NGT48 Assault Case

The idea popped up in my head while I followed that epic K-pop scandal. This practice has been done in Korea, usually in a forceful way.

It's said these guys involving in this case of Maho could spend so much/could rig to place NGT's members high in ranking. One also was rumored to be a nephew the chief of Burning. They all must be so rich or so influential and peoples often ganged up of those of similar backgrounds. Possibly, they all related to the J-ent mafia.

So, I thought, "what if the agency shield the suspected members to not piss this influential gang? But, this gang had been banned from other idol groups before and those groups still did so well. NGT would not be much affected pissing them.

But, what if it's not just all VIP perks that kept these guys supporting NGT, if NGT's girls were used as incentives? This will answer all questions; why the agency so lenient on Tano & friends seeing Joe's Gang, was the money these girls generated worth all sponsorship cancellation, why Maho did not gave names of members involved, why the report had that scandalous segment saying 12 members had relationships with fans etc.

The agency shielded the members to save its own asses. It was its mistake hooking the girl up with Joe's Gang. The scandalous segment was there wishing the public would be carried away guessing who those members might be and no one ever realize the agency was the one sowing the plant yielding this toxic fruit. Maho has not given names because she has realised the wrongdoings of the members is the toxic fruit from the plant sown by the agency, the very core of the problem is the agency, not the members.

And then, there is this mobile mail message from Maho sent after the press con saying her life might have been better if she did not turn down the man introduced to her.

Not really. Maho stated members telling the guys her infos. The agency said no member was accomplice nor co-principal of the crime. If those members telling her infos without knowing it would be used to attack her, the statements from both sides are true.

I repeat, not even the reason the culprits were released without prosecution was clarified
Looking from legal point of view, I find nothing questionable. According to attackers' testimonies, they were drunk and, as they knew Maho was coming back, they wanted to invited her to their gathering, they didn't mean to hurt her, just meant to silence her but went overboard as they freaked out.
As I've repeated many times, it is no way to disprove their excuses, no way to verify their intentions. So, what kind of offenses they are punishable of? Definitely not serious enough to proceed to the court and, they had been jailed in the police station for 21 (or 27?) days. That is already very harsh of the punishment punishable for such offense.

members who had admitted to have had relationships with the criminal group.
The "criminal group" highly likely referred to Joe's Gang. I don't remember Maho said members "admitted" their association with criminal group but everybody inside NGT must know who are members associated with Joe's Gang.

How much the police told Maho was doubtful. Usually, the police does not tell everything to the victim.

What is the point to investigate about the renting? Why is it matter whoever lived in the room before that guy rented it? Whoever lived in that room, she was not the legal tenant but the agency was, the man did not rent the room from her but from the real estate agent of the landlord. How Man A rented other rooms in the city and rented that room in the same building some months in advance even suggested that he did not rent the room simply to attack Maho and just wanted to live close to/stalk NGT's girls.

If he could bulk buy voting ballots/handshake tickets the fee for 4 rooms in Niigata was nothing. He might come from a very well-off family or working in illegal business (so not want to talk about his job). On what ground did you "presume" B lived in that room?

rebutting a theory with another theory
But, if it's true he had been a tenant for some time, it's more logical to think he did not need the help from anyone to figure out in which room Maho lived.

Why was it questionable how they knew which building NGT girls lived in? Seeing how close he was to some NGT's girls, it would be surprising if they did not know.

The "hypothetical" bullying?
Are you sure the agency just "turn blind eyes" on everything? Are you sure it did not deeply connect to the issue?

Unless, there is already poison in every groups without us knowing.

Seeing how NMB's girls ranked in election, I suppose Yoshimoto did not encourage such relationship between fans and members.

This rumor is bullshit. Tano & friends were amiable to Joe's Gang. They certainly were not forced to see them.

 

Wouldn't be providing the assailants with information on Maho (when she got home, where she lived) make them accomplices, though? Or does it depend on the girls' intention? I mean, they could easily claim something as, "He asked for her address so he could send a letter/bring her a gift." Either way, I think giving out someone's private information should be illegal. It is illegal in my workplace to even give out the family name, let alone phone numbers or addresses - and I'm just a lowly paid sales person.

 

another radio program got suspended.
https://www.fmniigata.com/user/prog/prog_id/244/

 

and then there was silence......


gonna be hard to find a new job for NGT48 members without agency now

 

ngt is a huge magnet right now, attracting bullets and repelling jobs.
what have the girls been doing for this period of time? and in this imminent future?

if not for port de ngt there's nothing scheduled for april. NOTHING.

 

I'm just angry. I'm angry at management, I'm angry at the attackers, I'm angry that some NGT members don't seem to care and I'm angry because I don't know where this leaves the innocent members and I how I feel about the group now.

 

Let's see how much longer Port FM holds out... I feel bad for the girls that have graduated school already and aren't doing anything besides NGT. The young girls at least shouldn't have to worry about making money anyway and they can try and distract themselves with school work.

I hope, however, that the girls involved are really struggling right now

 

If they're transferring some of the complicit members that probably isn't going to go over well for them. It's very likely the other groups know a lot about what happened inside of NGT, or at least have tons of rumors and speculations, and that was probably quickly spread after Maho's initial outing on social media about it. They probably do know who the unnamed members are in the report, as well as the ones who admitted to outside relationships and other dealings.

Seeing how destructive the complicit members' behavior has been, it's likely the rumored members will be ostracized, and at that point it would be better for them if they graduated.

 

Wouldn't be surprised if that was management's plan anyway. As someone has mentioned, it seems that management has been encouraging this fan relationship in order to increase sales, so kicking the girls directly would be unfair. However, if they transfer the girls and then they graduate because they feel ostracised, those fans that are on the 'naughty' girls' side won't be able to hold it against management, find another girl to spend money on and the problem seems solved :/

 

Again, what? It is not even in the same ballpark.. The manager meeting resulted in consequences because a) Togasaki wasn't a manager, not even an employee of AKS anymore, b) that (now) unrelated private person talked about the meeting publicly on Twitter and stated outright they'd been discussing the case, and c) the investigation into that case was still ongoing and had not released its report. They're teammates, they said nothing publicly, and the investigation, whether you like it or not, is over.

You're basically demanding they stay in their homes until... I have no idea, the end of time I guess? But that's awful for their mental well-being (and yes that goes for Mahohon and the rest of NGT too). To me it looks like you're just angry they're having any kind of fun. Or for the sake of being angry. And I'm sorry, but that is lunacy.

 

Oh fair point! But also ugh. The girls at the least broke the rules and there should be consequences for that, but under this assumption it's so underhanded and goes back to how obnoxious it is that management isn't taking responsibility and appropriate action. I think the other groups should be rightfully upset having supposed complicit members join them, but management allowing to foster a negative atmosphere by pushing those transfers in the first place is demoralizing for everyone.

Though I guess which is worse, having a spectacle made of forced graduation due to scandal or leaving later for being an outcast? I suppose either way fans would assume those graduations were due to the NGT scandal, but perhaps at least if the girls graduated after transfer it would be more vague and potentially receive less negative attention? Not saying they should, but saying if I was a member I'd probably try to avoid blow back.

 

Maybe. I do think the report did much more to shield Imamura than the members. Sure it didn't name them, but it poured fuel onto the speculation fire. Meanwhile, Imamura vanished

Pretty sure that was sarcasm. Missed what you were talking about.

Even besides that, since the case first broke we've known about Inapooh and his idol stalking and info selling business (although I wonder how much of that is exaggerated by his enemies or people taking shitpost tweets seriously). They could have gotten the info (or some of it) from him instead of the girls they blamed.

 

You really are amazing, wlerin. You are management’s absolute dream fan.

The investigation is over but the situation is not resolved because nearly everyone agrees that the investigation was a farse. That’s why NGT has lost all their sponsors and media programs. The group is radioactive at the moment and that kind of behavior from suspect members is only fanning the flames.

I never said they had to stay at home - maybe read what I wrote instead of making up things that I said - but only that the three of them going out oublicky together was a stupid move, and it was. It’s not endearing sponsors to their company and it is further alienating fans who are confused, angry, and scared. Same goes for tactless SNS posts like Ogiyuka’s recent watermelon bread one. People understandably did not react well, and neither did the media.

I’m not sure if you’re just unable to understand the feelings and emotions of others or are just absolutely hellbent on pretending everything is resolved and back to normal, but it isn’t lunacy to expect people to be considerate of other people’s feelings - this includes Maho and the fans.

The fact that you read my last post and what you came away with is “he expects them to lock themselves away for an indefinite period of time” just shows either a serious lack of comprehension or a determination to continue to argue in bad faith.

 

Being considerate of people's feelings is admirable. Being bound by other people's feelings is not, especially when those feelings are completely irrational. When people throw a fit over a simple tweet about a eating a popular confection, do you really think those "feelings" should be considered? No. That is emotional manipulation of the worst sort, an attempt to exert control over other people's lives by finding offense in the tiniest things. Harassment of that kind should be condemned not catered to.

And how were they being inconsiderate? You're acting like they flaunted this trip in people's faces, when they were completely silent about it. There only seem to be photos of them in transit and from papparrazzi angles.

Except that's exactly what you'd have them do.

 

At some point they will have to cut their losses, with so many sponsors and media leaving. AKS will have to either come up with a pretty good plan to restablish the NGT brand or allow it to survive from hardcore fans and lives, making them practically chika-Idol. Or they could dissolve the group.

 

Fixed!

Once the “cancer” has been “cut” out or in some cases, “moved”...

“Everybody” will still be handing over ¥ to AKS. Because... “True” fans and idols!

 

i doubt there is an good plan after all these screw ups, they can minimize their losses, but to restore their brand name? i dont think its possible....unless they have that MIB gadget so people loss their memories.

 

I agree with the fact that people shouldn't have a go at Ogiyuka for tweeting something unrelated to the cause - plenty of other girls have made tweets over the past couple days. From Gen1, the only girls that have not tweeted anything since Friday are Sato Anju, Tano Ayaka, Hasegawa Rena and Murakumo Fuka (interestingly, they all stopped in January). Rena, Ayaka and Fuka have also not used their twitter since January and Anju's last instagram post was on the 17th, so over a week before the press conference. (Marina also hasn't used either twitter or instagram since January but she's a draftee not Gen1.)

I don't think it's right to single out Ogiyuka. Out of all the other members that have used twitter since the press conference, Riko is the only one that made a tweet regarding Maho, as far as I could see (cmiiw). Yeah, I suppose not many people cared about her receiving a loaf of water melon bread, but plenty of the other girls' posts were unrelated to work or Maho as well. Maybe insensitive or tactless in regard to the situation, but, well. She's not the only one.

With that being said, it would still be nice to see more solidarity from the other girls as well. Of course you can't force them to stop using social media and I'm not gonna hold it against them but I don't care to see any of that stuff right now.

 

I think there's a few reasons why Ogino stands out. She's vice-captain of Team NIII and a kami 7 member so perhaps people expect some gravitas from her. You could argue that she's pretty much the figurehead member of NGT since Kitarie graduated. I can't recall offhand, has she said anything remotely sympathetic to Maho since Jan 8th?

Also the fact that she seems to be palling around with the 2 main suspected culprit members in what is an existential crisis for the group is probably rubbling a lot of folk up the wrong way. That and the suspicion that she may have been the beneficiary of money/votes from person(s) in a "criminal gang".

 

What about Hinata (Team G captain and Senbatsu)? She's Maho's team captain after all. Minami is also an AKB undergirl, the original ace and Team NIII's actual captain.

That makes more sense to me.

And no, I don't think many girls in general have said much about Maho. Riko has definitely had the strongest voice