Apr 11 2008
On Scandals
I generally ignore all of the minor Johnny’s scandals that pop up every other day in the tabloids. However, a recent post in Raid my Minibar prompted me to look a bit further into the major Arashi “scandals” of the past. I’m not even going to try with the KAT-TUN scandals. There have just been too many of them, particularly if we’re talking about Kame or Jin who have each been linked to approximately 1,000 girls (and ladies old enough to be his mother in Kame’s case) in Tokyo (and LA in Jin’s case). Anyway, as far as the Arashi members, here’s what I’ve come up with as far as “major scandals” go. And by “major scandals” I mean, clear pictures of one of them somewhere in the general vicinity of a female.
Jun- Has been linked to quite a few girls, but I’m not finding much in the way of photographic evidence. There’s a picture of someone who could possibly be him kissing a girl in a car from a while ago, but his face is turned away. Then there’s these latest pictures from before Arashi had even debuted with some girls. Again doing nothing sexual, and they’re in a group. So the big scandal here is that 10 years ago Jun and Sho had some female friends! GASP! Interestingly enough, in my research I’ve heard several rumors that the release of these pictures, able to garner attention but innocent enough and long enough ago to not do any real damage, was actually done by Johnny’s in order to raise Arashi’s profile before their new album comes out. Conspiracy theories I suppose, but you never know.
Ohno- scandal free? I can’t find anything anyway
Nino- A magazine published pictures of him with a girl (actress Shiina Noriko) which are dated 2001. They are fully clothed and not so much as kissing in any of the pictures, but they do appear to be dating. Yes, this qualifies as a major scandal *rolls eyes*
Aiba- Has the very worst scandal out of all of them by far, and perhaps the only one I’d consider genuinely scandalous. In summer 2003, pictures surfaced of him with a girl (ex-girlfriend), both of them topless, and kissing in one of them. Nothing explicit is shown or anything, but it’s generally believed that this almost got him kicked out of Johnny’s. Harsh. Poor Aiba isn’t smart enough not to take racy pictures with the girls he dates. He probably trusted her. Sigh. Hope he’s learned his lesson.
Sho- And now our most recent scandals. The same magazine that published Aiba and Nino’s pics has blaring headlines about “Sho’s sexy photos!!” people begin to panic and imagine pictures on an Edison Chen scale. Geez. Sho is supposed to be the smart one. If he ever did anything that dumb, I say he deserves what he gets. Fortunately, it turns out that they just have some photos of Sho, from before he even joined Arashi, with a girl, both fully clothed with absolutely nothing sexual going on at all. Once again, major scandal? Also there the aforementioned photos with Jun not doing anything sexual once again.
Okay, one minor KAT-TUN scandal, just because I find it so amusing. There was a rumor floating around a while ago that Junno was dating Morning Musume’s Sayumi. The evidence for this? Someone took a picture of Junno doing a gesture that resembled Sayumi’s trademark “usa-chan peace”. If that’s not a stupid basis for a rumor then I don’t know what is.
I have no problem with Johnny’s boys dating. In fact, I really really hope that they do date. They are a bunch of attractive males in their prime of life, and if they’re not getting any, that’s kind of sad (imho). It is my understanding that they’re not explicitly forbidden from dating, and I’m not foolish enough to believe that they are saving themselves for me (or each other, lol). That said, I really really hope that they don’t get caught by the press in a compromising situation, because if it’s bad enough, there’s a chance they could be put on probation or even kicked out of the company. So far, it seems that this has only really happened over illegal things like underage drinking (hey NewS), but Aiba obviously pushed the limits of what is allowed as far as relationship scandals. Likely, were he a member of a less popular group or were all 5 Arashi members not so integral for their success, he would have been sent packing. Fortunately, Johnny’s seem to get a lot more leeway than h!p girls (photo holding hands with a guy? dishonorable discharge from Morning Musume and long term suspension for you young lady!!). I’m sure that Arashi is going to be just fine and people will forget all about this sho/jun thing in another week or so. They’ve been through worse, and it probably won’t hurt that it happened 10 years ago. They can play it off as youthful foolishness if it come to that, but I kind of doubt that they will bother making any public statements addressing this at all. Still, I hold my breath every time there’s word of a new scandal within any of the groups I follow, because until the initial panic dies down and real details start to come out, I have no idea how bad it’s really going to be.
My main point: It makes me very sad that the existence of groups that I love are so fragile that potentially, a single blurry photo or careless comment could completely tear them apart.
~Celestia~