ayu’s past at Sun Music (Article)
 

Original article [here].

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Past at Sun Music black history? Hamasaki Ayumi fails to show up at Aizawa Hideyoshi-san's wake
31 May 2013.

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Sun Music’s production CEO Aizawa Hideyoshi-san’s wake was held a few days ago. All the influential talents who had been nurtured by CEO Aizawa showed up at the venue to pay respects to the deceased. Even talents who did not belong to the company, or belonged to “rival” companies, such as Matsuda Seiko, Sakurada Junko and Saigou Teruhiko also turned up to speak of Aizawa-san’s virtues.

Information claimed that influential talents such as Sakurada and Sakai Noriko turned up around evening time of the night-long wake. Throughout the night, all past celebrities from Sun Music showed up. However, there was one superstar who did not turn up, and that was Hamasaki Ayumi.

An artiste under avex management, Hamasaki Ayumi is often named as the female songstress of the 2000s. After coming to Tokyo, she had first belonged to Sun Music. The press present at the wake was kept waiting as they discussed if Hamasaki would turn up. In the end, she failed to do so.

“Magazines at that time were no longer looking for diamond-in-the-rough stories, so the Hamasaki then did not have much chance of appearing in print. She was involved mostly in swimwear modelling and acting jobs, much like a true idol. And when she withdrew from those activities, her face was featured on Sun Music’s talent-nurturing advertisements posted at train stations in the city. Eventually, she joined avex in 1998 and debuted as an artiste, and her past connections with Sun Music became a taboo subject in the industry.”

However, even after joining avex, Hamasaki’s ties with Sun Music were not completely severed.

“When Hamasaki debuted at avex, there was an agreement for 10% of all her sales to be given to Sun Music. That was treated as a semi-permanent contract. During her peak when every CD she sold was a million-seller, Sun Music also received much money.”

By not turning up at his wake, just how does Hamasaki think of CEO Aizawa, the man who gave her the chance to enter the entertainment industry?

Hmmm didnt know that sun music had some shares over her profit...

man. After stealing all that money I wouldnt want to show up either.

Thanks for the translation!

I think it's funny how they say "the man who gave her the chance to enter the entertainment industry" when she was pretty much a nobody back then and she only truly started to be a known celebrity after she had given up and Matsuura insisted for her to join Avex... People barely talk about her time in Sun Music, she's well known now, but her success has absolutely nothing to do with Sun Music LOL (And they still made a lot of money out of it)

But I guess this was expected... I don't blame her at all for not going, but I can totally see how the media couldn't loose the chance to make sensationalist news about her not going. And if she had gone, there would be probably other news about the fact that she went LOL

She was the ONLY one? I find it very hard to believe that absolutely all past celebrities of a whole company showed up but one (that was not even a celebrity when she was in the company)...

wow didn't know that ayu was actually found by this Sun Music CEO.., i thought matsuura max found her and debuted her as singer.

^ kind of agree with you~

I'm so surprised about the fact that Sun Music got 10% of all ayu's sales!! That's unbelievable... Because as I always thought Sun Music dropped her out of the company when her "Nothing from nothing" failed to chart. So her contract was terminated I guess and she was absolutely free when she met Matsuura. I always thought like this.

And today I've learnt about the fact mentioned above... Just why do they get 10% every time?! How come??? 10% is really huge :thud

I doubt she even really knew this person let alone remembers them. 10% is A LOT of money for a place that never did anything so I doubt that is also true.

Whoa, I did not know about this until today...

I know it sounds like BS, but it's one of those bizarre things which are part of Japan's culture.

For example, my Japanese teacher's mother still sends gifts to her daughter's primary school teacher every year to thank her for what she did back in the day (my teacher is over 60 years old now). So yeah, go figure.

Thanks for this.

hsienko: No, Ayu knew him very well. She appeared to be good friends with his wife at the time, too (there's a magazine photo that used to be going around alot that most people said was of Ayu and her grandmother - it's not, it's Aizawa's wife). She and another idol making her debut at the time stayed at his home for a time.

In the few interviews where it comes up, Ayu has NOTHING positive to say about her time at Sun Music. Most of it is related to the work itself (how it was more about sucking up than talent). One could infer, possibly, that there were seedy things going on that Ayu didn't want to be a part of.

If I were her, I'd still be mad Sun Music was taking that much of my money from sales. She quit sun music. Maybe they gave her that initial exposure, but with Avex she essentially started over. They weren't riding on her established name to help promote her. Even if her name had SOMETHING to do with the success of her first few avex singles, that is WAY too huge a percentage for them to be taking.

ayu did say she "can't wait" for next year's (2013) scandals :laugh

Why would she. After reading this and knowing how ayu started out not from what this report said. That company didn't really care or train ayu. They just saw her as a quick buck and its not like her involvement with them got her with avex. Max meet ayu on his own at a club after ayu was singing karaoke. Its like a bad parent complaining because there child doesn't care for them after being a bad parent. All they did was to try a big buck, when that failed, pushed her off, then avex came along and Sun Music’s eyes went $$$. This is a stupid and insulting report bringing up the dead over something so stupid and petty

thanks for this

Thanks for the translation, but this article is horrible. How they dare to intrude like that in such a personal matter like death and funerals? Personal motives are personal, and death is a VERY delicate matter. Sometimes japanese culture disgusts me, just the way the general opinion points out everyone fault and the way it points it out, like, the language, they have no tact whatsoever!

I'm not even surprised by the responses I see to criticism towards Ayu on the boards these days.

Ayu was friends with the man who passed away. Japanese are known for being over giving with past connections and most of all, we don't know how 10% was agreed upon. It could have been Ayu's suggestion. And I doubt that came out of her pocket, but rather Avex's. And people complain about Avex being money hungry all the time. That's the way Japanese culture is and expects is citizens to act. You may not agree, but that doesn't make it wrong. If Ayu doesn't want to follow typical Japanese customs then backlash is to be expected. I doubt she even cares that this was printed about her.

Can't even stand this culture anymore tbh.

wow, this article really paints her in a bad light.
over dramatizing much?? girlfriend just can't catch a break!!

i am also very shocked they received 10% of her earnings. does this continue even now?
(semi-permanent contract, say whut??)

so, you hate an entire culture because things are different/you don't understand their ways? lol wow

anyway

maybe she sent flowers or privately called his wife.

an early interview of ayu when she moved in to his house for her debut.

It wouldn't surprise me if the CEO was a creep when he had teens working for his company move into his home and that's why she distanced herself from his wake.

Another possibility is the interviews for her debut with SUN are as staged as her debut interviews with AVEX, where everytime something was said with cameras rolling that AVEX did not want the public knowing, NHK had to re-shoot the film for that day. Which is the more likely since the majority of her interviews from those years suggest she lived in her own place through her late teens in Tokyo.