NGT48 Assault Case

Finally something positive from management! I'm still mad they got her to apologise when she did nothing when that coward Imamura hides.

 

idk what I was expecting tbh. I guess Sasshi's response and the way she spoke out was rather impressive to me since she's the most well known and popular member. Miichan is the last person in the whole 48-group to remember the entire beginning and is still a current 48-idol. Her response is just something I was very curious about cause her incident is super well known and she's been through a lot of harassment herself. Maybe she has some ideas or has seen improvement happen over the years? IDK just feel like she would have such a good perspective since she's seen it all.

 

You guys should remember that the management will do everything they can to shut down this situation. Tokyo 2020 is coming really soon and the 48G are doing their best to make their image become better in public eyes (for example, the non-bikini rule). That's why what the J-nets are doing right now is a must, b/c if not, the story will slowly fade away, people will slowly forget about it and everything will be back to how it used to be. Nothing will change, and the girls will have no choice but to keep living in that hell hole until they can't take it anymore and have to run away (by graduating).

 

Had to dust off the old account when I saw this in the news. I've waited for more information before throwing in my 2 cents. It seems their is still a ton of speculation going around on which members knew what and when they knew it. NGT management messed up big time and I am glad to see new people being brought in. I see that NGT is losing sponsors and I hope that this does not bring about the groups end and that they can recover. It's basically punishing the members who work beyond what is healthy because of the failings of management and the possible not yet proven actions of some members.

You know I've felt for years that Aki-p has been trying to maintain AKB and the 48 group as a whole in terms of image and popularity mainly so that they can perform at the 2020 Olympics and that was at least one of the reasons he kept expanding the group especially internationally beyond what seems sustainable long term.

 

I've been following this thread for days and one thought keeps coming to my mind... If the guys weren't trying to harm her and they just wanted a picture or talk to her why not approach calmly before she opened the door? What was the point on wait hidden till she was almost inside her house and jump on her?
Their intentions were clearly violent...

 

im sure anyone with any common sense knew that "they were fans that wanted to talk" excuse was b.s. the first time they heard it

 

The latest relationship diagram is translated https://twitter.com/rikoriko_xo/status/1085295324040699906?s=19

Spoiler: TRIGGERED

NB: he mistranslated Shida Manaka's name

 

Right, but then what I don't understand Is the police poor actions... I Will expect more than just 3 weeks for that...
It's all so shady...

Also I seen some posts in this thread doubting Maho and trying to make theories as what were they doing there just to excuse the girls that are apparently involved...

I think the facts are very clear... She was attacked and there Is a reason why the police only ask those two members phones and statements... If they weren't involved it wouldn't be a reason for doing that and they didn't ask any other member to do it. They are not the only 3 living there....

 

Agreed. I think the 48G is just getting waaaay too big to be sustainable, and as with MANY companies that expand, the more management that gets hired, and the more complex the hierarchy, the more things slip through the cracks and bad things can happen.

I long for the early days of AKB48 and SKE48....and leaving it to just a few dozen members, that we can focus on....not hundreds and hundreds of members who get starry eyed about being an idol in the biggest name, but then have a 90% chance of not having a viable entertainment career beyond it.....compared to how it began

 

CNN has now picked up the story:
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/16/...xual-assault-apology-bullying-intl/index.html

 

That isn't really any different from how it started, unfortunately.

 

Am I the only person surprised Yamaguchi Maho hasn't announced graduation or up and quit yet? I mean maybe it's not possible for her to do it until the incident is settled especially the legal side of it since police got involved, but I don't think that I'd want to stay in NGT48 if I were in her shoes. Even with a change in management they didn't fire Imamura just relocated him so she'd still likely see him at some point and know this is a man directly responsible for keeping her safe who failed to do so, and she will also have to feel that way about the rest of the management save anyone new who she also will probably have a hard time trusting.

Then there are her fellow members and the fragmented trust she'll probably always feel hereafter between them. It just feels very counterproductive to stay in the group. I also think this incident will make many other members especially members who are "innocent" in the incident ponder graduation because the incident will make them wonder if they're any safer than Maho was. 2019 is going to be a very interesting year for NGT48 for sure after an incident like this, good lord.

About Tokyo2020, I thought it was pretty agreed upon that the 48s and probably even the 46s wouldn't be there. When did that change? While I can agree Aki-p and pals would prefer that the groups have a good image going into 2020 I don't think it's specifically for being there simply so they don't make Japan look bad if anyone happens to look their way and really unless anyone bothers looking beyond the surface they should be pretty safe even with an incident like this. If something like this happened at the end of 2019 though and was still a big media buzz in 2020 then yeah that'd be a problem. What they ultimately need now is other celebrity news to sink this to the bottom of celebrity news pool.

 

"I don't know if this has been posted before, but Tokyo Sports has published an article about this issue:

https://twitter.com/qc_bb/status/1085593533740974080

Tokyo Sports newspaper in its Jan. 17, 2019 issue reports with the sub-headlines, "Stalker activities funded by money from the media" "Intimidation of male fans, and extending a dirty hand to female fans."

Tokyo Sports publishes article on #NGT48, claiming that a former manager, Ms. Kitagawa, was harassed by the "Idol Hunter Gang." She is likely the manager that Inaoka claimed to have forced out through his connection to management.

 

I keep expecting to hear that inapooh and the joe-kai gang got beaten up by fans. That is probably not very likely but for some reason I keep expecting to hear that it has happened.

 

I think you misunderstood me. I am concerned about NGT members making their relationships public not because they have relationships, but because NGT is apparently treated differently by upper management than the other 48 groups. I don't have any qualms about RKJ in general. I'm the same as you in believing that relationships are a natural and inevitable part of life, and the same in preferring idol relationships be kept private and not flaunted on Showroom or what have you. I have no illusions that many of the girls have relationships, and it's fine as long as they act safely and responsibly.

My post had nothing to do with RKJ itself and everything to do with the safety and well-being of the girls.

Point Number One: NGT is obviously being held to a different standard than the rest of the 48 Group, which is inherently unfair to the other groups. Why should a girl from a sister group be eviscerated by the public and in tabloids over being caught with a man, while it's A-OK for NGT members to be openly dating and having men in their rooms? Tabloid scandals are quite arguably not good for a member's well-being. And regardless of the fact that dating scandals are now treated case-by-case, they still damage a member's reputation, cause her to lose fans, and often, even harm her career in a direct way (being pulled from senbatsu, getting her group kicked out of Kouhaku, etc.). The point is, it's about justice. RKJ should apply to everyone, or it should apply to no one.

Point Number Two: In this specific case, many NGT members are living in the same apartment, as a sort of dormitory. If even a single member has an outside relationship and brings that relationship into the dorm area, it causes every girl in that dormitory to have to deal with that relationship, whether it be directly or indirectly. If there is a domestic disturbance, everyone is affected. If that member chose her boyfriend poorly and he feels inclined to take secret photos of the girls or even assault one of them, that's something everyone living there has to deal with. Any number of sticky or downright nasty situations could arise. Whether following RKJ or not, members should not be bringing their relationships to work with them.

Point Number Three: In Maho's specific case, she looked around her, saw points one and two as an issue, and allegedly spoke up about it, which is what allegedly led to her being assaulted. There are no concrete facts, so whether this is truly the case or not is still up in the air, but it seems likely to me judging by the reactions and social media posts of other members in the group as well as Maho herself.

What I was saying in my post is that general management and at least a good number of fans saw these dangerous, contradictory situations going on and did nothing about it. They allowed select NGT members to flaunt themselves any way they pleased and to make poor decisions that go directly against brand, and look what they ended up with? An assault, some arrests, investors backing out, the entire world's critical eye upon them, and a kickoff of women's rights movements in Japan.

By all means, the members can date. Just keep it fair, keep it private, and for the love of all that is holy, keep it away from work.

 

I wonder what's the next step in AKS/Bunshun plan to stop wotas from snooping around.

 

- Ask police to give statement. Check
- Reshuffle the management. Check
- Apologize in public. Check
- Forming third party investigation. Check
- Get rid of toxic members. (On progress I believe)
- Get a safer place to stay for members. (Have read about it somewhere)
...
What else you think they need to do/can do?
Even though some of those points not really satisfying on how it was carried, have to fairly say they did it.

 

I think this is one of the biggest points that make me uncomfortable about the RKJ front of this discussion. Sasshi, Miichan, Naana, Mikichan, Riripon (to a lesser extent I guess) and so many others were utterly BLASTED or otherwise punished for committing the crime of having relationships with people of the opposite sex, to the point that some are still feeling the ripples of those actions YEARS later, even though they never really harmed anything other than some wotas sense of entitlement. Now there are girls who are stepping into outright criminal connections thanks to breaking the RKJ (we all can agree that's way worse if someone is getting assaulted as a direct result of you sneaking men into your living quarters, men who you know actually feel like they have some sort of power or ownership over these girls) and now management is trying to protect so hard these members who have physically ENDANGERED others. I understand that after the Miichangate management decided they should like, you know, try to sweep some stuff under the rug a little, analyze stuff on a case by case basis, but in this case I definitely feel like these girls should be punished for violating RKJ. Not for the sake of RKJ itself, but because as a consequence they introduced dangerous people in a place where single young women from outside of town should be able to feel safe and comfortable... HOME. If they want to meet men they can sneak into a Loveho with their boyfriends every day for all I care as long as their actions don't hurt others.

 

Truth be told I don't know, but one thing for sure it's not working. Hell, yesterday Bunshun scoop was debunked in hour or something, and another 5ch finding turned out to be true (inapoo bragging about getting rid of manager and Tokyo Sport article for example).