Saturday, February 2, 2013
AKB48 Minegishi Minami Scandal Shaves Head
AKB48 Bald Minegishi Minami (峯岸 みなみ) Scandal
Japanese pop star shaves head in apology – for night with boyfriend
Japanese pop star shaves head in penance for sex scandal
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| Bald Minegishi Minami with AKB48 |
AKB48’s Minegishi Minami spent the night at GENERATIONS' Shirahama Alan’s place
On the latest issue of “Shukan Bunshun” (BUNGEISHUNJU Ltd.) that was published on January 31st (JST), it was reported that AKB48’s Minegishi Minami spent the night at Shirahama Alan’s place on the 17th of this month.
Shirahama is a popular member of GENERATIONS that made a major debut last year as EXILE’s “little brother” group. He has appeared on some dramas like “GTO” and “Rokudenashi BLUES” last year, and he also starred in late-night drama “Sugarless.”
Minegishi and Shirahama co-starred together in a reading drama “Moshimo Kimi ga.” back in 2011.
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| AKB48 Minegishi Minami scandal with shirahama alan |
Speaking of Minegishi, she is known for her “unpopular character” as she states on the media how she is unpopular with guys even though she is one of the more popular members in AKB48. Thus, the fans of both Minegishi and Shirahama are agitated by the report.
Both Minegishi and Shirahama’s agencies did not make a comment regarding this issue, but they explained that “We heard they’ve been friends ever since they co-starred together.”
Though AKB48 is known for their “no romantic relationship allowed” rule, AKS’s answer was that “We have not yet fully assessed the current situation.”
Source: Tokyohive
Minegishi Minami to be demoted into Kenkyusei (Research Student)
Regarding AKB48's Minegishi Minami scandal by Shunkan Bunshun earlier, it seems that the management already find the solution.
From tgsk’s G+:
本日発売の週刊誌にて報道されました、峯岸みなみに関する件について、その処分を以下のように決定致しましたので、ファンの皆さまにご報告させて頂きます。
About the issue involved Minegishi Minami, which was reported by the weekly magazine released today, as for the punishment we have decided as followed, so we would like to report it to the fans.
今回の報道により、ファンの皆さまに多大なるご迷惑をかけた峯岸みなみを、2013年2月1日付でAKB48 研究生に降格処分とする。
We will demote Minegishi Minami, who had caused many troubles to the fans from this issue, into research student (kenkyuusei) as the punishment from February 1, 2013.
なお、今後の活動につきましては、詳細が決まり次第、改めてご報告させて頂きます。
In addition, I will report about the future activities some other time as soon as the details are decided.
突然の発表となりましたが、ファンの皆さまには改めてお詫び申し上げるとともに、今後ともAKB48への応援を何卒よろしくお願い申し上げます。
Once again, I want to apologize to the fans for the sudden anouncement. I’d like to thank you all for the supports to AKB48 in the future.
AKB48劇場支配人 戸賀崎智信
AKB48 theater manager - Togasaki Tomonobu
Seriously, it hurt so much to see Miichan in this condition. I think this is the first time she cut her hair. Well, congrats to Shunkan Bunshun for destroying her and Masuda Yuka's career in just a few months. And to think that Miichan is 1st generation member! T-T But at least she didn't graduate.... Miichan's fans, show your love to her in the next election!
Edit: Okay, I think this is too sweet to be ignored. 1st generation member (minus Kojima Haruna). Even Acchan's there! Apparently, Takamina also cut her hair (It is far more shorter than when she get haircut because her hair burned). Not sure about Acchan though, because I think she wear extension before, so I don't know her original hair length From Itano Tomomi's twitter
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| AKB48 Minegishi Minami Bald Shaved Scandal |
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| AKB48 Minegishi Minami Bald Shaved Scandal 2 |
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| AKB48 Minegishi Minami Bald Shaved Scandal 3 |
Cultural Competence
I don't know how many people actually read my blog, but if you happen to be one of them, please share / retweet this.
I heard about all these posts on tumblr, through my twitter timeline, and the "extended discussions" these posts have generated. These discussions apparently range from whether Minegishi's head was shaved by herself or by management, to feminist movements and gender equality in Japan.
One user in particular called for youtube users to report Minegishi's apology video as abusive and hopes youtube will take it down eventually.
I haven't read any of these posts myself - this is exactly the kind of inane discussion I avoid when it comes to this fandom (or any topic that requires in-depth knowledge across multiple disciplines, really). But from my feeds, it feels like this is really getting out of hand, and the information that's being passed around is not entirely correct.
Here are the facts that have been clarified either by management or by Minegishi herself:
- she shaved her own head (calmly, as Togasaki mentioned in a supplementary post on AKB's official blog)
- her punishment for being involved with Shirahama is demotion
- she admitted to wrongdoing ("this was all my fault")
Please see my twitter translations of the Togasaki post from this afternoon for more information.
edit - here is the English version, from Togasaki's English g+ page
Anything else is speculation. Calling this a "sex scandal" is not quite correct because no one knows the extent of her "wrongdoing" and I don't think we'll ever find out. If legit Japanese news sources aren't calling this a sex scandal, why are Western tumblr users exaggerating?
As for head-shaving, feminist movement and gender equality - this might be hard to believe, but in Japanese culture, head-shaving is one way for a person to show regret and take responsibility for having done something wrong, or failing to keep a promise. One may think of head-shaving as a modern version of the archaic practice of ritual suicide.
In recent Japanese history, people have shaved their own heads for much lesser reasons:
- in 1982 and 1999, two newscasters shaved their heads because the baseball team one of them supported did not win (1982); the other shaved his head in 1999 because the team he hated won (the team is Yomiuri Giants in both cases)
- Dervish Yu, a Japanese pitcher who now plays for Texas Rangers, shaved his head in 2008 because the Japanese National Baseball Team lost to Cuba
- Nagashima Shigeo, a hall-of-famer in Japanese Baseball, once shaved his head to apologize for behaving poorly to an umpire
It is relatively rare for women to shave their heads, but this does not mean they don't.
Westerners who are not familiar with this part of the Japanese culture will certainly see Minegishi's shaved head as something else, and that's understandable. But I do wish the most outspoken tumblr users would do a bit of research before condemning a whole organization with insufficient knowledge.
As for the no-dating clause - I really dislike getting into this topic with non-fans, because this is a touchy / hairy subject even with existing fans. In fact members don't even like to discuss it other than repeating the rule. The bottom line is that they all joined AKB knowing that they could get in trouble for dating, and they willingly stayed in the group.
It is one thing to feel sorry for Minegishi, but quite another to call for boycotts or advocate gender equality in Japan when one doesn't know better. Values that one grew up with aren't necessary the same for everyone, and what one sees on a regular basis in his/her home country is not always the norm in other countries. If we can all take a little time to understand one another before being so judgmental, the world would be a much better place.
Here is a good place to start reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_competence
Source:
http://bilingual48.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/cultural-competence.html
Btw just helping to share, this isn't my own article.
So yeah, the Miichan scandal has really been blown out of proportion...
As usual, when a Japanese scandal goes global, the world makes it a bigger deal than it actually is...
Japanese netizens give their views of Minegishi's scandal and shaving her head
Comments from 2ch.net:
Mura (Imo):
Isn’t this culture of accepting an apology if someone shaves off their hair a bit weird? Especially when there are some people nowadays who do it themselves for the sake of fashion.
Exotic Short-hair (Kanagawa):
Wow, that really is close-cropped w Still, she’s minging.
Mura (Imo):
Akimoto (AKB48 manager): ‘doing something like this would save her from her criticism (with a smirk)’
Snow Lepoard (Iwate):
Close-cropped, hilarious www This has set a good precedent, let’s find out all the scandals and make JKC48.
Turkish Van (Tokyo):
Ha, sacked or not sacked, surely she’d have her hair cut this much.
Nothing left if not in AKB.
Scottish Fold (Yamaguchi):
YouTube is international, a Japanese shame to the world.
It’s just like a girl being a hostage of terrorists and apologizing or something.
Kuro ashi neko(Tochigi):
It’s abuse of human rights not to allow them to have their own romantic relationships I reckon?
They still can’t moan, otherwise they’d be sacked.
Total power harassment preying on the weak, sick eugh.
Fingers crossed Akimoto is going to be punished!
Wildcat (Niwa):
Is this what she gets in return for a quick shag?
Comments from Itai News:
Siam (Kinoko)：
Gross wwwwwww Turns me off.
Kodokodo (Yawaraka Ginkou)：
The physical punishment at Sakuranomiya high school has been such a big thing in papers and now she’s shaved her head?(゜д゜)
Jaguar (Yawaraka Ginkou)：
Close-cropped hair now? SO timely, well setup, AKB is such a business.
Himalayan (Kantou・Koushin'etsu)：
Straight after the Judo thing at high school? That’d give the world the strong impression that Japan ignores women’s human rights w.
Kuro ashi neko (Tochigi)：
Let’s spread this around the world and see how they feel about it. Westerners would definitely find it weird.
Munchkin (Tokyo)：
She’s 20, she only shagged a guy, she didn’t have to shave her head. Surely she’d have kept shagging him if it hadn’t been revealed by the media.
Andean cat (Tokyo)：
Awful. It’s just abuse, isn’t it? Does this make her fans any happy?
Hyou (Xinjiang Uygur Territory)：
It suits her. Better looking now.
Spain Lynx (Ibaraki)：
What about telly? Can she still make appearances?
Kiji Tora (Tokyo)：
They’re more like a religious organisation now w
Black (Chiba)：
It’s going way too far to make her do this.
Suna Neko (Kyoto)：
This is a human rights matter now. The Japanese media is bloody useless and I don’t suppose they can’t recognise what they’ve done or atone for it until they get forced to by external pressure.
Source: aramatheydidnt.livejournal.com
I don't know why all this news is about Minegishi Minami. What about Shirahama Alan? He should be castrated.
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