Hamasaki Ayumi and Avex face investigation by Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department

[f1rz3n_0028]

This is just ridiculous, so now she has to ask for permission to walk on the road, that's like I have to ask my parents if I can drink some water!! I don't see anyone else who has to be prosecuted just because they were walking on the road and had a bunch of people chasing after them, do I? This is literally the most stupid thing I have ever heard or seen. Why make such a fuss about it?? I am disappointed at the police, have they not got anything better to do??

It must be hard being Ayu, it sounds like it is a lot of trouble, it must be hard for Ayu...

but Ayu will stay strong and fight, I am sure everything will turn out fine

GOOD LUCK to Ayu

[zyoeru]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

This was made to split Ayu fans between those who don't give a hoot really, and those that care about what kind of parachute pants she's wearing on some given day.

Well, I think people aren't being very fair tbh.
No matter how tight Ayumi Hamasaki controls her artistry, she's still just one person. A very hard working and a very fagged person.
Are we forgetting that she probably still suffers with anaemia? Are we forgetting she probably gets disorientated from having just one ear?
I think we're losing the sight of Ayu just because we can't accept that she's not as strong as we think she is, sure she's not as weak as we think either.

But seriously it's not her job to get permits. It was her job to walk up to that stand in Shibuya and promote her book. Before the event she could do as she pleases. As people have mentioned before me, Japan is a democratic country, not an authoritarian dictatorship.
If Ayu wanted to go to some music stores before, or even after the event she was quite within her rights to.

She has human rights, just like you do. A lot of people on here would be *****ing if they couldn't go into a shop they wanted to.
It's not a matter of whether or not she's famous. In London celebrities walk around freely all the time. Ayumi should be able to walk around Shibuya, Harajuku, Ueno, anywhere freely. ¬_¬

[kuri♥ayu]

Originally Posted by ImpactBreaker

And about blaming the people for crowding the street: they weren't the ones who started the event in the first place. It's really easy to blame the consequences rather than the cause of a problem.

I can understand what you're saying here but I don't think that ayu can always be held responsible for what her fans do. The fans aren't dumb. I'm sure they realized that they were standing in the middle of or crowding a street because they oh so badly wanted to see ayu. If I was following ayu around in hopes to get her autograph and I ended up blocking the way of say an ambulance driving by, I would know that and see it as my fault. I was the one in the way and it's not like ayu told me to stand there.

I mean if a fight were to break out in the middle of a crowd trying to see ayu and some people got seriously injured, would they blame ayu too? Because it was her event, or cause her security should've been tighter, or just cause this is the effect that her popularity can have on people?

[AyUmIXx]

^ exactly..
all and all, it's the fans/crowd who are there to block the way..
even though (if) Ayu already asked for permission to use the area..still~~ the fans/crowd won't obey you!! they will just find a way just to see the celebrity they like/love..
it's always been like that~~ seriously..

since the article said that Ayu didn't ask permission to visit the cd stores (the road around that area), that's just so wrong (the police)... because she went to the cd stores before the event, i believe ViVi/avex/ayu already asked for permission to use Shibuya area for promotion... i don't think they didn't ask for it... as for walking around, i don't think she needed permission since she just paid a short visit to the cd stores and not for holding NEXT LEVEL promotion event there~~ She IS wrong if she did the NEXT LEVEL promotion on that area but not asking for permission..

[Kikaru]

Originally Posted by Demure_Dusk

On the other hand her management team seems to be more than incompetent. They should have planned ahead and given a heads up to the authorities in order to avoid all this stupid drama. Additionally this is something they should have taken care of, rather than Ayu. Otherwise why should she have a management team? So they look pretty in the offshot clips? It's not like Ayu can deal with these arrangements when her schedule is that busy.

I'm afraid Ayu's staff or her so called "friends" who are supposed to help her in her work will lead her to her downfall. They're too busy to shove themselves in the spotlight and in return they keep doing these dumb mistakes. Hope this serves as a wake up call. Something tells me she needs to change half of her staff.

It seems like some people took the "I should be allowed to move where I want, without having to submit an application specifically for this" comment as "I should be able to do anything I want regardless of others." And I really don't even think that's what she meant at all. If she thought they had permission, then she probably didn't think that she personally had to submit an application to be there.

Agreed on all counts with both of you. While I do think Ayu should have made sure that her management team attained the permission (and I'm not arguing on whether she committed the violation. She did, and if they decide to fine her, so be it), this incident doesn't make her management team look that competent.

Also am I the only one who thinks there's not context behind the Ayu quote in the FRIDAY article? granted, I'm pretty tired right now, but I dunno, the article seems to exaggerate the small details while being vague on the actual story.

[extepan]

put her i prison, and her fans start chaos in the prison, then blame ayu for that and put her in prison longer LOL

[ArchangelLegend]

Some can argue the fans may have some fault. That is not the case. They didn't start the event and they were meant to be there and rightfully so. Also if Ayu wants to spontaneously go to other parts of the neighborhood, it is reasonable for the fans to believe it's okay to follow her there. That's not the fans fault. How would they know it's not ok?

The problem is the scope of the event and they didn't get all the permission they need. The area where the event took place was fine, no one is accusing Ayu or Avex wrong here. But if they wanted to go to a place next to it and use the roads, they should have said so or at least took that into consideration first when planning about this.

Originally Posted by f1rz3n_0028

This is just ridiculous, so now she has to ask for permission to walk on the road, that's like I have to ask my parents if I can drink some water!!

No, this situation has a particular safety risk. That's the difference. Celebrities walking around just need to be more careful in what they do. The roadblocks can cause delays in case of an emergency (police, medics, firemen, etc.) and sometimes theft rates rises in these situations. And how ridiculous this sound, some people stomp on other people without realizing it, let alone push each other. Thus, getting permission is not only a responsibilty but a necessity to better control the situation properly.

Also to be more clear, they already got permission, just not the the areas surrounding it. So yes, they ask for permission but they didn't realized they needed more.

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Again, I think this is being blown out of proportion even moreso by the fans than by the media in Japan. I mean, people are making a big deal out of Ayu saying that she should walk where she feels she should.

No, the media is making this a big deal, not the fans. This should only be on entertainment news, not the normal news and newspapers. The fans are just being fans and like to talk about their favorite celebrities, so there's nothing unusual or "out of proportion" about what the fans say. That's no different from talking about their favorite songs in detail.

Originally Posted by maikaru

I find it sad that these people who watches Ayu through computer screens or television screens for entertainmment, feel they have the to treat her like a second rate citizen, and ask her to give up her rights of free will.
Just because she entertains you, she has to give up the rights and freedoms awarded to her as a human being and entertain you?? They sound just like the Avex scandals, when she was being forced around. This is exactly what she wanted to portray in Alterna pv.
...
I stand by my sentence in which I said, she should not apologize for exercising her right of freedom for walking in Shibuya and going into stores. I again ask you to step into her shoes, and restrict yourself from going to your favorite places for so many months, and see how you could survive.

The event could not just have been spontaneous; they had a canvas and stage area set up; It was the responsibility of her PR managers and Shibuya 109 mall, since Shibya 109 was the place of the event, and must have been authorized by the mall. It was not Ayumi's responsibility, since she specifically has PR managers and assistants for this reason, and paying them. Have some common sense, Ayumi cannot do everything, and is not expected to do everything. Ayumi was there for 3 minutes, not an extended period of time.

And yeah, it is so interesting how one month ago, everyone was so happy that this happened, and now, most people on this board are saying how stupid or how immature she is.

Maybe you should reevaluate who the immature person is.

Calling someone immature here and implying we don't have common sense does not make your argument anymore valid and is unnecessary. This is not about us, it's about Ayu.

Again, this is not about rights. No one is accusing her that she does not have the right to do things like any other person. Yes you're right, but that is besides the point and it doesn't make her any less at fault (and yes, others are at fault too, still not making her less at fault).

And she does has that responsibilty. She is an adult and can think for herself, so blaming others does not make her any less at fault. This whole scenario would have been a lot different if there was some kind of emergency where the police, medical personel, firemen, etc. couldn't be at a certain place on time. That was an unforeseen risk by Ayu, and fortunately nothing happened so we can all laugh this off.

But suppose something did happened and a house caught on fire or someone bleed to death or someone got robbed. No one is going to say that she had the right to do whatever she wants. That's still not going to be the topic. Instead, it's still going to be about her responsibilty to plan things properly, especially when she is not new to these procedures. That's my point. I don't care about her rights. Everyone knows it. I care about safety. The event was not planned well nor it was done properly. That's why there's a fine. If she wants to walk around promoting herself in areas where she did not get permission (they got permssion but not all the areas were accounted for, which should have), she should just say so. That way there's better preparation for fan control and road control.

If I were a celebrity, it would be very frustrating for me if I were to walk around in public knowing there will be many fans surrounding me. But since I know that, I will be considerate of many possibilities. I don't want someone not being able to go to the hospital on time because of me. At the same time, if I were a celebrity for ten years, I will eventually overlook that, like what Ayu did. The only difference is that I would have acknowledge my responsibility when I made an unintended mistake and it's nothing to be ashamed of.

Overall, like I said before, this whole thing shouldn't be on the news unless its entertainment news. Traffic violations are broken all the time and the media just need to use a celebrity as their focus rather than more serious issues that the media could have covered. It's just a traffic violation and nothing really happened. But I will still say Ayu should have known better when she wanted to go around shopping right after a huge event, which in itself was perfectly fine.

[truehappiness]

But I will still say Ayu should have known better when she wanted to go around shopping right after a huge event, which in itself was perfectly fine.

She went before, as an FYI. The people all gathered around when the event started. I don't know what she did after though..

[SheFliesHigher]

Yeah whatever, like Shibuya doesn't have frikkin 8000 people in it anyway on a given day.

So slap her with a fine and get over it. She can pay it off with the money stuck between her couch cushions.

[truehappiness]

She can pay it off with the money stuck between her couch cushions.

Or even better, she can use some of her 2000yen bill-toilet-paper.

[Aga-chan]

When I read the thread title I was like "O_o!???", but now I'm like "LOL". I don't even have more to write about it. Did it really took them a month to notice the caused "trouble"?

[~X2RADialbomber~]

This IS a big deal. The picture looked like the crowd was on the road. What if someone desperately needed an ambulance or police?

[Aga-chan]

^Oh yeah, OK. Didn't think about that. Now that would be serious.

[truehappiness]

It would be, but that could be said of any obstruction of traffic.

I'm tired of talking about this. -yawn-

[Ayu_no_tenshi]

this is absolutely ridiculous

[Kingdom]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

I'm tired of talking about this. -yawn-

then you don't have to post in this thread


and impactbreaker you make some of the best points, srsly. two thumbs up

[jbrat2219]

Originally Posted by emiko

seriously...god....you're like the only other person who has sense in this thread...

I just don't get the whole big discussion thing...it shouldn't make any difference...

at the end of the day, her staff gave her the green light, which was wrong.

Demure_Dusk is right, the tales of her staff's incompetence just go on and on...I don't get why she keeps these people on her team when none of them can do their jobs right.

People interpret it different ways, but considering the type of person Ayu is, I don't think she means it as selfishly as others do. I mean if she honestly was that type of person, we would have riot in the streets constantly, don't ya think?

And yeah her staff has been slacking BIG time lately... I hope this incident makes her realize such and she acts accordingly.

[waterballoon]

Well, the basis of the police's charges against her is that she has caused some sort of traffic disorder, am I right?

Well, then, that is true since 8000 fans did follow her around and causing like real big road destruction...

But again, we're not Ayu, neither are we in her management team, so we don't know how they operate and all that.

What I see now, is that Ayu went for the event and all that because she trusted her management and knew they would settle things for her (which is their job, btw)... but apparently they suck and are incompetent, which leads us to this.

All I can say is that Ayu is obviously at some fault here, since it's her and not say, Mama Mika (or however you call her) that created that 8000 crowd to cause traffic disorder.

But again, I don't know why the police, or rather, the media has to blow it up so big... when I don't know, it's not like someone died because of this. Sure, she's in the wrong too, but... to blow it up to such an extent? Sorry, I don't think it's really appropriate. You should know this can be easily settled with a police letter sent to avex, explaining the problem, and asking for a fine. There's really no necessity to report this in the news or whatever.

And also... her management... ugh. And I thought Shimomura was the most useless person to stick by Ayu ever.

[Maxker]

Update: From TeamAyu:

"According to some news organizations, there was an recent event which included Ayumi Hamasaki in a negative way. However, Ayumi Hamasaki was not involved in the planning and managment of the event, and will not be prosecuted for the incident. We regret the concern caused to all the fans of Ayumi Hamasaki, we urge you to understand this situation." - The office of Team Ayu.

[waterballoon]

^ Thank you Maxker ^^

Well, it's even more sure now that it's her management's problem...I'm quite sure one of them is gonna be fired then lol.