AKB48 member "shaves" head and is demoted for having a boyfriend

[Linnaete]

Okay, I don't normally make these sort of miscellaneous news threads about random things going on in the world, but this really pissed me off. And frightened me. You've probably seen this on a news website already.

A Japanese pop star has shaved her head and offered a filmed apology after breaking her management firm's rules by spending a night with her boyfriend.


A sobbing Minami Minegishi apologised to her fans and said she did not want to leave the band AKB48, in the video seen by millions on YouTube.


The production company behind AKB48 said Minegishi, 20, had failed to abide by its cardinal rule - no dating.


Head shaving is a traditional form of showing contrition in Japan.


The condition for being part of such a successful act is that the girls must not date boys, so as not to shatter their fans' illusions.

BBC News

Her dramatic gesture underlined the strict rules to which Japan's young pop stars must adhere to project an image of unimpeachable morals.


In the YouTube video, which has been viewed more than 3m times, Minegishi said the assignation has been "thoughtless and immature".


"If it is possible, I wish from the bottom of my heart to stay in the band," she said. "Everything I did is entirely my fault. I am so sorry.


"I don't believe just doing this means I can be forgiven for what I did, but the first thing I thought was that I don't want to quit AKB48."
AKB48's management agency demoted her to "trainee level" starting on Friday, according to the band's official blog.

The Guardian

There's no word on whether she even had sex that night. All it sounds like is that they as a couple were spending some time together, you know, like plenty of young adults.

Interesting to note that there's no word of her boyfriend being demoted in his band either, and nor is he made to publicly apologise profusely either, not that I was expecting one anyway. Haha, no one makes a fuss about a guy in Japan not being pure and virginal, right? Just so long as the women can be all kawaii desu~ to the point of degrading infantilisation. It's always the woman's career in Japan that can be permanently damaged or outright destroyed at the drop of a hat at the very slightest of fucking "scandals" like this.

It really baffles me how these sort of idol groups are run and what the culture is like. It's typically the hyper-otaku groups that these sort of groups have to pander to because the former have this strange and creepy obsession with dreaming of being in love with a bunch of supposedly pure and virginal (and of course, young and nearly all teenage) girls and fantasising about having the chance to actually date them. It's frightening how far the management of groups like AKB48 would go in pandering to their audience.

The clause is fucking stupid anyway, even if there is some rationality behind it in terms of marketing. It's a fucking chastity rule that prevents a member from being a normal fucking human being, while keeping up this curtain of glitzy artificiality. God knows why someone would want to sign up to - and remain in - this group. Oh yeah, they probably get paid quite a bit with the crazy sales their singles and miscellaneous products like idol calendars. That might be why.

I mean look at this shit:

Well, prospective AKBers, I hope you know what you're signing up to.

 

[Exoskeleton]

This is actually pretty typical in many contracts of singing groups throughout eastern Asia. No dating is usually highly enforced when it comes to singing groups, however I've noticed that guy groups tend to be treated a bit better when it comes to this rule. If her boyfriend was in a band(I don't really know because I'm not a fan of that group) and he wasn't demoted, it was either kept quiet or it was just more favoritism toward the male sex. Not all societies have made it to a level where both genders are completely equal. Even the US still has some barriers to get over to even that issue out.

I don't really agree with how Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Idol groups have been run but you can see recently how things are slowly beginning to change. In Korea there are many stories of idols suing their companies for unfair contracts and what not so this type of situation isn't that uncommon.

The whole clause thing is mostly a marketing thing, which many east asian music companies do right in my opinion. They focus on selling their idols to a target audience as oppose to selling music, since that way fans will buy whatever merchandise the idol is putting out. The clause probably has no dating so as to avoid inconveniences like early pregnancies and disgracing the names of big companies and all that. I don't think it's because they want men to think of women as virgin sex dolls, it's all for the sake of the marketing and the money. And as long as the idols aren't "distracted" with dating and babies, they can keep making the money.

Overall I think it was really brave of this chick to apologize for breaking her contract.

 

[Linnaete]

Overall I think it was really brave of this chick to apologize for breaking her contract.

Uhh, I dunno about that. Brave for coming and out and apologising for breaking one of the terms of this bullshit contract? It seems more like she was heavily coerced into doing so as it was pretty much going to be expected of her to come out and declare her penance. What would have been brave in my view, is to state that she's a human being with her own individual rights and interests, not "shaving" (and seriously, she's only cut her hair short. She hasn't gone Britney, so I don't know why the media are saying that) her head and possibly giving the chainmaster of the idol industry the middle finger.

I insist that she's done nothing wrong because an individual's own private interests do exist, as much as the middle-aged barons' bastion of an exploitative moneymaking industry would like to trample on to keep up with the raking in of money and the appeasement of a bunch of otakus with unrealistic conceptions of sexuality. It really speaks volumes when she has to place the interests of the band and the fans above that of herself. But that is what happens when you first signed up for a band like this (that evidently has little artistic integrity) when you were 13 and your life for 7 years has been, and tightly controlled by, the masterminds behind the band.

Oh, and apparently AKB48 acts often involve the girls dressed provocatively, in underwear and taking baths with each other. And yet they're supposed to appear pure and innocent. I think that speaks for itself. It's a degrading business that is unfortunately, both hypocritical, but at the same time, yeah, you can see why they do that. The whole culture stinks of shit. Or maybe I'm just too western to understand all this.

 

[Starships]

Ugh don't understand it. Just let the girl be human and fall in love, experience and date and have boyfriends and relationships. Don't understand it at all...

They do it because they want the singers "hearts " and "love " to belong to the fans and crazy fanboys/ fangirls, so if they start dating the band doesn't loose interest and loose money because fans are angry because their fantasy GF is dating somebody else.

But that's stupid. They have a human right to date anybody they desire, like anybody else does.

​

 

[Will Graham]

The contract is very cruel and stressful on a person I would imagine, but it is a contract. It was her decision to sign it and abide by it, and she broke it.

 

[Do7]

As much as I feel for her, and I hope everything works out, the fact is violated her contract and their were consequences as a result. Personally I don't see the problem with her having a boyfriend. It's stuff like this is why I'm so glad I'm not famous. It feels like they are put so high on a pedestal and if they make one little mistake they're condemned for it; as a result they become a victim of their own success. It's saddening to see something like this to happen, but this is the price she has to pay.

 

[Exoskeleton]

Or maybe I'm just too western to understand all this.

Yea I think the whole situation looks odd from a western viewpoint. I never see foreign idols apologizing in youtube videos and I'm not going to assume she was forced to do it since she could have very well just not shaved her head and left like you said. However I still think it is admirable for her to put herself out there on a social media site and address her fans and apologize. The idols over there aren't just forced to do things so she had to have agreed to that video.

I don't really agree with what she's apologizing for but for her culture it's a big step. The Japanese are a country that is non-confrontational and it's people would rather avoid big situations and keep things hush hush than to open up. It's one of the reason suicide rates have risen in the country itself. It's also one of the many countries obsessed with young sexy women, however the Japanese in particular have an odd obsession with teenage girls so the weird pervy things their idols are portrayed as in media don't surprise me one bit. I've many friends who have lived or live there and teach. Most of them have just gotten used to that fact though.

It really sucks being in the entertainment business in general. There are idols in nearly every country who get used by their company to sell sell sell and make money. Just look at America we've got tons of those. Women are over sexualized in every country in ads and music and movies everywhere so I wouldn't blame it on their culture alone. The world is just more male dominated sadly.

I love the country very much and hope to live there myself in a years time, yet the stories I've heard of actual old pervs stalking highschool girls deeply disturbs me. She deserves a normal life but on the other hand she knew what she was signing up for and what her culture was like and where to get a lawyer so I don't want to be too hung up about it.