Trying to figure this out is just a rabbit hole.

She's sustained a lengthy career thus far in a notoriously difficult industry. She can't please everybody and her fan base will grow with her and decide to stick around or not. I'm glad she's still touring and focusing on the music. I've gotten back into her more recently actually because I quite liked Trouble and the tour--I thought it was a great show.

That is interesting, though in line with the usual. Aside from bad vocals, I cant imagine not being able to like and enjoy my favorite artists for any of those reasons. And I wish Party Queen was not so hated because it was actually interesting lyrically and concept wise...and her last album to be that interesting. Though I suppose albums like that are bound to be controversial, I've never had a problem with the concept or understanding why she presented it the way she did.

To me, ayumi is a human with relationship problems and all other kinds of personal issues we dont know much about. And as much as people felt overexposed to her personal life, we really weren't exposed to much and the fans seem to make bigger drama out of it than it should be. It's common with celebrities but I find it unreasonable and selective since not everyone responds to other artists this way when similar things come up.

Aside from actual musical production the only time I find it hard to maintain fandom is when an artist comes out with wildly ignorant personal views on social issues. And even then depending on the dialogue around it, I may not even mind at all (like with Utada on twitter some time ago).

Anyway, if people dont love ayu, they dont. But the reasons are always so odd to me. Saying her music sucks or that her tours are boring makes more sense to me lol (and I'm sure that's still a part of it for many). I actually empathize and feel for her regarding her personal issues.

I doubt a world tour would be feasible for Ayu. I feel like even though Perfume, Kyary, One Ok Rock and Babymetal are a niche they still have way more fans overseas than ayu... I doubt she'd even sell half of a hall-sized venue anywhere outside asia, unless she, like, comes for just one-two concerts in the USA but then I think there's no point because why travel so far just for one concert, if it doesn't bring much profit if any at all? And it wouldn't be a world tour then.

This is sad, but I think people are unfair like that because they have certain expectations about an artist based on the "mask" they presented to us as their stage persona, and also based on our own assumptions from what we see of that celebrity on the screen. And then, when people's expectations aren't met, some tend to get really upset, even if that thing wasn't that problematic when we look at it objectively.

tbh I don't think many avex acts could hold an overseas concert mainly cause of how avex manages them. First of all, region-locked videos and streaming plataforms. Then having posts on their social media without a translated text (and I'm not talking about insta, that's more personal, but twitter and facebook). I don't know about international TA but Koda Gumi has a global page as well but it's so poorly managed. Over time if those stuff were there, they could have hold more fans in their fanbases and also bring in new ones. But it seems like avex only cares about Japan, even asia tour are so rare for them to hold. They seem to not have expertise to go overseas or simply just don't care about it. If ayu had two dates in USA, one in LA another in NY, I'm pretty sure it would work. But then I don't think it'd bring a looot of profit, so it's much easier and better for their numbers to tour on every prefectures around Japan than heading for another countries. A shame :/

^ Namie did exactly one overseas concert, and it was a charity event in Hawaii for the Okinawan community. It would’ve been interesting to see if Avex took any notice of who actually attended, besides Okinawan ex-pats, or even if other people knew about the show. I know at one point Sheila E said Namie could break into international markets if she wanted to. I assume Ayu could have done the same. If that was her goal. I think she tried to be international-friendly with RAINBOW but I don’t know if it was a serious attempt to really break into international markets, so a widespread world tour may not be worth the expenditures.

I know a world tour is off the table, but why not a new Asia tour ?

Lots of reasons and that "same old boring sound" bullsh*t that international jpopers always mention as one of the reasons of Ayumi declining sales isn't mentioned by japanese people. :)

Those are still her best selling songs to this day.

Up until her first divorce and Maro she was alright. On a decline, but had ups and downs in terms of moderate hits. The decline between releases wasn’t as great as when she went from Love songs and FIVE to Party Queen which was definitely a beginning of the end. If it wasn’t for the whole thing with Maro right after she could’ve even recovered from the whole thing. It’s funny how some people are easily forgiven for having a foreign husband you cheat on, have his baby and then dump, while others aren’t 🤣

^Ayu being extemelly unapolagetic about her life choices doesn't help either.

But makes me love her even more :B

I didn't quite understand what you meant. The reasons I mentioned were written by Japanese people, girlschannel is a Japanese only forum.

Which is fine and I love her for it. I loved the way Return Road was done with her going out of a tank in the black version of the Virgin Road wedding dress.
Her music has always been very personal and I don't why people were so surprised by Party Queen - she's been going through a shitty phase and divorce surely wasn't pretty. I still don't get why people hated that album, from top to bottom it's pure gems (except from NaNaNa and Shake It<3 which were just alright).

"The Next Love", "Eyes, Smoke, Magic", "Party Queen" are gems?:no

^
Those songs might not be gems but I definitely give her credit for trying a style she never tried before. THE NEXT LOVE is a great song.

Doesn't seem they were fans after all... I don't understand people "leaving the fanbase" over personal stuff like divorce/weddings. Unless the artists I like are doing something hateful/disrespectful/breaking the laws I don't see the point of not being fans of them anymore over personal life situations. Is like you can stop being fan of Chris Brown after he beat Rihanna because that's - for me - shows how a bad person he is. But makes no sense on stopping being fan of Rihanna, for example, because she broke up with Drake, when this is clearly her personal life choice and has nothing to do with her music. You know what I mean? lol

^ that is exactly what I thought when I read that. You're gonna stop being a fan because she married foreigners? Not much of a fan in the first place.

ya'll really act like you don't know ayumi would only do an world tour if she could promote it like it was the second coming of jesus??, all over the news, doing all the talk shows and doing it on the biggest arenas??

Not because she would want to put a great show, but because she can't fit all her dancers and props and lights in a little stage liike Kyary and Perfume does when they go overseas. These girls even do meet and greets. Do you see ayumi being this personal on her show and with their fans. she barely and rarely does it for her japanese fans.

So I think it has to do more with her pride than anything else, since the only thing she really puts some effort is in doing pretty photos.

^ Is her pride involved? Maybe. Would you expect Namie, or Koda Kumi, or anyone who has had huge success to suddenly do a small venue world tour? No. There are exceptions I'm sure, but for the most part artists of a certain stature will never do these things. For example, I would NEVER see any of them performing at a convention.

When she was traveling for work internationally more, she almost always made time to meet with the international fans. She doesn't go for grand video shoots or album recording like she did these days, but even recently she had met with people when she was in Paris.

I'd figure even if she would do a world tour then she could easily do it on the scale of the 2015 TA tour.

Let's not forget that Ayu performed at a private event in casino. She was probably paid handsomely. If there's a demand and big money is offered, I think she'd do overseas concerts. I don't think there's enough demand to make it profitable though. Also why bother going abroad if she can make plenty of money in her own country? So private events are more likely.
If her fanbase shrinks way too much, it's not impossible that she will only perform solo concerts in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, starts performing at festivals and corporate parties like Aikawa Nanase.

Yeah, there are exceptions. It depends on the artist and their management. For example Generations from EXILE Tribe has had 2 world tours already and they're hot now, doing dome tours.