Billboard now has the story: https://www.billboard.com/articles/...-apologizes-discussing-assault-yamaguchi-maho (includes a tweet from one of our mods!)
She has the stature to say things, she's not a Junior. She's 27 FFS !!! She stood on stage and let a girl who was assaulted apologize for it ?? I'm not a fan of Sasshi, usually can't stand her..... but today she showed what she's made of and I can only say bravo !
Masuda Yuka (Former AKB, 2nd gen) tweet about this incident. https://twitter.com/yuka_masuda/status/1083487793391665153 Translation: https://twitter.com/39_saku_chan/status/1083491444336271360 https://twitter.com/sanatanslator/status/1083557974008713216 Edit: add another tweet from Yuka and the translation(can't find the original tweet now).
I think one of the things that's getting buried is maho's concern about certain ngt members having relationships with fans (which isn't allowed in other groups according to maho) and imo this is one of the root causes of the incident. I'm still hoping the members that were involved will be made to graduate quietly later on. And there's three basing it strictly on crisalpine's translation (one who gave the theatre schedule, one who gave the address, and one who incited at least one guy to go to maho's apartment). And this info was elicited from one or both of the attackers when they were arrested. And it's quite sad how management just brushed aside maho's statement that the second attacker came from a member's apartment. Props to rie for the strong statement of support. She, like maho, has been one of the members that diligently work and follow the rules.
Sashi is in the position and star power to say something and I'm thankful she did. Admittedly, I'm a bit disappointed with Yuki. She's popular and senior enough, she could have said something stronger but within the lines of what's acceptable.
Reading the story on twitter there's a feeling of "the chamber of the secrets has been opened" you know. Fuck management for taking off her stream. Hope she'll be okay and that mngmt does something about it so the 48g doesn't hurt too much (I mean, the girls perform almost everyday, it's easy for a stalker to get to them if they always take the same way home). Btw, who's the sneak member everyone is hinting at?
One of the tropes of this forum is "oh they're all secretly dating anyway" but this shows that some girls are and some stick up for the no dating rule. From what Maho hints it seems like most of Team G heed the rule but there's a small clique in Team N that doesn't (it makes one wonder if management put the clique in the same team on purpose). And management have favored the girls breaking the rule because of money and corruption. Also not favoring one fan over others is sort of a core principle of idols and members dating fans goes against that.
Japanese people are really careful about stalking famous people. They don't even take pictures of them without permission as privacy laws are really harsh. So yes, it could be easy to find out where they live but it's not in their culture to do so. Of course, you have the crazy dudes/girls from time to time, but if this has been anywhere but Japan this would have happened within the first month of their debut.
Talk shows about the assault. if the video does not show watch the video here Oha!4 - ZIP! - Mezamashi TV - Tokudane! https://48idol.com/video/12677
I find it a joke ..... if she was attacked from behind .... how can the victim take out this alarm thingy in time ..... and being a trojan horse effect, if I, the attacker, is related to a member and decides to attack another member .... do they think they stand a chance ? god .... apparently the management dun even know or bother to know why it can happen ; Know the enemy & yourself and the battle is won ......
I think the good thing (apologies, it's not) about Mahohon apologising last night, is that management crossed another line and further exposed themselves for the dirtbags they are. It lit a fire under Maho supporters. It gave Rie, Sasshi et al more firepower to write stronger retaliatory messages against management and publically shame those authorities. News can write these sensationalistic headlines, which stand a better chance at spreading. Talk shows & TV news have easy material. AKS has already given their official explanation, but we all know it's not enough. I can only hope fans & growing public pressure will force them to do something more satisfactory and, even more hopefully, we will have some lasting positive change in NGT
I think most girls (especially those who are serious with this career) do not actively date although given the size of 48G, there's always going to be a number who do. A big difference here is that these unnamed girls at best negligently caused direct harm to another member because(?) of that "extra/special" relationship so I think it's different from allowing a (often a popular) member that got caught to simply end the relationship and continue on. So yah I still hope they get let go quietly -- I think the other girls will feel more safe if these people are gone rather than being given personal alarms.
It's on this morning's Sukkiri hosted Katou Koji. if the video does not show watch the video here The regular co-host Kondou Haruna was especially sympathetic towards Maho. The lady guest, Innuyama Kamiko is also questioning why AKS had Maho apologise. I see one of the regular solicitors from Houritsu Soudanjo and it seemed like he had wanted to comment too but may have been cut off due to insufficient time. The segment ended with the tweet from Sasshi being read.
So I was at work and thinking about this situation all day and I was rereading Maho's summary of events on page 26 of this thread and there are certain things that don't add up for me. I want to preface this by saying that I'm not trying to victim blame. I absolutely believe she was assaulted and that she was telling the truth as she believed, and that she did nothing her and all of her actions up to this point have been justifiable. So the timeline seems to be: 1. A member gives personal information about Maho to some evil dudes about where she lives and when she will come home. 2. The dudes lie in wait outside of her apartment, one in the hallway and one in another member's apartment (?!). 3. As Maho gets off the elevator, Dude #1 attacks her and Maho tries to fight him off. 4. She then says that she hears Dude #2 come out of another member's apartment and "replaces" Dude #1. Meaning that Dude #1 stops attacking her, leaves, and then Dude #2 starts attacking her. 5. The elevator opens and Dude #2 leaves. This doesn't make sense to me for several reasons. A. If Dude #2 was close enough to Maho's neighbor and co-member to be hiding out in her apartment then why would they have needed to acquire the personal information to begin with? Wouldn't they already have known where she lives and around what time she gets off? B. If Dude #1 and Dude #2 were working together to attack Maho then why would they hide in two different places and attack her at two different times? That's some bizarre coordination. And it sounds like Dude #1 attacked her and she fell to the ground which prevented him from pushing her into her apartment. If that was their plan then wouldn't it have made more sense to attack her at the same time to overpower her and push/carry her into her apartment? And why would Dude #1 leave once Dude #2 showed up? C. Why would the police not press charges on such a cut-and-dry case of assault, with witnesses? That seems implausible even when considering the general lackadaisical nature of Japanese cops. D. Why on earth would Maho's neighbor and coworker allow some psycho to lie in wait in her apartment to attack Maho? Even if we assume the member is evil and hated Maho, it just seems completely implausible that she would allow it to happen literally right in front of her own apartment, Maho's apartment, and the apartments of other members. Even if the attack was successful it would basically guarantee she would get caught. Not even the dumbest criminal would do that. To me it sounds like this is what happened: 1. Maho gets assaulted by Dude #1. 2. Dude #2, who was in the member's apartment and was probably her boyfriend, hears the commotion and comes outside. 3. Dude #1 sees him, leaves. 4. Dude #2 sees Maho freaking out and grabs her to try to calm her down. 5. Maho, still in fight or flight response, fights back against him and starts screaming for help. 6. Dude #2 freaks, tries to cover her mouth to get her to stop screaming. 7. Dude #2 hears elevator open, realizes what it looks like (that he's holding down a screaming, panicking idol in the middle of a hallway) and bolts. 8. Cops catch him, he says he just wanted to talk to her (which would have been the truth in this scenario), and let him go. 9. Meanwhile Maho is obviously freaking out. Members are crying. Situations a mess. 10. Management swoops in and tries to hush the whole situation up because they realize Dude #2 is a member's boyfriend and they don't want people finding out that NGT members are dating and bringing dudes back to their dorm. 11. They never charge Dude #1. Why though? Did they never actually catch him? Did management convince them not to for the sake of the hush-hush. Maybe because other members wouldn't talk so as not to get the member in trouble with a dating scandal? 12. Management fucks up and continues to fuck up by keeping Maho in the dark. 13. Maho goes public and all hell breaks loose. 14. Maho realizes what actually happened and apologizes (mainly for accusing other members of malicious intent, which even that wasn't really her fault if management kept her in the dark). To me this is the only scenario that makes sense in terms of how the police acted, how the members acted, how management acted, and why Maho would have apologized later and is seemingly cool with everything. I mean she already went public and its not like NGT is literally holding a gun to her head. The only reason why I could imagine she would have apologized like that is if she realized her side of the story wasn't actually completely right about certain things (namely other members involvement). Even in this scenario management is completely in the wrong and deserves to be fired/punished. I just don't believe any members had malicious intent. At least not to the degree that they would actually be accomplices in Maho's attack. There's also the possibility that everything she remembers is correct except for the part about the second attacker coming out of a member's apartment. That just doesn't seem plausible to me. She may have thought that but was mistaken. Of course there is the possibility that everything is as fucked up as it seems, which is super fucked up.
Mion's tweet may have been a little weak, but it still acknowledged the issue. Yuihan's tweet was a classic cover it up tweet you would expect from management. And honestly, seeing how Juri liked Yuihan's tweet, i'm even more sure than ever that Mion's succession to GM was the right choice. She and Naachan will be strong together. Why is it unbelievable that some members may have actually supported the attack? It's not nice to believe that young girls could really have this dark mindset, but it does happen, so it's wrong to dismiss the likelihood of it being the case. It's unfortunate to admit, but getting someone to 'rough this person up a bit' is a very common thing that often goes overlooked until someone is raped or killed, and even then people get away with no charges. Also, given the climate of the company it's very likely she was made to apologize for mgmt's shortcomings, just as Yuihan was made to apologize for the SSK fiasco in 2017 which she had literally no control over. Theories are one thing, but the idea of her being mistaken doesn't help in the grand scheme of things. It's comments like that which make sexual assault victims afraid to speak up, because essentially tell them "it's all in your head!" "surely it didn't happen that way" "you were scared so you must be confused". This way of thinking is a form of rape culture and doesn't help the case or the victims at all. This isn't me assuming she as raped, we already know that's not the case, i'm basing this solely on your wording. Besides, when you're being coerced, harassed or attacked, you don't forget the details. They remain in the back of your mind forever. Maho wouldn't have clearly mentioned that a man came out of another members room if she wasn't certain if that was true. Just like she did not reveal the members 'for the sake of the group' she wouldn't have said something that could so easily damage the image of the group if she wasn't certain. We should never assume a victim got the details mixed up out of shock/trauma. We need to give her the benefit of the doubt and believe every word she says if we want any action to come out of this. I realize you acknowledge that everything is as it seems and that this is just a theory, but the wording of your doubt for Maho's was so off putting, I couldn't look past it.
