Be careful what you post—this has been a lesson that Minami Kato had to learn the hard way.
A member of the NGT48 idol group Minami Kato made a formal apology to the public on Tuesday after posting an “inappropriate” Instagram post about former idol group member Maho Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi officially graduated from the group last May 18.
The said post has already been deleted on Instagram. A screenshot of that specific post has been widely shared around the Internet since the day it was posted. It shows a picture of a TV screen showing footage of Yamaguchi’s graduation with this caption in Japanese translated as: “I’m doing my nails over here. I wish someone would change the channel.”
According to the group’s official website, the management has demoted Kato from the group’s captain to trainee. Following this announcement, they also confirmed that every group member of NGT48 has been suspended from any social media activity since Tuesday, 11:00pm Japan Standard Time.
Last January, Maho Yamaguchi made a public apology by taking a deep bow in one of NGT48’s performances after speaking out about an alleged assault by two male “idol fans”. The said incident happened last year. She also apologized for accusing her fellow NGT48 members of leaking her personal information to her fans. She said that her voicing about the issues has been “causing trouble” for both parties.
Local news said that the incident happened on the 8th of December last year when she entered her flat. The two men allegedly grabbed her by the face. She screamed in fear but the two suspects covered her mouth to silence her. The men were both confirmed to be 25-year old students, who were arrested by authorities for assault, but then later released without any charges. The men’s testimony said that they “only wanted to talk to Yamaguchi and didn’t think it would be a big deal.”
AKS, the company that manages NGT48, AKB48, and its related sister idol groups and franchises, held a conference in the same month to address the said issue. They made a public apology for being unable to prevent the attacks and for disclosing the said incident to the media and the general public. The reason for the media silence is due to that the police investigation of Yamaguchi’s assault was still ongoing and it was a way to prevent copycat attacks.
They also confirmed that the manager of NGT48 Etsuro Imamura has resigned and was replaced by Maiko Hayakawa with Tsuyoshi Okada as her sub-manager. Hayakawa is involved in managing the company’s idol groups AKB48, STU48, and SKE48.
Source: Oricon, ANN, Image source (Instagram Post) from Arama! Japan
