NGT48 Assault Case

Mahohon antis on 5ch have been having a field day about Gatanee selling out a slot of handshakes while Maho's three allies haven't.

Spoiler: AKB48 55hシングル「タイトル未定」劇場盤　3次終了時点

AKB48 55hシングル「タイトル未定」劇場盤　3次終了時点
【NGT48】
TeamNⅢ　　　　　　　TeamG　　　　　　　　 研究生
西潟 　　*1/30(2). 　 本間日　*3/30(2). 　 大塚 　　*0/*6
荻野 　　*0/30 　 　　中井 　　*0/23(1). 　 小越 　　*0/*6
加藤美　*0/23 　 　　小熊 　　*0/23 　 　　川越 　　*0/*6
高倉 　　*0/23 　 　　中村歩　*0/23 　 　　小見山　*0/*6
太野 　　*0/11 　 　　奈良 　　*0/12 　 　　曽我部　*0/*6
西村 　　*0/11 　 　　長谷川　*0/*8 　 　　高沢 　　*0/*6
山田野　*0/*6 　 　　菅原り　*0/*6 　 　　寺田陽　*0/*6
佐藤杏　*0/*6 　 　　日下部　*0/*6 　 　　富永 　　*0/*6
清司 　　*0/*6 　 　　角 　 　　*0/*6 　 　　古澤 　　*0/*6
＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿__村雲 　　*0/*6 　 　　古舘 　　*0/*6
＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿__＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿__真下 　　*0/*6
＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿__＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿__三村 　　*0/*6
＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿__＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿__諸橋 　　*0/*6
＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿__＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿__山崎美　*0/*6
＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿__＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿__渡邉 　　*0/*6

柏木 　　24/28

對馬 　　*0/*6
安藤 　　*0/*6
高橋七　*0/*6
藤崎 　　*0/*6
佐藤海　*0/*6

 

probably people queing up to call her an evil slut

 

Handshake? How many Maho’s supporters who are dumb to spend money to fill up AKS’s pocket? I am rejecting any AKS-related stuffs until the case is solved satisfactorily.

 

This is what we all should be doing

 

Well, we all know AKS don’t care if they do or not. They ain’t good at “protection” and. they already got “your” money.

 

Seriously I think, at this moment, to close (like Mahohon tread) all NGT treads, except this, is the right way. I don't want to hate anyone but to see any discusion in members' treads like there is nothing happend (new show, photo, showrood, news etc)... It makes me feel disgusting.
And same as japanese media is hapend here too. Stage48 prefer to close her tread instead others like she did something wrong and with the desire not to make a lot of noise about this crime... I don't see any support from Stage48! I mostly found news in onehally site but not here...

#JusticeforMahohon

 

The Mahohon thread is open, btw... not closed.

 

#CagedHeat

 

Might as well share this full translation of a column recently published on Zaikei (which itself has written continously about the case, while being up to date on the developments). I have been reading several opinion pieces about the case over this month (many not worthwhile), while I'd rather not give prominence to one over the others, this is the one that I found to be more on-point about the issues, out of the ones I have seen recently.

---
The way to confront the "necessary evil" that the NGT incident has posed a question on

The physical assault case which involved NGT48's Yamaguchi Maho-san is about to undergo examinations by the third-party committee, and with it, it's gradually going toward a phase of quiescence.

In the coverages presented by major media outlets and journalists, they seem to have stuck to the conclusion that the incident was just a lone-wolf offence caused by the sole perpetrators themselves (who ended without prosecution), one with no inherently illegal aspects about it, and with even the whole course of events -- in which part of the members passed around private informations and incited the assault on Yamaguchi-san -- being put down as her own misunderstanding, or possibly her own presuppositions.

To tell it a little more in detail, the story has it that Yamaguchi-san reported to the management about certain members who were maintaining close associations with fans, and this led to a warning notice being issued by the management itself to the other members. Following that, fans (?) of the members who complained about it then went on to "arrange a talk with Yamaguchi-san", thus giving rise to this incident.

Putting a long story short, given how it's not possible to charge anyone in there with legal responsibilities, there might be severe warnings handed down to the members who were personally associating with fans, and possibly also some kind of penalties instead, but one would be led to imagine they'll never get as far as issuing disciplinary measures in the form of job dismissals or graduations, anyway.
Naturally, going for such a settlement sitting in the gray zone is nothing desirable, but it can be argued that reaching a narrow compromise along these lines might be probably inevitable, if for the sake of the group's survival.

In any case, while we have repeated it several times already, this incident points at a structural problem of the whole AKBG family, and especially of its own local groups. As a journalist, I want to keep close attention on whether drastic measures are going to be taken or not, in today's case.

While this time it happened in NGT, in the past personal relationships with fans were also discovered in NMB as well, resulting in an incident where the members then faced punitive measures. And even in HKT, mass dismissals happened in the early days.

When it comes to the sister groups of AKB, their circumstances mean it is difficult for them to gain a nationwide fame unless you first yield significant results at the Sousenkyo and manage to be selected for the AKB Senbatsu. For this reason, it is just unavoidable that, willing or not, on certain sides, they would end up developing a reliance on those big-spending wotas who tend to cast large amounts of votes of their own.

In the case of NGT's incident, a specific circle of fans was brought up on media, but the fact is that similar circles do exist in any local group, no matter where they are.

In response to people who voiced complaints about them, NGT's theater manager, Imamura, was reported to have made statements to the effect of "I am working on taming them". But isn't it possible that a part of him was instead thinking about how much he wished to get as many members of his own group as possible into the AKB Senbatsu?

Groups of troublemaking wotas like those tend to have strong communication power on the Internet, in some cases even acting as if they exercise control over the place in question. This means that, sure enough, depending on which way they are employed, they may also have a convenient side to them.
At the same time, there exists also circles whose behavior comes dangerously close to criminality, be it by hoarding tickets and limited merchandise for resale, engaging in coerced scam-like sales of photos, not to mention buying and selling personal informations and aiding each other in evading transportation fees.

Both the management and the members themselves are carrying a dilemma: while they don't want to stick too close to such individuals, they would also find themselves in difficulty if only those people were to go away.

This is a problem that is not only affecting the sister groups within AKBG family, but anything ranging from underground idols and local idols, all the way to major groups such as AKB and Nogizaka.

Even so, when it comes to Sakamichi groups which don't hold election events, or large-scale groups which manage to run well even without resorting on big-spending wotas, their impact is lesser and measures to keep distances from them can also be considered. But from the standpoint of those groups and those members that can't avoid depending on their valuableness, seeing them as a "necessary evil", there are also certain aspects that stand out where they have no other options available.

This is strictly a personal consideration as a journalist, but I believe that NGT48 needs to be dissolved for a period of time.
Once there, I'd wish to see it being reformed once again, though not before making it clear if they are going to be a clean group -- the same way as Yamaguchi Maho herself had advocated for -- but one which now must work its way toward the whole country by relying on its own strength alone, after getting themselves rid of these necessary evils.
Or alternatively, if they would be a group that, while retaining their intention of making the best of what is poisonous, would maintain the same middling distance -- not too close, nor too far -- with such necessary evils, after paying close consideration to the safety aspects.

But of course, this is just unfeasible proposal, after all...

---
Source: https://www.zaikei.co.jp/article/20190208/493738.html

 

I believe the sentiment is felt too on other sister group fans, whom has to circumvent their fewer fanbase compared to AKB.
Which means higher chance of said big-spending fans to overstep his/their line when there's no other control deterrent.

Indirectly explain that if NGT members are to be moved, it's not a guarantee of clean slate either on the new plate.

 

^^^ Who is against taking money from assholes as a principal though? And if you are talking about aks being privately owned and engaged in voluntary transaction with wotas in question then sure, that would be capitalism.

^^^^ article is heavily conjectured.

Also the proposed solution of breaking the group to take out the bad actors and reforming again is kind of unattainable, not because aks is corrupt. The problem comes down to who defines who is "necessary evil".

1. You have the members freely define the bad actors. They might have free rein to just include people who they personally dislike, and as the article stated they might be incentivized to keep bad actors around because of their contributions. The unfortunate aspect of service industry is you meet difficult customers from time to time, but learning how to get around it is important.

2. Management defines bad actors. This is a dystopian idea when they have to police people's morality. They aren't in member's lanes all the time so they miss out on the nuance, and they don't have the complete picture of the rapport. That would leave tremendous room to discriminate based on various other factors. The only other plausible way is to somehow monitor their activities outside of HS events like SNS or news. Monitoring millions of people to find motivate would require something like a government.


^ I don't think you can unequivocally say that sister groups have less fans though. Especially when we are talking about elections, SKE always outperforms.

^^ I generally agree with your point, but it is also based on what the article purports to have happened. I also agree that nothing new will come out at this point, and already predicted that people will mark the investigation as biased and won't accept the results unless it is the one they desired. At the conclusion though, something will have to give with one side quitting or the other side fired/suspended.

 

A field day over what exactly? Hinatan outselling her? Gatanee down to one slot sold in Round 3 when she was at 7 for NWM and 5 for Sentimental Train? If anyone expected NGT's top fisher to just stop selling completely because of this they're a fool.

And those people aren't Mahohon antis, they're just trolls.

 

Absolutely agree with regards to all those updates as though nothing happened. Really disgusting. Just dislike. Katomina's boobs + wonkily photoshopped face won't make me forget about Ayakani's crimes.

 

nakai rika is currently showrooming. is this the first ngt member to showroom since maho's tweet-storm?

 

Yes (she has been doing it for the last couple of days).

 

hm, i wonder why it's her. she doesn't usually showroom very often as far as i know.

 

It just give me the feeling she does not care what really happen to her team or NGT, she only care about Nakai Rika.

 

yeah, there's always that, but there used to be other members who did daily or almost daily showrooms. and maybe she's hoping to capitalize on the ngt showroom vacancy.

 

More likely a lot of the "gag order" stuff from AKS doesn't apply to her because she has a separate and powerful agency behind her.