When American female pop stars shave their head, it’s because they’re Sinead O’Connor or they’ve gone crazy, which, come to think of it, is repetitive. In Japan, it’s because, well, not to make any gross generalizations, but Japan’s the land of Domino’s Mayonnaise Pizza. Clearly, something’s not right over there. For example:
A Japanese pop star has been forced to cut off all her hair and make a tearful public apology after being caught spending the night with her boyfriend…Minami Minegishi, 20, made the dramatic gesture after a tabloid magazine printed pictures of her leaving his house last week.
In an emotional four-minute YouTube video, now viewed almost 5million times, she asks for forgiveness and displays her shaven head, a traditional act of contrition in Japan. (Via)
Minegishi is a member of AKB48, an all-girl group (in fact, they hold the Guinness World Record for world’s largest pop group, with 91 members) that has sold over 20 million albums and earned $200 million in 2011…in Japan alone. They’re gigantic, literally and figuratively, and the “ashamed” Minegishi spending the night with Shirahama Alan, a member of the band Generation, is like someone from TLC getting caught with Long-Haired Guy #2 from Hanson. (Note: my pop music references are forever 1999.) This story is impossible for any American to truly understand — we stopped feeling shame decades ago.
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And today in “Japan moves back a few decades in equality”.
That’s what I thought as well. That and Pearl Harbor references.
Why does this feel like a Japanese rape fantasy video I accidently got routed to when trying to download a song?
Because at least 70 people got their rocks off thinking it was the same thing.
So… the old I feel asleep while watching TV excuse didn’t work?
To be fair, Sinead O’Connor is Irish, so she was probably just drunk.
“This story is impossible for any American to truly understand — we stopped feeling shame decades ago.”
LMAO Truuuue, it’s still extreme though.
This is why the Japanese are better people than us in general. This is why when they have a natural disaster their citizens stand in orderly lines and politely wait for food, water, etc. We just bum rush, complain, blame others, and toss in a little rape and murder just because. Our country would be a lot better off if we felt shame. We’d reduce the number of welfare recipients in half instantly.
But the number of bald pop stars would increase exponentially, and I don’t think any of us are ready for that.
Those are some valid points. But consider the fact that almost all Japanese porn portrays women as unwilling participants.
@Taco I’m so ready for bald pop stars. We have enough hair-discrimination as it is, especially against women.
Perhaps if someone could explain to me WHY this girl should be ashamed, and also post a link to her boyfriend’s apology, then I might be more impressed by this act. From where I’m sitting, it seems like some seriously regressive, misogynist shit. Kinda like that porn DW mentioned.
I with JJ for the most part but I don’t even see any reason either of them should apologize in the first place. Spending a night with your boyfriend as a 20 year old woman is not wrong. At all.
Oh, I finally watched the video. The band’s rule is to not have a relationship and she broke the rule. I see why the shame is at least understandable.
Oh, ha, I only watched the first few seconds and assumed it was all Japanese, so didn’t watch the rest. I guess that makes a little sense. Still a dumb rule. But I guess the great Nigel’s words apply: “Lots of [men] are going to want to have sex with you, and we want them to think they can.”
Why does Japanese pop stars feeling ashamed for having a boyfriend make the Japanese better then us? If anything im glad that people can date and do what they want without fear of getting talked down to like a child.
I assume that after feeling that she has expressed enough shame for such an atrocious act, the rest of Japan went about their normal business…watching cartoons of underage school girls getting raped by tentacle monsters, right?
And molesting women on trains.
And buying used panties from vending machines.
And denying the existence of the Holocaust.
And school girls getting raped by tentacle monsters. I know you said that already, Evil, I just feel like it needed to be stressed a bit more.
It’s cold blooded, but the only think I can say is, why doesn’t she shave her head properly. Those orthodox jew curls clinging onto her cranium are nasty
At least the other gal got to keep her mask.
Our lack of shame won us the pacific in WWII.
Taylor Swift would be SO bald right now
Well, Idols aren’t really allowed to have relationships (public or otherwise) in Japanese media. My sister used to listen to this group that sunds like one Eric Andre’s fake bands, Da Pump. These are grown ass men born in the 70′s singing in a boy band. And even in their 30′s, one of the members was dropped from the label because it came to light that he was in a relationship. It’s so jacked up it’s not even funny.
Well it’s a little funny, because goddamn. Japan might be a fun place to visit but I can’t imagine living there permanently.
*sounds like one of*
Mistakes like this always feel like and eating too fast and swallowing food without chewing fully.
I don’t understand. WHO forced her? The rest of the band? The GOVERNMENT!? I dunno. I guess I’d assume… her band manager or something? Either way, fucked up and stupid.
I thought the headline read “Japanese Porn Star…” and I figured she was apologising for being monogamous.
When I saw this on the news I thought she had cancer, then it was like, oh big deal she broke contract, NEXT! That’s how it is over here. They know what they are getting into before they start, hence the deep sense of apology. Turns out she isn’t getting the boot, just demoted to a lesser branch of said group. The otaku freak guys can’t stand having their fantasy girls dating and that is an ironclad rule. Sucks for the girls, but then again, they already know this.
From what I’ve heard from friends over here in the periphery of the industry, you have to do a lot of fucking up to be “caught” and “outed”. There is larger game afoot in this mega-million dollar girl group scandal.
If reading manga has taught me anything… it’s that a giant mecha will be crushing the building she recorded this apology in, followed by girls in far too short school skirts.