More useless shit to try to distract from the actual issue by management. I see zero point in "reforming" when the same bad apples will still be there. This changes nothing.
This... demotion, for lack of a better word... reminds me of that scam, with three cups and a ball. You put the ball under one cup, tell everyone to keep an eye on it, and then whizz the cups around until no one is sure which cup the ball is under. Then you ask them to pick a cup, but the ball isn't under there; it's under a different one, close by. And then you start again, and they never actually manage to pick the right cup because the scam makes sure they don't. The thing is, when people play this game, they know it's a scam, and they know they won't win... but they keep playing it anyway. That's what this particular situation feels like to me. "Let's keep everyone, mix them all together, and then they'll never know where the problem is." "Demote everyone, so they are all equal and everyone has a clean slate. The fans will love that." "Let's start the theatre again, with everyone there, and we know the fans will still come. It'll be fine!" There is no way that this is a solution, a resolution, a quick fix. It is a way to scam remaining fans into thinking that they can continue to support their girls.
It doesn't look like demotion, it looks like there will be no teams and 1st gens will perform a 1st gen stage and 2nd gens will perform a kks stage. In Maho's revelation tweets (and in her tweets in December) she was adamant about protecting Team G and supporting them...so management get rid of Team G. Management seem stubbornly persistent in making the problem worse rather than better. If there are a bunch of graduations at Team G senshuuraku then NGT is finished, if there aren't a bunch of grad announces at Team NIII senshuuraku then NGT is finished.
well, if i was her, i definitely want the men be banned from ngt, and the bad girls either grad or transferred away. at the very least management will give out appropriate apologize instead of cover the stories.
I assume that, now, people (as in behind the scenes people), are probably going to make Maho really shitty about “destroying” Team G that she so desperately wanted to protect. And the fact that they didn’t disband NGT means that every single person that was complicit in the covering up of Maho’s assault is still receiving a paycheck. That’s why I want NGT disbanded, not bc of the girls (well I could do without Tano and Gatanee and all them), but bc I want all of those behind the scenes people to lose the profit they are making off of the girls, especially the ones who are victims in this situation. Ugh I’m so mad. It just really wows me that management is being THIS ridiculous. Like...they fully are never going to get it, are they?
If you get sexual harassment with violence and some of your co-workers get involved in it, what kind of justice you want?
New Tokyo Reporter story (but old news to us here): NGT48 agency apologized to Niigata government over handling of Maho Yamaguchi incident BY TOKYO REPORTER STAFF ON APRIL 11, 2019 The management agency of idol group NGT48 last month apologized to the Niigata Prefectural Government over its handling of the assault of group member Maho Yamaguchi last year, it was learned on Wednesday, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Apr. 10). On March 29, Natsuko Yoshinari, Representative director of agency AKS, and Maiko Hayakawa, the manager of NGT48’s theater in Niigata City, apologized to vice governor Hiroshi Mizoguchi and a member of the prefecture’s public relations department at the government office. “Due to our initial handling of the incident, we lost the trust of the people of the prefecture,” Yoshinari said. https://www.tokyoreporter.com/crime...ent-over-handling-of-maho-yamaguchi-incident/
April 11 (Thu) http://40298ch.com/test/read.cgi/karakoro/1548413013/330 NGT will reshuffle Team NIII and Team G into one team. Final performances of those teams on April 21. (9 sub items) Bunshun article about an alleged meeting between management and members. Nakai liked a tweet pointing out she was in Tokyo the day of the meeting reported by Bunshun. (2 sub items about meeting) Tano liked a comment saying "Quickly go to prison" on instagram? Ayakani photo log. Video: Miyaneya about the case. Suspicions that a drama script written by Aki-P got inspired by the Yamaguchi assault. Extra bit that was added to reshuffle item is TBS NSta. AKS Spokesperson "Yamaguchi remains a 1st gen.","Members who interacted privately with fans also remain in NGT."
What an awkward, lukewarm, meaningless measure... it feels like they believe we believe everything will be better if they just "fix" the teams... Or that, by doing so, they can scapegoat Maho for "destroying" Team G.
I mean...has AKS made ANY smart decisions during this entire situation? I really do think they’re stupid enough.
Since, as the tweet thread of that Asahi Shinbun journalist tells, there reportedly was no official release dispatch by AKS for the press agencies this time beyond the announcement of the team dissolution and the date of the closing shows, it appears that some news outlets had to go ahead and press "related personnel" for informations instead. For clarity, I found it worth the trouble to translate the first three paragraph of the article below. As usual, the response given (second paragraph down there) strikes me are unconvincing, contraddicting statements from mere days ago, and completely missing the point of the issue, but it's not like I can expect anything else... --- https://www.daily.co.jp/gossip/2019/04/11/0012232644.shtml 昨年１２月にメンバーの山口真帆（２３）が、男性２人に暴行される騒動が発生したアイドルグループ・ＮＧＴ４８が１１日、グループの公式サイトで、現存のチームを解散し、新たに全メンバーを１期生と研究生に分けて再スタートを切ることを発表した。 Idol group NGT48 -- which recently saw a controversy spark in which Yamaguchi Maho (23) suffered the assault of two men last December -- has announced on the group's official site on the 11th that they will dissolve the current teams and make a new start by dividing all members again into 1st generation and kenkyuusei. ＮＧＴの運営会社であるＡＫＳの関係者によると、チーム解散は、支配人の早川麻依子氏らスタッフとメンバーが話し合いを行って決定した。理由としては、現状でグループの人数が不足しており、チームの維持が困難であることと、一度体制をリセットして、メンバー一丸となって改めてやり直したいというメンバーの意志があったという。 According to a related personnel from the NGT's management agency, AKS, the dissolution of teams had been decided as a result of the members having a discussion together with theater manager Hayakawa and the other staff. Reportedly, the reason for it is both that, in the present condition, the number of people from the group is insufficient, making it difficult to sustain the teams, as well as an intention by the members to unite themselves into starting things over anew. 現存するチームＮ３とチームＧは、２１日に新潟市のＮＧＴ４８劇場で「千秋楽公演」を行う。山口は現在、チームＧの副キャプテンを務めているが、千秋楽公演の出演メンバーについては「決定次第ご案内申し上げます」としており、山口の出演および今後の活動については未定となっている。 The current Team NIII and Team G will hold their closing stage shows at the NGT48 theater in Niigata on the 21st. Yamaguchi is currently serving as Team G's vice-captain, but as it is written that the performing members of the closing stage show "will be announced once they are decided", Yamaguchi's appearance as well as her next activities still remain pending. [...]
The only way I can see this working is if a) everyone is getting demoted and the bad members are never promoted, with Maho + friends being the first to be promoted b) those not involved are going to get more support in this 'new group' and those that were involved are pushed to the back eventually quitting. The problem being fans will still speculate about who's involved. The only way I see management correcting this is letting the bad members slowly making their exits and then when they have gradually been phased out, have Maho say that everything is okay now. That's not what I want but I think that might be the best we can hope from them.
well, er... i guess it makes some sense. it probably wasn't healthy for the group to have the teams as divided as they were. now there's no "good team" or "bad team". maybe it will actually accomplish something positive? i'm trying to be optimistic...
I find little reason to be optimistic here. Taking their past action, the news release, and if even some of bunshun's "reporting" is accurate, then it seems like: 1) Members are still being threatened to say nothing about this case on penalty of firing 2) No one is going to be punished for the assault/associating with those guys, or forced to graduate for wrongdoing 3) Maho is not going to cooperate so she will remain missing for a while, then quietly be "released from her contract", and I would guess at least Renapon and Riko go with her 4) Theater will resume with whoever is left, and it's really easy to staff since all the members are together on one team now 5) Income from theater shows and handshakes let the NGT with no substantial changes hobble on indefinitely, even if they do lose Sony partnership
I agree, but public support is not the same as a job. I think about my own job - it's easy to think that I'll walk out if something bad happened, but push comes to shove, would I really? And they wanted to be idols; there's probably no chance of being a mainstream idol after that. I think the fear of being fired is a real big thing - combined with I think a Japanese social tendancy to not want to cause disruption to the company and your family. Even if your company is evil.
