功带动旗下的其他团体。

That business model, pioneered in Asia to dizzying success by Mr. Kitagawa with SMAP and other groups, has since been replicated by talent agencies in China and South Korea, many of which have been accused of signing children to “slave contracts” that require them to surrender half or more of all profits for as long as a decade.

喜多川的这种商业模式为SMAP和其他团体带来了令人晕眩的巨大成功，从而在亚洲倡导了风潮，其做法被中国和韩国的经纪公司复制。这些经纪公司中的很多家此前曾遭到指控，与孩子签下“奴隶合约”，要求他们在长达十年的时间里放弃自己带来的一半乃至更多利润。

According to Japanese news reports, SMAP decided to call it quits after four of its members tried to leave the Johnny agency, which is said to control their appearances on television and in movies, as well as merchandising rights to their images.

根据日本的新闻报道，SMAP是在其中四名成员决定离开杰尼斯事务所后决定解散的，据说该事务所仍然控制着他们的电视和电影合约，以及他们在广告中使用自己形象的权利。

In announcing the band’s dissolution, the agency said it would continue to represent each of the group’s members as solo acts. The agency said it had initially proposed a temporary break but that “some members” wanted a permanent split.

在乐队的解散声明中，事务所说它将继续代理每个乐队成员的个人发展合约。事务所还表示，它本来提议暂时解散，但是“有些成员”希望永久解散。

SMAP seemed on the verge of disbanding in January as rumors swirled of infighting. But in a rare live appearance on their television show, the singers, wearing somber black suits, announced that they were staying together and apologized for having caused their fans distress.

今年1月，曾经有内讧的谣言传出，SMAP似乎已处在解散边缘。但是他们在自己的电视节目中通过直播罕见地露面，五人穿着沉重的黑色西装，宣布他们会继续在一起，并为之前让歌迷伤心而道歉。

The public apology was viewed in nearly seven million households, and even the prime minister, Mr. Abe, was moved to comment, telling a parliamentary committee that “the group will remain intact in response to many fans’ wishes, which is good.”

将近700万个家庭收看了这场公开道歉，就连安倍首相也受到感动，对一个国会委员会说，“这支组合不负众多歌迷的愿望，没有解散，真是太好了。”

Mr. Abe has yet to address the breakup.

安倍目前还没有对组合解散发表评论。

Each of the band’s members has issued a written statement, but so far only two have spoken in public about the split, apologizing on their weekly radio shows for surprising fans with the announcement.

每位组合成员都发表了书面宣言，但只有两人就解散发表了公开讲话，在自己的每周电台节目里向惊讶的歌迷道歉。

Writing in Josei Seven, a weekly magazine, the cultural critic and columnist Akio Nakamori asked if the performers were being muzzled.

文化评论家和专栏作家中森明夫(Akio Nakamori)在《Josei Seven》 周刊上发表文章，质问这些艺人们的言论是否受到了限制。

“Just recently the emperor talked about the abdication,” Mr. Nakamori wrote, referring to the televised address in which Emperor Akihito expressed his desire to retire. “It was such an unusual thing. He decided to talk to the people. I wonder if SMAP is more untouchable than the imperial family? They should at least have a press conference or even a recorded video, and directly talk to fans.”

“最近，天皇还说起退位，”中森提起明仁天皇表达退位愿望的电视讲话。“这是非同寻常的事。他决定对人民讲话。我想SMAP是不是比皇室还要难以接触？他们至少应该举办一场新闻发布会，甚至是录一段视频，直接对歌迷说话。”

Given SMAP’s popularity in Asia, Japan’s minister of economy, trade and industry, Hiroshige Seko, said he was concerned that the breakup might undermine the country’s “Cool Japan” campaign, aimed at exporting Japanese culture to foreign countries.

鉴于SMAP在亚洲的流行程度，日本的经济产业大臣世耕弘成(Hiroshige Seko)说，他担心乐队解散会损害日本旨在向外国输出日本文化的“Cool Japan”计划。

But there are signs that SMAP is already being replaced by its successors.

但是有迹象表明，SMAP已经被后继者取代。

On a visit this week to a store run by Johnny & Associates in the Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo, I watched fans buy professional photo cards of their favorite singers, but there were no SMAP cards on sale. And when I checked out an official fan club in the Shibuya district, also operated by the agency, I saw videos only of other Japanese boy bands playing on a screen.

这个星期我去了杰尼斯事务所在东京原宿开的店，看到歌迷在购买专业摄影师为他们喜爱的歌星拍的照片，但是没有SMAP的卡片出售。后来我又去了涩谷一家同样由杰尼斯事务所运营的官方歌迷俱乐部，结果看到一个大屏幕里放着其他男孩团体的视频。

A wall was covered with current promotional posters for multiple boy bands. There was just one for SMAP, from 2012.

店内的一面墙上贴着不少男孩团体的宣传海报，其中只有一张是SMAP，而且还是2012年的。