Hamasaki Ayumi and Avex face investigation by Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department

[truehappiness]

Honestly, it's not worth discussing. I don't get why the police are jumping on this now. Maybe there's no news in Japan at the moment? "A cat has fallen from a tree in Shibuya. We are currently reporting breaking news. Stay tuned."

IMO, the whole thing kind of unraveled like that party that Cady had in Mean Girls when she only invited a few people and like, everyone from school showed up. Who would've expected almost 8,000 people to appear?

I understand that they had problems with the amount of people and the commotion they caused, but to place that blame on Ayu? No. That's just a little.. much.

I hope nothing happens to Ayu and this thing blows over.

[ayumisrael]

The whole event was planned in advance, we in AHS knew about it and knew there are going to be loads of people, why the police woke up a month afterwars?
It still doesn't make sense to me at all.

I hope that the investigation will end soon since if the whole issue is wrong they are just giving her a bad name.

[freedreamer]

Ok weird...I mean its just a fan event?
and shouldnt Avex have dealed with this...if it was necessary to begin with?

[noidea]

No she needs permission just to walk around? Its not ayus fault, the blocked streets are her fans fault and the no-permission-for-the-event thing is her managers fault!

[ayumisrael]

Originally Posted by Maxker

Singer Hiromi Go, attending his own event in Tokyo on Thursday, offered a sympathetic comment about the case. Ten years ago, he was similarly prosecuted for holding an unannounced performance in Shibuya.

I'm glad that Hiromi Go is being sympathetic since he had the same issue, though ayu's event was announeced.
I hope they will clear it up like with his case.

[SolarAngel]

Since it was a bona fide public event, her manager should have been responsible enough to obtain a permit. But at least it doesn't look like anyone was frightened, trampled or anything like that...

[panda87]

man...

"We're free to go anywhere we want. We're free to do anything we want." - Heartplace

gawsh, this is ridiculous. to have a permit just to go from store to store. but the thing about holding the event to promote her book and album does need a [permit] to reserve the area and have safety guards for a safe promotion... so in away, i think she shouldn't be such a diva. she's so powerful, she can't just go where and when she wants anymore... she makes the world go crazy, it's like she's a queen who needs all the extra preparation for her arrival or else.

[ayumisrael]

Originally Posted by panda87

man...

"We're free to go anywhere we want. We're free to do anything we want." - Heartplace

gawsh, this is ridiculous. to have a permit just to go from store to store. but the thing about holding the event to promote her book and album does need a [permit] to reserve the area and have safety guards for a safe promotion... so in away, i think she shouldn't be such a diva. she's so powerful, she can't just go where and when she wants anymore... she makes the world go crazy, it's like she's a queen who needs all the extra preparation for her arrival or else.

The opposite, she is just a human being and she wants to be normal like everyone else, she doesn't want all that divaish protection and special things and treatments like "look I'm coming everyone get far away from me I want to walk here I want to walk there so no one will be here go away, spread shooo oh and if anyone will do anything stupid the guards will punish you!" full of guards and stuff when she goes out. But still it wasn't her job to ask for a permission and it's wierd she is being blamed for that.

[panda87]

Originally Posted by InoriNoUta

^ getting a permit isn't Ayu's responsibility. It's her staff's. Going to music stores in the area is hardly "diva."

did i state that it was her sole responsibility? no. i expected her fans, supposedly at least half as intelligent as an animal like you probably believe yourself to be, to understand that such stars have managers who handle those things. and ayu should know, as well as her staff, how great of an impact her visits are to places she doesn't frequent as much as other places in Japan, so she should have the idea that perhaps, at least have something written down for the record that whatever damages and/or difficulties that concur during the event, who would be responsible, whether it states the city or Ayu's staff. even normal people do this. i'm sure we all trust Ayu is professional in her public activities, but despite the media exaggeration, she isn't totally a saint here. she does need to offer some kind of compensation, but i don't believe, however, that she needs to give an apology.

Originally Posted by ayumisrael

The opposite, she is just a human being and she wants to be normal like everyone else, she doesn't want all that divaish protection and special things and treatments like "look I'm coming everyone get far away from me I want to walk here I want to walk there so no one will be here go away, spread shooo oh and if anyone will do anything stupid the guards will punish you!" full of guards and stuff when she goes out. But still it wasn't her job to ask for a permission and it's wierd she is being blamed for that.

it's not the fact that calling in special protection and treatment for her coming is diva-ish, but consider that, as i mentioned, even normal people need some kind of written statement to protect themselves in cases like this if they should hold any kind of event, big or small. she knows how impactful her presence is, so she should've had at least a thought that "hmm, maybe i should keep this store jumpin short to avoid any potential problems for my fans and the area". i love Ayu to death, but i can see that she isn't a complete saint. i'm not saying it's ok that she's being blamed. i'm implying that if she knows who she is and her staff knows who she is, her staff should know that, to be professional, they should at least sought for some kind of written protection as, for someone like Ayu, these things are obviously inevitable.

[Bad Wolf]

^ getting a permit isn't Ayu's responsibility. It's her staff's. Going to music stores in the area is hardly "diva."

[maikaru]

I didn't know it's illegal to walk into a store, and see people you know, and greet with them.
I also didn't know it's illegal to attend your own book opening.
I also didn't know it's illegal to walk the streets on your free well, and go buying somethings once in a while.

I am really tired of Japanese media and news, they are making things up or making a big deal out of things one or two months after it happened.
Look at the SMAP guy, Kusanagi!!! He goes back to work 4 weeks after like nothing has happened, and the police decide not to prosecute him, or ANYTHING!!!
But for Ayumi, it goes on forever and ever, one thing after another,
And she is just walking on her own time, and through the streets of Tokyo, and she will get investigated by the police?
I am tired of this!!!!

[Bad Wolf]

Yeah, I agree maikaru. It's like what gossip mags and the media do over here about big name celebs: they just put them on the highest pedestal and rip 'em down any way they can, for any stupid little thing. .. Only of course sometimes those celebs really do things worthy of a lot of attention and confusion (Hostage Brituation '08, Never Forget), but that's the exception to the rule.

It's retarded, plain and simple. Pls to be holdin on to yr integrity, journalists.

[waterballoon]

Omg maikaru, do you think that it MIGHT because Ayu's a woman that the police are hard on her neck? From what I know, the sexual inequality in Japan is still quite prevalent...

[maikaru]

Originally Posted by waterballoon

Omg maikaru, do you think that it MIGHT because Ayu's a woman that the police are hard on her neck? From what I know, the sexual inequality in Japan is still quite prevalent...

Of course~
When male singers or actors have a scandal, it's not so bad.
When women do, their lives are over.
Look at those Johnnys ones from News, the former ones.
They were caught drinking, but only suspended, and might come back to new groups soon.
The morning musume girl was caught smoking, and banned from Entertainment life forever...

It's outrageous..
This is part of the reason I dont like Johnnys groups so much..
They could get away with anything...

Anyways, this is just so stupid.. they are wasting time and money..
People are so sick in Osaka, but they choose to focus on this.
Stupid!

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by maikaru

Of course~
When male singers or actors have a scandal, it's not so bad.
When women do, their lives are over.
Look at those Johnnys ones from News, the former ones.
They were caught drinking, but only suspended, and might come back to new groups soon.
The morning musume girl was caught smoking, and banned from Entertainment life forever...

It's outrageous..
This is part of the reason I dont like Johnnys groups so much..
They could get away with anything...

Anyways, this is just so stupid.. they are wasting time and money..
People are so sick in Osaka, but they choose to focus on this.
Stupid!

Maybe i'm wrong, but i strongly believe that one of the reasons why Ayu's popularity is decreasing since Rainbow is the girl-power songs...

[waterballoon]

^ ... omg this is ridiculous as it is.

And yeah, I don't know why, but I think this is another of the media's tactic to divert attention away from the Swine flu incident at Osaka... it's honestly really sad to see that Ayu has been made used as a decoy for the media.

[waterballoon]

^ Makes sense, since Real me was from RAINBOW, and it was her first Girl-Power song...

But ironically, Kuu's popularity existed because of the girl power vibe that she gave off with the strong sexual display-whatever-you-wanna-call-it.

Just really interesting though.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by waterballoon

^ Makes sense, since Real me was from RAINBOW, and it was her first Girl-Power song...

But ironically, Kuu's popularity existed because of the girl power vibe that she gave off with the strong sexual display-whatever-you-wanna-call-it.

Just really interesting though.

Every time ayu does something controversial, she is a lot more "in your face" than Koda.. Even if koda has a very sexual image, she doens't do much more than this... And even so, before Koda doing this stuff, Ayu had alread done some "sexy" stuff like LOVEppears to Rainbow album covers (all of them showed a lot more skin than japanese public was used to).

In the end, Ayu have a lot of sexy stuff, kissed a guy on screen (a chinese one, and there are a lot of problems between Japan and China even nowadays), did a gay video (and not a fetishist one), the "asia is one" thing, the girl power songs and some pvs that criticized some aspects of japanese culture... most of that was done after Rainbow

[waterballoon]

Originally Posted by Kikaru

I dunno, I think while Kuu's female fans do feel that her image gives off a more "girl-power" vibe, it's never really directly stated in her songs. It's more or less IMO something similar to reading between the lines.

Whereas Ayu's girl-power is very directly put in her lyrics.

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

Every time ayu does something controversial, she is a lot more "in your face" than Koda.. Even if koda has a very sexual image, she doens't do much more than this... And even so, before Koda doing this stuff, Ayu had alread done some "sexy" stuff like LOVEppears to Rainbow album covers (all of them showed a lot more skin than japanese public was used to).

In the end, Ayu have a lot of sexy stuff, kissed a guy on screen (a chinese one, and there are a lot of problems between Japan and China even nowadays), did a gay video (and not a fetishist one), the "asia is one" thing, the girl power songs and some pvs that criticized some aspects of japanese culture... most of that was done after Rainbow

Agreed, and agreed. It just seems like the media wants to blow things way out of proportion just because it's Ayu and she's controversial.

The thing I feel the saddest and am the most pissed off at is that... she's not suddenly appearing on the streets singing Sparkle with dry ice and a platform or something...

She's appearing at an event like a really normal person, baring bodyguards, fans and cameras aside. I mean she's just attending an event... waving hands, and walking around the streets, visiting the record stores.

It's like, she's not really doing her 'singer' job at all. She's just being ayumi hamasaki.

And that her being a human doing somewhat-human things and getting blamed and getting into legal problems just because of that makes me feel really sad for Ayu... she doesn't deserve something like this imo. It's just a fan service. Sigh.

[ImpactBreaker]

Originally Posted by waterballoon

She's just being ayumi hamasaki.

see? if I isolate your sentence it gets really ambiguous. She is just being ayumi hamasaki (the regular person)? or is she just being ayumi hamasaki (the artist)? It's impossible to dissociate both. ayumi is not a regular artist still trying to achieve stardom. She's a very famous star/celebrity in Japan. She can't really pretend she's a regular person and cry about having a normal life, unless she doesn't want her profession anymore (and even so, given her fame, it would take quite some time for people to dissociate both). artists who want to have a regular person's life are dellusional about the profession they have. It's like someone being the president of a country and saying they want to have a normal life with no pressure from the population or the media. Some tools always come with the whole package and you can't order them separately. And I believe ayu knows that well.