Singer Ayumi Hamasaki implicated in drug scandal
 

Credit to channelnewsasia.com.
link: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori...030116/1/.html

O.O

wow the fact that it was reported in my country's Channel News Asia's website that's saying something

this's just well you know

wahhhh....

Woaw. Is that news channel IN ENGLISH? Because they use weird words in their sentenses... Maybe it's just me, but WTF? Lol Embroiled? Arrived at this decision? (No offense entended!)

Hum.... Ooookkaayy? I'm really not going to worry about anything. If there needs to be, Ayu will surely comment on the issue.

i don't really understand what is going on...
but i wish the best for her...
as her fans, i need to put my trust on her...and i hope all of you do...

wow isn't this news already been posted long long long time ago?

Hope this isn't true...not that I would mind much, but it might hurt her career BADLY

no beause the date of that article is : 12 January 2010 so Today!

rumor anymore ? I think if she has this type of problems Ayu will talk about it let's wait..

We heard something very vague about this several months ago, I remember. We didn't hear that it was Manabu Oshio who was in trouble though - only that a girl died of a drug overdose while in a flat that was owned or rented by Mika Noguchi.

Ayu's involvement in the actual problem is basically nonexistant; it's just people in her social circle.

lol omg. This was reported by Channel News Asia? =.=" wtf.

this.
It's Oshio's fault not Ayu's fault. So it didn't concerned me so much D:

Oh no this news sounds bad (though Ayu is not directly involved in this issue) :(
Hope this drug scandal would not affect Ayu's career...

And Ayu was involved in this....how? This is not a scandal, this is just a way to hurt Ayu's reputation. And of course, since most people don't bother to find out the facts for themselves, if this piece were to garner more attention then it could turn the public (and endorsements) away from her. Anyway, it's so stupid that we probably won't hear about it again.

I don't know what to say ... I hope she will be okay.

What's this got to do with ayu? She just happens to be friends with people who were involved.. *shakes head*

Why is the world trying to ruin Ayumi Hamasaki? Are they so jealous of her success? That is screwed up.

EDIT: Japan isn't an entertainment industry of sex scandals,drug scandals etc etc. Damn americanization is causing more and more stuff like that for the Japanese people. :(

What does that have to do with Ayu? Just the fact that she's friends with Noguchi?

Isn't this all normal? Seeing as Ayu was good friends with her it only makes sense that the police would at least question her...or am I completely wrong here? Being friends with druggies won't exactly sit well with Japan even if she had nothing to do with that girls death.

previously there was this actress, Sakai Noriko.. she was involved in a scandal and ayu was only assisting the police. she is not involved.

I hope this is also the case.

And yeah the bad news is, reports from Channel News Asia have some credibility. It's not a tabloid channel.. so.... :(

Perhaps this explains why Ayu is sick and the tour news is delayed....
http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showpo...&postcount=148

Seriously are you by any chance trying to annoy the hell out of people here? Tour news delayed? How did you come up with that? :thud

It's interesting that the article was posted today, because this news is actually a bit old... well, parts of it are, anyway.

I remember rumors from months ago about Oshio and Mika's friendship and how it was a possibility they were doing drugs, and that everyone close to her (like Ayu) were being questioned by the police because of Oshio's death.

I don't think Ayu's involved or doing any drugs.

ummm we heard about this a while ago but nothing happened with it... plus it's a friend of a friend!?! I really don't get how this has anything to do with Ayu and why they feel the need to try to bring her down!?! Hopefully it will just all go away :no

:yes And it looks like they're trying to bring Ayu down with it, which I doubt will happen.

I just don't believe in it. Having the same friends doesn't mean that she's involved in it... I hope that won't ruin her career :(

To be honest I wouldn't worry about it that much. This is how news companies work. They see a title like 'MAN ARRESTED FOR DRUG RELATED DEATH' and most people would just go "Oh not again" and generally ignore it but if the headline reads 'HAMASAKI AYUMI INVOLVED IN DRUG DEATH' people will read it. Its just to attract an audience and the press don't give a damn who they destroy by saying things, they just jump on the whole 'freedom of the press' bandwagon

Nahh, ayu's sickness has nothing to do with this. According to her blog, she just caught a bad flu. And nothing was said about tour news being delayed..

Poor Ayu. Does the term guilty by association apply here?

I'm not sure how things like this are viewed in Japan, but I hope these 'implications' don't affect her negatively.

This seems a mixture of old news and speculation. As far as I know Ayu doesn't even hang around with those people implicated in the drug scandal. We don't see her with Mika anymore :)

Plus, didn't she wear a mask in the making of BALLAD PV?
She was just, a normal sickness, I think this has nothing to do with this article.

I hope this won't affect her career in any negative way..

^ this is old news...it already didn't affect her career in any way.

lol Exactly. Old news is old news. If this would have affected her, it would have affected her when the news was first published - back in, like, October or whatever.

"If these reports turn out to be true, they would mark a sharp reversal of fortune for the 31-year-old superstar."
That line kinda scares me.

Just a recycling and reviving old news with no proofs (or anything at all) that ayu has a connection or even knew about the incident. (even because of Mika, even if she's her best friend it doesn't mean she would tell her about every "fall" she would have or know about).

Isn't she "invistaged" since like September-October about it already? :P lol

As it already did a few months ago it seems uninteresting at this point.

No, you are right. This would be completely standard. Especially if it is true that Oshio actually directly implicated her.

It may be old news, but it is still definitely an ongoing investigation. The case isn't closed or anything like that.

People need to understand how slllooowly the Japanese police move due to all the beuracracy over there.

^Then the shibuya incident's investigation is still going on as well?

Since it's already like 8 months old but since the invastigation news nothing really happened with it =P

I am sorry but the last sentence made me LOL, how on earth could you possibly know that for sure...it's one thing to speculate, but you seem to be 100% sure. It obviously didn't affect her career so even if it is, who cares?

True, the Japanese police move very slowly (remember how long it took for them to actually get the move on about Ayu walking around in Shibuya?), but I think they worked on this case a lot quicker. They interviewed Ayu months ago. Whether or not the case is finished, I think Ayu's involvement is long over with.

This website may have just found out about all of this and decided to post it now, thinking it's a huge juicy story.

OH WHAT!!? Another scandal news!!? What's really going on? It seems like that my world of Japan seems pretty bad right now - JAL's headed for bankruptcy next week, and now Ayu's implicated in a drug scandal? Hello? It seems that this is not really good news - and how could it be from a reputable source!?

It's not so much "ANOTHER" scandal than it is a reaaaallly late reporting of an already blown over scandal...

From September 2009.
http://ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=94181

I'm a little surprised that people didn't recognize it. It's rather obvious in that thread that some of the posters seemed to really want the rumors to be true though.

Could we just overreact now, or could we just calm down now? It seems like this could be a rumor or so, but I think Channel News Asia should really check more and double-check about this...

i just hope it wont affect ayu's career

^ It's true she HAS been implicated in a drug scandal, but it's not really anything to worry about right now.

I live in japan and I can say that here there was never such news in the television!!!So here no one is talking about ayu and drugs!^^

She was... 4 months ago, and it seems that everything's blown over since then. [Mika Noguchi's blog closed at some point in September and only came back in December]

Her only relation to the scandal was that she was best friends with Mika Noguchi, and somehow that made her involved/suspicious. Since Mika's back on the blogging scene, I doubt any legal action was taken on Mikajohn. I guess a story like this was mainly posted to get a ton of hits on a news site (AYUMI HAMASAKI! DRUGS! SCANDAL! FRIENDS WITH SOMEONE WHO WAS ASSOCIATED WITH SOMEONE ELSE WHO WAS ARRESTED!), but when you look at the facts, there's really nothing to worry about at all.

I'm pretty sure if this was true, and as popular as Ayu is, it would've been all over the news already.

God...why do people feel the need to defend her against everything, when she doesn't even need to be defended.

You know, people saying that it's still an on-going investigation and that she's being investigated, doesn't mean anything, or anything against her, just that...um the case is still being investigated.

If the case was closed...we'd know the case was closed because it would have been reported?

Besides, all the speculation about her having something to do with it is just as valid as the speculation of her not having something to do with it...because, oh yeah, we don't know anything lol

The biggest thing this article had was that Oshio implicated her directly? hah lol

It's obviously not really mattering to Ayu yet though...so, I dont think we have to care yet lol

It appears as though when Mika's blog reopened, she mentioned that because the investigation was still going on, that she wasn't going to say much about it, but that most of what was being said online about her and Ayu (I guess...?) were lies and that she denies all of the rumors that she was involved or that Ayu was somehow involved...

I guess in the end, this (in relation to Ayu) is all Mika's fault to begin with for allowing that client to use a property that she owned in an illegal manner in the first place.

Saying my prayers Hope it isn't true.

Another rumor :)) I don't care at all

omg all this nonsense!! WE STAND BY YOU NO MATTER WHAT AYU!!

I think the main story that Channelnews is trying to report is that ayu is selling (or transfer) her share fearing that her implication will affect the stock market of avex trex it doesnt mean that ayu is guilty of the drug scandal they used the word implicated didnt they.
Pls note that stock market prices will drop once a negative report is being spread. I remember the last time when the media reported that ayu n tomoya were together, avex's share dropped.

ugh, not this crap again :headache

I'd still love her even if she was in league with druggies.

Actually, it looks like they're trying to report that avex wanted to transfer their management rights to Ayu somewhere else, but where? This is reminding me of how the news sources said that avex was trying to remove Ayu's presence from all a-nation '09 material when that wasn't the case at all as she was present in all the usual a-nation '09 news reports.

Not worried :D

Yeah and that also turned out no to be true...Not to mention that yeah before even considering all the facts (ie she was very present on a-nation footage and that she had a regular share of promo for You were..., 2 concerts aired since and a couple of mag interviews - now that's not what you are supposed to do if you want to "hide" someone away from the public) some people on here obviously would love to see this proven true.

almost every bad news like this is actually about Mika Noguchi and Ayu is always like a tie-in because she's her best friend :roflmao

Wow CNA...geez. I hope everything turns out alright

:laugh me too :tipsy

If she hangs out with Druggies... that would honestly make me wonder if she was into some kind of drug(s) herself.. I would think she wouldn't want the negative attention (and choose not to be associated with such people) -- as it might (luckily it hasn't yet) negatively affect her career.

I hate to say this but you really can't (and shouldn't) believe everything a person says (or claims) is the truth, for all any of you know (and I am not in anyway saying that this is fact) everything that Ayu has said or even claimed could be a lie... and just for her image that she wants the public to see her as. No one truely nos what goes on behind closed doors... Celebrities tend to lie and fabricate on many things -- Ayu certainly would be no exception to this either.

I don't think this necessarily has anything to do with this article since Ayu's never really commented on the issue. However, to comment on what you've said, I think that most fans trust her to some degree and until she is caught lying about something, they'll continue to trust her. In fact, she's been quite honest according to some of her diaries, as she was the first to break the news that she had broken up with her boyfriend and that she lost the ability to hear in her left ear before any tabloids got a hold of the stories.

You can't really go through life suspecting that everything that everyone says is a lie. Because there are good people out there contrary to popular belief. I think that one should at least try to look on the bright side of things and have faith that perhaps other people are being as honest as they can be until proven otherwise.

^ I have very much aware of this.. but you also can't go on in life believing every little thing you hear on the news or from a persons mouth.. sometimes its better to do research for yourself so that you can form your own opinion on the subject in question.

^ you can't hide drug and alcohol problems for too long, if Ayu actually had any of the two problems it would show after all these years, remember the SMAP scandal? Sooner or later she would make a mistake and people would know for sure if she had a problem or not. Her tours and appearances/activities have never been canceled due to her private issues.

Since there's been so many "scandals" against her in the recent past, I'm starting to get a little worried here. Something's definitely wrong. Maybe there really is something going on with Ayu and avex? Or maybe someone's just out to get her? This isn't normal, at all.

lol

stop freaking out...:o

It shouldn't harm her reputation much, let's all try not to panic! xD

It sounds like the media think Oshio was trying to shift his guilt...poor Ayu though...I hope the drama hasn't ruined her relationship with her friends. I don't think it will affect Ayu's sales in the long term but Avex are just paranoid. They love their money!

most of artists take drug so I do not see the problem... it is sure she takes hard drug for herself, beacuse it is impossible to make such a lot oh shows for a normal human being. This is not our concern...

Of course she's on drugs. Have you heard "Bold & Delicious"?! :P

yeah,i'm just sick of all this :thud

I first learned of the news 2 days ago when it appeared in my local newspaper "Lian He Zhao Bao", that the police strongly believes her high possibility of taking drugs. Man, I hope the rumours are false and will die down soon and the police better be quick in their investigation to find out the truth soon and stop pressurizing ayu!

I dont think shes in drugs but she should consider who shes friends with next time

is it just a coincidence that every time this kind of news appears she wrote on her blog that she's sick (catch a cold) and resting at home? Like when this news arise again and she posted a message on 12 January that she's sick. It's interesting :) if I'm not mistaken it happened before.. but maybe it's just a coincidence since it only happened twice..

^ I think she was flying to Las Vegas last time this rumor broke out not sick.

Noriko Sakai and now Ayu...:( Well, I hope it's just a rumour as always^^

I believe she posted the message before the news article was posted.

TeamAyu: 12th January, 2010 3:06am (Japan time)
Article: 12 January 2010 4:09pm (Singaporean time)

There's an hour or so difference between the two (Singapore is an hour behind Tokyo), but Ayu posted that she was sick nearly half a day before the article came out, so it's definitely just coincidence imo.

Just want to clarify that CNA is using British english and not American english this is what we Singaporeans learn haha...

Singapore is exactly one hour later than japan so Singapore CNA posted 11hours later than Ayu. It is not 2 hour of difference. ;)


For me i dont believe any article unless there is a strong evidence... Some news in Singapore are wrong and no one notice it haha... thats why i have been watching japanese news instead of singapore news lolz...

but it kind of weird to have CNA covering this story even its from last yr

more news actually coming from the the Chinese press
http://news.baidu.com/ns?cl=2&rn=20&tn=news&word=滨崎步

The time difference was what I was talking about not the time inbetween the posted dates. And it is one hour, so I will correct it.

haha no problem :) now i understand lolz

I don't understand what's going on either. What do they mean? They were trying to sell ayu out?

The way it's written, it sounds like it's mainly speculation that avex was trying to sell off management rights to Ayu in fear of their stock going down because of the association to the drug scandal which was first mentioned 4 months ago. However, unnamed "industry observers" say that the amount of money they were trying to sell the rights for was too low. (? at this since avex probably wouldn't act on rumors/speculation/tabloids...)

I wonder just where this speculation comes from sometimes. Does someone actually find the information from an insider at avex or do they just get drunk with a few other reporter buddies and use whatever sounds most ridiculous? "Hey! Maybe we should print another Ayu pregnancy rumor!" "Brilliant."

^ hahaha that is just funny...

Confused.
When did Ayu involve in drug scandal? It's so sudden.

Yeah. I thought it funny, how they're selling ayu off for an amount she could easily earn back in a year. Won't they lose money in the end? :P

not saying that I want her to be in drugs or something lol

but just because she said she was sick before the article was officially published...doesn't really mean anything lol

her team is most likely getting a ton of calls about it and they probably knew they were going to say something lol

I doubt they were getting calls about it. This was already reported in Japanese news (was it even Japanese news? For the most part, a lot of the posts in September were just Asian news sites.), just with some names filled in and the avex-selling-Ayu-off speculation added in. It reminds me of TMZ but with a trashier feel to it. And TMZ's pretty trashy.

The reason why I said that was because someone mentioned how it seemed strange that she was sick and "stayed home" (she mentioned that she was sick but still working) after the article was published, but that wasn't the case. Sometimes people seem to read too much into things. However, it does seem pretty weird. She said she was sick a few days before the news broke in the first week of September, on the 3rd-5th, and the "scandal" came about 2 or 3 days after. Who knows, maybe they love scheduling these articles around when she's sick? Damn those reporters!

And those lols? This isn't a very funny topic, imo.

again Noguchi's name next to drug

i hope Mika Noguchi isn't having a bad influence on Ayu (>_<)

anyway, sounds like name dropping. Ayu knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who does drug.... no big deal, right?

yea,i agree,seems like they just wanna make it a hot news to attract people :o
in fact i cant see any signs that ayu's taking drugs or whatever.she even enjoy her life with her staff even she had filmed a new CM and what's interesting is when they mentioned about her #1 streak for consecutive 12 years,using this new record and then just blend it with drug related news seems nothing to me :o what a lame news! peoples always didnt really comfortable with the successful of others and love to ruin their reputation :irked

There were some news of this a few months ago, but Ayu has got nothing to do with it!!
Only because she is friend with someone who is involved, makes her suspicious?
Oh, please!

Stupid! Really!
Come on, Ayu is far too intelligent for doing such a thing! -.-''

I wonder how long Ayu needs to go on suffering, until people let her live her life in peace!!!

:yes
anyway i thought this new is rather old?

Yes, this is very old news. There was a super long thread discussing this in AHS. We first heard about it in Aug/Sept, after Noriko Sakai's arrest. The Japanese government then raided Avex's office, on the pretext of Ayu's "traffic violation" in Shibuya cos of her book launch but we all know they were looking for evidence of drug use amongst Avex employees. They didn't find anything but the tabloids printed articles about Ayu's so-called "involvement" because her friend Mika Nogouchi (Peach John owner) was brought in for questioning as someone died of drug overdose at a party of Mika's tenant. The media also speculated about Ayu's involvement because she once made enquiries about buying an apartment Noriko Sakai once owned.

So the gist of the story is basically that Ayu's "involved" because she knows someone who knows someone who took drugs and that she once enquired about Noriko Sakai's apartment. Which is really silly because just about everyone in the industry probably knows someone else who takes drugs.

All a bunch of tabloid bull. If they had any evidence at all, she'd have been arrested by now, just like how a bunch of other pple in Japanese entertainment have been.

Having said that, this isn't necessarily bad publicity. "Ayumi Hamasaki" is now the number 1 most searched topic on Yahoo Singapore. And right next to the CNA article are pictures of the NEXT LEVEL cover.

^ Pretty much what you said, except it is not actually a tabloid story - this isn't just something totally made up, it's an actual case. Also, we don't know what if anything the Japanese police found at Avex. Like I said, if something was found, it wouldn't surprise me if it took years to come to light (either about Ayu or anyone else in Avex) unless the police come up with some kind of smoking bullet.

Because there would be news reports all over Japan if the case had actually been finished, but there are not. All you hear about in Japan is how these investigations are ongoing and that between this and the Sakai case, lots of people in the entertainment industry have been implicated, but nothing is finalized yet. (and with all the money that are behind the companies that are implicated it will probably be a long time, if ever, that anything actually happens) That does not mean that people want it to be true. That's about the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. It simply means they are not in denial about it and understand what the implications to her career are if the story ever really blows up.

Exactly.

^ there would be news and reports assuming there was actually something to report in the first place, which we don't know and people who are supposedly not in denial obviously for some reason strongly believe that there is.

So I was wondering if you think that AVEX would let her plan a new tour and release an album if there was a remote possibility that it could be proven she was involved in this "scandal"?

^ All I'm saying is, this is not a tabloid story and it is a current ongoing investigation. Whether Ayu is really involved, who knows? But even just being associated with drugs in Japan can be something that is very damaging. Right now you don't see it on the front page of newspapers because there is nothing new to report, but that certainly doesn't mean that it isn't still going on behind the scenes and that it is not going to pop up again later (and bigger).

And yes, of course Avex would. Whether she is involved or not, they are going to want to get as much money out of her while they still can.

^ if it's very damaging (as I presume it is, obviously) one would assume they wouldn't want their company associated with people like that, the sooner they drop her, the better for them.

^Avex isn't just dealing with anyone here ;) If it was an up and coming star, avex probably would drop them, but it's Ayumi Hamasaki. It's still an on-going investigation, so they won't just drop her, because she may or may not be involved. She's worth more to avex than some bad publicity right now.