NGT48 Assault Case

Well, I have been watching a lot of J-drama + J-movie and also manga, most of them contain the same message when talking about bully:

Spoiler

Exclude that dead part, what I mean is the bully and those who watch it happened without doing anything are equally guilty.

 

i think it can be assumed that anyone in ngt that maho still follows on twitter is someone she still trusts, has received non-duplicitous support from, etc.

 

- You forgot that management is the one blocking them from doing anything. Disallowing them to show support for Maho, then kicking them for doing nothing. Do you think management will look more human by doing that?
- How do you know that they do nothing to help Maho? They just show nothing publicly since management forbids them to act.
- Drama is idealistic, not real life. Not many people are brave enough to fight their boss & sacrifice their career for helping others. That why Maho is special.

I wonder if you really want to fight for Maho’s will. Or just want to end NGT and move on. While the life of the victims (Maho & friends), the truth, the main problem (AKS) are skipped.

 

Care to remind you that across the whole 48g / AKS managed groups only a handful of members voiced their opinion. The rest is ignoring it, at least in public. So we're gonna fire these too?

I don't know Japanese labor law, but i'd be surprised if there is a paragraph in it that would allow your employer to terminate your contract because you haven't criticized him in public. Contrary the opposite would most likely be the case.

 

We don't even know why she unfollowed people, now you're gonna assume why she's following others too?

While the feeling is understandable, that doesn't mean it's justified. Outside of very rare cases it's almost certainly self-condemning, too.

 

That's a little too much imo. It's just pure speculation and there's lots of idols in the same group who don't follow each other we really shouldn't assume based on that for human interactions we're not entitled to. Rumors like that get out of hand really quick cause we all live on social media. We have no idea who is in support or not in support of Maho right now in NGT (except for maybe her closest friends who have been vocal as well; and they deserve some credit cause they're making a statement against management too).


As a side-note: everyone's eyes are gonna be on the Team G performance coming up. Last time she was on stage she apologized. I really hope she won't be pressured to do something like that again.

 

Again,
1. Members, across all groups have probably been ordered not to publicly comment on the situation. They may want to, and may be non-publicly, but we have no way of telling that. It is quite common for companies, especially if there is an issue, to inform staff that only the public relations department is allowed to comment publicly. The members who have commented probably had it made clear to them what they could or couldn't say going into situations where they would be expected to comment.
2. Publically criticising you employer normally comes under "bring into disrepute" unless covered by a specific whistle-blowing law in the case of illegal actions by the company. This is normally a crash and burn offence so not having members speaking up against AKS is unsurprising.

We do not know what is happening privately between members. For all we know Maho's private email could be inundated with messages of support from members across the wider group helping give her the power to remain for so long.

I'm not sure it's fair to criticise other members with the level of knowledge we have.

 

as twitter has been her primary form of communication, and she knows people are checking her likes, etc., i'd say it's not a stretch that who she follows or really unfollows is also communicating something.
we're not talking about other idols' twitter or sns in general, but maho's personal hint factory for the last few months.

 

i am going to start gathering messages of support for Ogino Yuka and Tano Ayaka, if interested please pm me

 

I would love for them to change, but what are the chances of that happening?

Ideally, they would have dealt with the guilty members quickly and swiftly and be done with it.
But they didn't.

For whatever reason, they want to keep those members in (they bring money, they are daughters of...), so it's either:
a) Everyone stays in and absolutely nothing changes.
b) Everyone leaves and the D3/2nd gen try to resurrect the group.

This doesn't mean the 1st gen girls can't audition back in. Jo Eriko? Kikuchi Ayaka?
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They are obviously going for a, because of course they are.
So much for Maho trying to protect Team G! Now G is gone and all we/they got is 1st Gen! All the bad apples mixed with the good ones!
It's a ridiculous attempt at doing something without literally doing anything.

And we'll probably see the first consequences tomorrow. Maho is for sure announcing her resignation and god knows how many other girls will follow.
I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a new version of:



And then we'll have to wait and see what happens in the future.
Will they get the sponsors back? Chances are they won't, and that ones one of the fortes of NGT.
Will they even get girls auditioning for the group when everyone can clearly see the scoundrels that run it?
Will they get invited to TV shows when they release a single? Will they get promo in the streets?

All of that is in the air and chances are that the future will be closer to the worst case scenario than to the best.

 

The article is actually longer than that, but the last part is what nails it to me...

«[...]

With their activities based in Niigata, NGT is a spin-off division of AKB48. As for me, when I used to work in a neighboring prefecure back in August 2015, I went to cover their debut event once. I can't help recalling the image of the members singing the songs they had just finished learning, as they made their appearance from a ship sailing the Shinano river. After then, for nearly 4 years, I kept following them as they grew up.

Yamaguchi-san in particular was known to fans and the media staff alike as a figure which embodied what is the image of the orthodox idols, even among the other members: "Immaculate, beautiful, as well as endearing to others".

"Heisei was the age in which it became possible for anyone to become an idol", so says idol critic Nakamori Akio-san. The development of the Internet is what made that viable. The idol themselves would express their emotions through social media, and engage in interactions with fans. Fans would pay a visit to "handshake meetings" and other such events. From the "entities beyond one's reach" which they once were, idols turned into a close presence instead. An exemplary representation of it were the "idols you can meet" that NGT and other such AKB groups are.

But as fans got closer, so the assigned responsabilities should supposedly become heavier for the "adults" who are there to manage these girls, in the way of privacy security and close personal protection. Even so, never mind protecting Yamaguchi-san, it appears as if AKS is even treating her as the "offender" for having caused such a "controversy" in the first place.

It is saddening that such mental readiness is nowhere to be seen in these "adults".»

Are you using only what stuff is available on public social media as a basis for judgement?
The situation is much readily understandable if you would follow the mobame of certain members, but between the different camps there simply hasn't been much reference to (and, possibly, even contact with) each other to begin with over this period of time. Everyone caught onto that long ago already, anyway.
Also, the only picture close to a recent group photo of the Team G members doing practice for the closing show that I could get hold of is from Hinatan's mobame two days back, and out of the four in question there was only Mofu in it (in fact, the mail even ends with lamenting that not everyone was there at once to take a group photo with).
Riko of course still has her knee in the process of healing after the surgery so being there for practice is unconceivable, but Maho and Renapon are noticeably absent anyway. Considering what we know about the background informations (that the members in Maho's camp weren't even informed about the team's disbandment, let alone all the rest), you can even make a wild guess as to why, though.

If anything, it's way more bizarre to think that this incident did not remotely affect the members in terms of personal interactions and friendship bonds, strengthening some and cooling down others according to one's beliefs. Or somehow to even believe in the management's fairy tale that it's all going fine behind and the backwards decisions they are enacting right now did, honest to God, come out of the spontaneous consensus of every member involved (a lie they were called out on multiple times already, not that it stops them from trying).

Circumstances had evidently brought the members of Maho's camp to stick closer together with each other, even when they previously wouldn't naturally do, and any of the photos in their mails serve to make this fact even clearer, by the way.
Off the top of my head, it's only Maho, Mofu and Renapon that were ever mentioned as visiting Riko at the hospital at the time of the surgery back in January. It's Renapon the only one who talked about helping Riko in her rehabilitation with the crutches, beyond Riko herself. For the sake of information, traditionally Renapon's closest friend isn't even Riko but Tsugumin, after they had been knowing each other since before entering the group...
Or to make another example, it's Mofu that talked about having a dinner out with Maho, deciding to share together the steak prize that she won for herself in the Aikabu competition (a detail noticeably unmentioned from the Photolog post on the same topic, now that you brought it up).
It's just hard to find any such open references to the other camps in other mobames, which makes you think.

 

I'm basing it on what the summary post was basing it on:
https://imgur.com/h1Mhb47

 

yea the hints are nice and helpful especially when she likes an article or news related to her incident, but things like unfollowing - while it may be totally possible - is just something I personally feel uncomfortable judging on.

I'm a little forgetful here, but what is that picture representing?

 

Announcement of SKE's mass graduation in 2013.

 

maho's mail, titled 'i don't want to (いやだ)', writes she doesn't want to come tomorrow.
prepare for anything and brace for impact.

 

*that she doesn't want tomorrow to come (「明日が来て欲しくない」)

 

If it helps, I'm due to see Ogiyuka in HS in Chiba in 9 days' time... but to be bluntly honest, even though she's my oshimen I'm feeling increasingly uncomfortable about meeting her. When I got the tickets I was looking forward to spending the time wishing her good luck for the SSK and asking her about her hopes and dreams for that. Now I don't know quite what to say, I guess I'll try and give her my message of support in as good Japanese as I can. Maybe I can talk about the NGT stage at the Live Fes next Saturday although I'll only be watching it because of her, otherwise I'd certainly be taking a comfort break then.

 

April 20 (Sat)
http://40298ch.com/test/read.cgi/karakoro/1548413013/356

• Maho sent a mobame: "I don't want tomorrow to come."
• Homma Photolog. Maho also participated in the rehearsals.
• Murakumo mobame.
• Daily and Tokyo Sports articles.
• Nishigata answered questions from her fans on instagram.

http://40298ch.com/test/read.cgi/karakoro/1548413013/357-359

• A second Maho mobame came at around midnight.
• Daily article: Yamaguchi Maho mobame "The team dissolution was decided by the staff."
• More on Maho's second mobame.
• Josei Jisshin article.

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Part 3 of Vtuber's Secret Night english appeal:
https://t.co/6XPf9rCv8n

Edits: Added the four late night extras additions.

 

you support who you support and that's up to you, but i don't see how this is the appropriate time or place to be flying that particular flag if you're not just trying to annoy people like your quoted poster very likely is.

 

I'm not quite sure what David61 said is wrong?, sounds like he's a bit conflicted which is understandable.