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[aidorism]

Concerning Yamaguchi Maho

Alright, listen. Most people have probably already heard what’s going on with NGT48 at the moment but I still want to make sure I did everything I could to spread the word, because there’s almost nothing about it on here. I don’t follow the 48 groups as a whole, only certain members and honestly, I didn’t know who Yamaguchi Maho was before this incident but the issue of stalking, harassment and victim shaming doesn’t only affect the Idol scene in Japan, it’s a problem of society as a whole and it’s present worldwide. I followed this whole thing from pretty early on, thanks to the people on my twitter timeline who posted and retweeted about it. I’m trying to get everything in while keeping it easily understandable but if there’s any mistake or you think I missed something important, feel free to correct me.

Also I’ll tag this outside the 48G, because I’m guessing that if there are people who haven’t heard of this or don’t know what’s going on, they’re probably not invested in the 48G.

In early december, NGT48 member Yamaguchi Maho returned to her dorm after performing at the NGT theater. Right before entering her room, she was assaulted by two men who pushed her to the ground and tried to keep her quiet. Thankfully the commotion attracted other people’s (members’) attention and Maho was rescued. The police as well as NGT’s management was called and Maho was assured that the situation would be dealt with. She was put on a social media hiatus. After a month of nothing happening, Maho went on an unauthorized Showroom stream to address the incident. She talked about her frustration that nothing had been happening and how other NGT members were involved in this. She was cut off after a few minutes by management. The stone, however, was rolling.

So, here are the facts:

the dorm where Yamaguchi Maho lives is rented by NGT to host all members who aren’t originally from Niigata. They have since moved.

Other members of NGT told the men when Yamaguchi would be returning home. They also told them her parents’ address. (The official statement says that a member accidentally gave away this information to some fans on the street but I mean, come on)

The two men were arrested but released shortly after. They told the police that they just wanted to talk to Maho but the situation got out of hand.

Either the two men or management took away Maho’s phone. I’m not quite sure what happened here, I’ve seen conflicting reports on this.

The two men are J.P and Kitagawa Joe/Jou, long standing NGT fans who bring in a lot of money.

Maho and some other members have been complaining about certain members bringing boys into their rooms despite the no boyfriend rule.

J.P is a fan of hers.

A third man (known as Inapooh/ Inaoka Ryuunosuke) was involved in the attack but was not physically present when it happened. He’s known among 48/Sakamichi groups for selling members’ addresses and personal information. Since he’s also a big fan and contributes financially to the groups, nothing has been done about him. (Another very interesting thread on him)

Here’s the detailed timeline:

December 8th: Yamaguchi Maho arrives home from a theatre performance and is assaulted by two men. Police and Management are called. The men were released after 3 weeks.

After a month of nothing happening, Yamaguchi hosted a Showroom live on January 8th (videos), which was cut short by management. There are also now deleted tweets about the incident, I’m honestly not quite sure where in the timeline they take place but I think were posted right after the Showroom.

A day later, a magazine whose editor is affiliated with AKS (the agency managing NGT and I think all 48 group members?) released a report saying that there’s no connection between the men and NGT members. The police never confirmed this. As of January 18th the article has been removed.

Tano’s mysterious messages seemingly supports the suspicion of her involvement.

Yamaguchi appears on stage during NGT’s birthday live on January 10th and appologizes (translation) for the inconvenience she has caused. This is when it hit the international news. While she is apologizing, her attackers are sitting in a front row seat at the theatre, watching her bow to them.

AKS issues a statement containing a lot of bs saying they’ll be holding councelling sessions for all members (starting with Maho), issue an alarm system for all members and increase patrols near the dorm. It was also confirmed that other members were involved as well as a 3rd man (he wasn’t present when the physical attack happened though). They also announce that the three men have been banned from all NGT events.

Nakai Rika (who was suspected by Fans in the beginning but quickly dismissed), Tano Ayaka and Nishigata Marina deny their involvement.

Fans are calling for NGT’s manager Imamura Etsuro to resign. An online petition reaches over 30′000 signatures.

NGT is losing sponsors and commercial deals left and right.

A video surfaces showing one of the attackers mocking the Niigata police for not being strong enough to actually charge them

January 13th: NGT announces the immediate removal of Imamura as NGT’s manager. He’s not fired though, he’ll still be working with AKS. His replacement is Hayakawa Maiko (a woman!) and her vice is Okada Tsuyoshi

January 14th: The new management (who wasn’t even in effect when the incident took place) issues an apology about the poor handling of the situation in less than a day (reactions from the public are translated here)

Akimoto Yasushi releases a ‘statement’

NGT cancels upcoming concerts and events

Inapooh (the guy selling addresses) threatens revenge on NGT

A newspaper releases an article about NGT’s former Manager (the one before Imamura) and how she was harrassed and forced out of her position by these guys as well

Around January 16th/17th it was announced that NGT members living in the dorm where the attack happened have been moved to a different quarter.

International media are still picking up on the story, but this is mostly what happened so far. I tried to include as little speculation as possible to keep it easily understandable. If you’re interested in what the Japanese public has to say about the international attention, there are some translations here as well as a relationship chart (includes speculation!).

Here’s the speculation:

A lot of people are taking it as fact but is not officially confirmed that this was an attempted rape.

Tano Ayaka and Nishigata Marina are the members who gave up Maho’s personal information. This is not officially confirmed.

The two men were allegedly partying with those two members in one of the girls’ room and Kitagawa is supposedly Tano’s boyfriend.

Apparently the police expressed sympathy for the two men because they did it out of love (??)

AKS is not pressing charges against the two men, even though they acknoledged their assault and banned them from events.

Several celebrities started to speak out on the incident, even people involved with 48G or AKS (compilation)

Sashihara Rino addressed it in a tweet and on a TV-Show (rough translation about the segment) (to which a male comedian replied ‘Why don’t you use your body to make things right? You’re good it’).

Kashigawi Yuki who was standing next to Maho on stage apologizes as well

Nakamura Ayuka (NGT) apologizes

Shibata Aya (Ex-SKE) talks about the safety alarm

Muramoto Daisuke (AKBINGO host) talks about the poor handling of the incident by management

Kitahara Rie (Ex-AKB/SKE/NGT) thinks it’s wrong that Maho had to apologize

Masuda Yuka (Ex-AKB) talks about her own bad experiences with fans

Translation of the Japanese public’s reaction to how management handled the situation

Oomoto Honoka’s mother speaks about the situation. Honoka committed suicide after being harrassed and threatened by her management

Kawakami Akira (Stardust manager) tweets about protecting Momoiro Clover Z from such incidents

Murakami Rana (Ex-GEM) tweets about an attempted rape

Iikubo Haruna assures fans that things like this don’t happen in H!P

Niigata’s Governour releases a statement