AKB48 member Minami Minegishi has fling with dancer, apologizes on YouTube

Shukan Bunshun Feb. 7

TOKYO (TR) – Photos published in a tabloid magazine this week showing AKB48′s Minami Minegishi leaving the residence of a member of boy band Generations have resulted in her demotion, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Feb. 1).

The photos, which appeared in Shukan Bunshun (Feb. 7), show the 20-year-old pop idol, wearing a white breathing mask and hat, near the doorway and walking on the sidewalk outside the apartment building, located in Setagaya Ward, of 19-year-old dancer Alan Shirahama on the morning of January 17.

AKB48 management announced that Minegishi would be demoted to trainee level as punishment for the disturbance caused by the scandal. The reprimand is effective from February 1.

Minegishi is a first-generation member of the idol unit, which started in 2005. The group has a strict policy about non-fraternization with members of the opposite sex.

Minami Minegishi leaving Aran Shirahama’s apartment (Shukan Bunshun)

The magazine hit newsstands on Thursday. In a four-minute clip posted on YouTube (see below) at 5:00 p.m. that day, Minegishi provided a tearful apology to her fans, the other members of AKB48, staff members, and her family.

“As a senior member, it is my responsibility to be a role model to younger members,” said Minegishi, dressed in a white shirt and with her black hair shaved. “My behavior was inexcusable, a thoughtless act that was totally lacking in self-awareness of what it means to be a senior member.”

Along with saying that the cutting of her hair was an initial reaction to seeing the magazine, she also expressed her desire to remain on the AKB48 roster.

Posted by Tokyo Reporter on February 1, 2013. Filed under Tokyo Daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

6 Responses to AKB48 member Minami Minegishi has fling with dancer, apologizes on YouTube

scottyboyee (@scottyboyee) Reply

February 1, 2013 at 4:16 pm

You’ve got to be kidding… The Japanese are not supposed to be this sexually repressed. Read Wilhelm Reich on emotional plague.
- CJ Reply
  
  February 1, 2013 at 7:32 pm
  
  But that assumes this is somehow genuine. AKB48 is entirely about crafting an image around pedophilia. The group is a fantasy, and this is just part of it.
Jerome Woody (@jwoody) Reply

February 7, 2013 at 7:26 am

I find it ironic that while “girl acts” in Japan keep their popularly by keeping the identity of being sexually inactive during their career, the exact opposite is true with acts in the west, but either extreme seem not to be emotional and psychologically healthy for the artists.
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