In Japan, there's no escaping a girl's pop group called AKB48. They are probably the crappiest one of all so far. This means that they are everywhere. On the trains, TV, magazines, newspapers, convenience stores, etc., etc. They are everywhere. You can't avoid them.
We don't have a TV at my house so I have been pretty well insulated. I do see their pictures on the train and in advertisements, but, since those are printed materials, I don't have to be subjected to their, er, "music".
AKB48 are everything that corporate music crap aspires to be. If you hate corporate schlock as much as I do then you are in for a real treat. Watching an AKB48 music video is like dying and being sent to Pop Music Hell.
If you've ever been searching for a reason to throw your TV set away, then then your time has come... But, then again, maybe not.... Their Youtube video has almost 39,000,000 views!
This video has it all: The sick perversion Japan has with the Lolita Complex... Girls in underwear... Tasteless idiocy, lack of talent (no, make that ZERO talent) and, on top of that, it is so totally uncool I feel like I'm going to be sick.
If I were an 18-year-old kid, I would never watch this crap. This is more embarrassing than Disco was in 1975!
I'm sure fat Japanese geeks and dorks in Akihabara Electric Town go crazy over this sh*t.
AKB48 - HEAVY ROTATION
"Heavy Rotation"!? Indeed!
Do these girl's father's know that they are running around in these videos in their underwear? Is this sh*t being sold in Victoria's Secret catalogues in Japan?
I hear that AKB48 has over hundred members "singing" it in now. That's good. Because these types of "artists" have no talent and are no better than human puppets. They are completely disposable so the minute they get a big head or any ideas, the managment of this unit will drop them like a hot potato.
AKB48 Newest video review!
DJ Mike Rogers says, "Two thumbs up!..."
"...So that I can gouge out my own eyes out so
that I never have to watch it again."
These girls cannot sing (I'll bet many of them don't actually sing on the music); they do not write the songs, so they get no publishing royalties; and they are paid a salary. Generally speaking these salary payment systems means that they get paid a small amount of money per month and have their apartment paid for.
Once out of the group, they are gone and will disappear into oblivion.
The best example that comes to mind is the girls duo known as Wink from the 1980's - early 90's. The two girls were paid royalties of 1.25% of total record sales (minus their salary and costs - including production for all videos, promotions, etc.) Wink sold over 25,000,000 CDs in Japan yet, after the breakup of the unit, they were basically penniless. The last I heard was one of them was working in a boutique in Sangenjyaya. The other one keeps making attempts at music, some fairly successful, but nothing like their past record... it's over.
That's what happens to you when you are a human puppet in a group in Japan and paid a pittance.
That's where these faceless girls from AKB48 will be in 4 or 5 years too... Until the next big thing comes along.
But, the way they are going, and judging from this last video, at least the AKB48 girls can make porn videos like the one Keiko did after the breakup of Pink Lady.
Once again a person's life in Japan is ruined by laws concerning a victimless crime. Japanese porn star and sex symbol, Minako Komukai, has fled the country because a warrant for her arrest has been issued due to alleged violation of stimulant control laws.
It's just another circus and travesty of justice. Don't the police have anything better to do?
I understand completely that this is Japan and people have to follow the rules and laws of the country, but that doesn't mean that people living here shouldn't consider what is or isn't a crime. She allegedly did some drugs, fer chrissakes. She didn't hurt anyone except herself. There is no victim here.
Laurence Vance puts it succinctly, "Just as every husband needs a wife, every child needs a parent, and every teacher needs a pupil, so every crime needs a victim. Not apotentialvictim orpossiblevictim or a supposed victim, but an actual victim."
The Tokyo Reporter has the story about Japanese Sex Idol and porn star, Minako Komukai, having a warrant issued for her arrest for violating the stimulant control law of Japan. It the second time she has been charged with violating this victimless crime law.
Of course, all the Japanese media are talking about is Minako Komukai's porn career using this case as some sort of evidence that porn is bad (all the while using it as the excuse to talk about this incident and garner ratings). Maybe porn is bad, butsome porn actresses in Japan make over $3 million (USD) annually, so "thar's money in those hills!" (pun intended).
In my own survey, 97% of all men have viewed porn. The other 3% are liars.
Forgive me while I make light of a very serious situation and a big problem in Japan.
The Japanese media examines the question, "Who is Minako Komukai?" But the questions should be, "Who cares?" and "Why should I care what somebody I don't even know puts into their own body?"
When I compain about a "very serious situation here,"I'm not complaining exactly about the problem of drug abuse. I'm complaining about the problem of spending tax money on sending people to prison for committing a victimless crime.
The organized crime division of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police yesterday issued a warrant for the arrest of gravure idol and actress Minako Komukai for violation of the Stimulant Control Law, reports the Mainichi Shimbun (Feb. 9).
Investigators today revealed that she has since fled the country. This is her second drug violation.
Wire service Jiji reports that Komukai, 25, is accused of purchasing stimulants last summer from an Iranian drug ring in Tokyo. One member of the group, who was arrested in October, confessed that she was a regular customer.
Her Twitter account stopped being updated on Jan. 14. The site The Real Live Webnotes that one of her last public appearances included AV (porn) production company Soft On Demand’s porn awards show on Dec. 18.
I won't mention how I think this is ridiculous that they'd issue an arrest warrant merely on the the hearsay evidence of a drug dealer under custody... She hasn't had a court trial and they want to arrest her?
That seems bad enough, but this is not the point of this article.
I think it is terrible that this poor woman has to flee the country and ruin her already painful existence with this alleged victimless crime. It's bad for her and it's a huge waste of time and expense for an already taxed out Japanese public.
Think about it, this woman is a porno actress. Just about every one of these people come from broken homes and ply their trade for as long as they can while they are young. It is obvious that appearing in these sorts of movies cannot be a long term money earner. In my most possibly confused thinking, I believe that these people, bless their souls, are not happy people and have had tough childhoods; broken families, parents with alcohol abuse, etc.
If this woman were your daughter, wouldn't you feel guilty that you didn't raise her the way you should have and taught her better self-respect and to know that her body is a treasure for herself and her god?
I am not a Christian, but even in the bible it says, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." Corinthians 6:19-20
If you were her parent, wouldn't you go to your grave knowing that you could have done more for her happiness? Actually, this is the lament of all parent's everywhere.
Now, she is threatened with going to prison because she committed the victimless crime of doing drugs? Has this hurt you or me at all because she did drugs? How has she damaged anyone but herself?
Video of her arrested in 2009
Speaking from experience, and, if you've ever done any drugs, or drank too much, for too long, then you should be able to relate to what I am saying: People who abuse their bodies like this have quite enough problems as it is, thank you, without having to worry about going to prison for 5 years because they committed the "crime" of drug abuse.
You'd think that with the Japanese government running a budget deficit of over 200% of GDP they'd find something better to do with precious public funds and be out chasing real criminals and not wasting tax payer monies on ruing the life a some girl who's life is a mess enough as it is.
She is doing speed? So what? As long as she doesn't bother anyone else, that's her body, it's her choice. She doesn't need to be arrested, if anything she needs compassion and needs help.
It is not the government's duty to give her either.
It certainly isn't practical for the government to destroy her already nearly ruined life and make a situation whereby she - or no one close to her - can help her.
What happens when she goes to prison? Her life is ruined because she won't be able to reform and get a job and return to society. What happens if she gets help or rehabilitation? Then she may be able to get her life in order and return to society as a productive individual.
Ruining her life and making her a liability and guest of the state and tax payers helps no one.
These laws need to change.
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