i agree with you, the line that ayu said sounds irreresponsible, she's a celebratity, and she should know that appearing in a public area and doing promotion will cause chaos.
but it's quoted from a mag, and it might not be the exact words she said.

I don't understand why you guys kept thinking it's stupid to ask for permission.
Try looking for the police view view, if the event organiser had ask for permission early, preparations could have been done.
or if you are just shopper who don't want to see ayu, would you be happy going there to find that there's no proper barrier or path for you to get to your destination?

Though, sentence to jail sounds stupid....and it is not ayu's fault.

no wonder my friends said japan police is corrupted, and more and more crimes are happening and criminals gets away....
even my friend manage to bribe a police when she was caught speeding to work, she just wink her eyes and gave the police 2000yen

I agree with you. If something illegal happened there the police should have acted and do something about it though for the event it was I don't understand how much a permission was necessary but it might be my mistake in that case.
Since there was a crowding in shibuya (and the event was announced days/weeks before) and maybe there was no permission (even if the whole thing sounds wierd), they should have done something about it. The media should be filled with things about it being an illegal event because of the lack of permission.
It happened a month earlier while the police and media knew about it and they woke up just now.



On that part some people on the board are quick to judge her while the magazine could change what she said to something totally different with a totally different meaning (if she even said something that close to it). And even if she said it I think that she would answer like that because it's not her responsibility to ask for permission (if it's needed), the people and the event, and she is also a human being. As I said in that case I might have been that indifferent just like her but it all depends and that's again if that's even what she said. I think some people are just quick to judge her/it at this point.



That's also very true, avex are responsible for ayu's activities, events and schedule since she signed there back in 1998. How come SHE is being accused for not asking the permission?

It's ridiculous. Why couldn't Ayu move to street? It's not deprived!!
Moreover nothing bad had happened. They just want money from her >.<

i think ayu is not wrong for not asking permission from the police,bcoz she only had the event at shibuya, and she went to several stores to sign,thats not official events where ayu might just go to those stores randomly,like unplanned.. so whenever ayu will go,even to the airports,she needs permission?thas ridiculous..

Why some of you here seems to post like it is ayu's responsibility to ask for the permission? Isn't it the staffs'?
It isn't like she was involve in organising the event. She just went as they asked.

I agree. Normally, it's Staff oof avex who had ask to have the permission and VIVI!! It's them who oragnized the events!

ayu is a person, she is free, nothing more than that.
indeed, I was present during her visit to Shibuya 109 and were only 3-4 minutes of jam, my gosh,,,, that's ridiculous !

was asked for permission when ayu was received by lots of fans at the JR Shinkansen stations? ayu must request permission from the Tokyo police every time she leaves home? :D

so agree with you!!!!
it's not Ayu's fault..

and it's weird that why the police wants to make a big deal out of it after a month???

weird, and not her fault.
stupid media, they always come up with the stupidest things.


anyway, thanks for this info!

I agree with you.

I don't think we should rely totally on the quotes. They are from Friday, and is translated from Japanese, to Chinese, to English. Much can change between translations and information may change, or appear different.

According to SINA, Ayumi is accused because it was her choice to visit all the music shops in the area. This happened spontaneously, and was not planned by Avex. Many other artists had probably not been allowed for this by their staff, it shows how much power she has over her own career. ^-^

Maybe to have money from her.
Avex'll never let them to imprison her. She is so precious for them.

Oh well, something tells me Ayu won't be doing anymore public events already after this :P

^ Maybe she'll go back to Shibuya to promote the other version. ;)

just like i thought..
Ayu just spontaniously thought of an idea to visit some big music stores.. and it's not even part of the photobook promotions, she just felt it's been a long time that she didn't visit those stores..so it wouldn't be a problem, to go all the sudden... where they were already in the same area... why she couldn't?

Are they crasy O_O She is human she can go where she wants no ? o_o

If she must to go in prison there will be a lot of troubles again !!

I hope they will get down

So she needed permission to go to the shops? lol. xD

Either way, a 30 year old woman needs permission.

I think so!! hahahaha.. at least sumone will get scolded. It seems that all of the staffs told her that everything have been taken care of..


and ya.. I think Ayu didn't think that much, maybe she wasn't even aware the number of people surround her.. and personally I think it's an appropriate action to visit the stores.. since..welll you know she's a singer, who's selling music.

Why Ayu is taking responsibility for this?... haaa... of course... she's the face of an industry.. next headline: Ayu goes to prison!!! lol.

The media is making a mountain out of a mole hole, what a misunderstanding!!

Its really ridiculous for me to think that ayu actually needs permission to visit the shops???it makes no sense
she even needs to ask for permission to use the washroom
u never know...
she might be attacked by some assasin

This is bad...
Ayu was so innocent to this and she'll arrested for walking around the Shibuya tower?
That's really sucks. :(


We all know that she was not just a star but an Icon of Japan's music.
In other words, she was a very high profiled artist.
Like Michael Jackson, there will be a mob of fans, media's, passerby and such even when he walked on public (which it didn't happened, im not sure).



I do hope AVEX will do something to save her for being sentenced into jail as much as possible... :cry

I just think it's quite infuriating now that Maxker has specified the reason... sure it's spontaneous, but it's like... she's human too... heck even I have my weird desire sometimes to visit some place...

She wants to promote the event as a surprise, because she wanted to surprise her fans... I mean how can she be accused or get arrested for THAT?!

The most ridiculous thing is that a 30-year-old woman needs to get PERMISSION just to walk around her country... gosh.

I feel like going up to her PR manager and give him/her a good tight slap man.

And, I have a feeling the media is really blowing up things as well. Unnecessary uproar. :rolleyes

despite of all of the negative fuss this news might cause, there's no such thing as bad publicity rite? this news at least once again shows the public that Hamasaki Ayumi still has her touch.. I mean.. "wow~~ the number of crowd, 8000 !!" "wow the book sell well" etc etc..

It was really unbeliveable, those fans chose to follow as their will, and now the police is going to investigate that thing??Are they being too boring or what?!

So this is it. I saw something written in Japanese yesterday about police investigations on Ayu and Avex but couldn't understand it

Honestly, they make it sound like it's HER fault, when really, it's the staff of Avex that was in charge of putting all of this together.

I'm sure the media is making it sound worse than it really is. They always do.

this is so lame. the japanese jolly well knows that ayu is so damn famous!!

does she need permission wherever she goes? So they are trying to imply a famous person has to cover his/her face wherever he/she goes because he/she will cause a commotion that can cause harm to public.

WHAT THE?

Honestly, it's not worth discussing. I don't get why the police are jumping on this now. Maybe there's no news in Japan at the moment? "A cat has fallen from a tree in Shibuya. We are currently reporting breaking news. Stay tuned."

IMO, the whole thing kind of unraveled like that party that Cady had in Mean Girls when she only invited a few people and like, everyone from school showed up. Who would've expected almost 8,000 people to appear?

I understand that they had problems with the amount of people and the commotion they caused, but to place that blame on Ayu? No. That's just a little.. much.

I hope nothing happens to Ayu and this thing blows over.

The whole event was planned in advance, we in AHS knew about it and knew there are going to be loads of people, why the police woke up a month afterwars?
It still doesn't make sense to me at all.

I hope that the investigation will end soon since if the whole issue is wrong they are just giving her a bad name.

Ok weird...I mean its just a fan event?
and shouldnt Avex have dealed with this...if it was necessary to begin with?

No she needs permission just to walk around? Its not ayus fault, the blocked streets are her fans fault and the no-permission-for-the-event thing is her managers fault!

I'm glad that Hiromi Go is being sympathetic since he had the same issue, though ayu's event was announeced.
I hope they will clear it up like with his case.

Since it was a bona fide public event, her manager should have been responsible enough to obtain a permit. But at least it doesn't look like anyone was frightened, trampled or anything like that...

:yes:(. Sad, isn't it? This whole situation is so damn stupid, too.

man...

"We're free to go anywhere we want. We're free to do anything we want." - Heartplace

gawsh, this is ridiculous. to have a permit just to go from store to store. but the thing about holding the event to promote her book and album does need a [permit] to reserve the area and have safety guards for a safe promotion... so in away, i think she shouldn't be such a diva. she's so powerful, she can't just go where and when she wants anymore... she makes the world go crazy, it's like she's a queen who needs all the extra preparation for her arrival or else.

^ getting a permit isn't Ayu's responsibility. It's her staff's. Going to music stores in the area is hardly "diva."

I didn't know it's illegal to walk into a store, and see people you know, and greet with them.
I also didn't know it's illegal to attend your own book opening.
I also didn't know it's illegal to walk the streets on your free well, and go buying somethings once in a while.

I am really tired of Japanese media and news, they are making things up or making a big deal out of things one or two months after it happened.
Look at the SMAP guy, Kusanagi!!! He goes back to work 4 weeks after like nothing has happened, and the police decide not to prosecute him, or ANYTHING!!!
But for Ayumi, it goes on forever and ever, one thing after another,
And she is just walking on her own time, and through the streets of Tokyo, and she will get investigated by the police?
I am tired of this!!!!

Yeah, I agree maikaru. It's like what gossip mags and the media do over here about big name celebs: they just put them on the highest pedestal and rip 'em down any way they can, for any stupid little thing. .. Only of course sometimes those celebs really do things worthy of a lot of attention and confusion (Hostage Brituation '08, Never Forget), but that's the exception to the rule.

It's retarded, plain and simple. Pls to be holdin on to yr integrity, journalists.

The opposite, she is just a human being and she wants to be normal like everyone else, she doesn't want all that divaish protection and special things and treatments like "look I'm coming everyone get far away from me I want to walk here I want to walk there so no one will be here go away, spread shooo oh and if anyone will do anything stupid the guards will punish you!" full of guards and stuff when she goes out. But still it wasn't her job to ask for a permission and it's wierd she is being blamed for that.

Omg maikaru, do you think that it MIGHT because Ayu's a woman that the police are hard on her neck? From what I know, the sexual inequality in Japan is still quite prevalent...

Of course~
When male singers or actors have a scandal, it's not so bad.
When women do, their lives are over.
Look at those Johnnys ones from News, the former ones.
They were caught drinking, but only suspended, and might come back to new groups soon.
The morning musume girl was caught smoking, and banned from Entertainment life forever...

It's outrageous..
This is part of the reason I dont like Johnnys groups so much..
They could get away with anything...

Anyways, this is just so stupid.. they are wasting time and money..
People are so sick in Osaka, but they choose to focus on this.
Stupid!

^ :no... omg this is ridiculous as it is.

And yeah, I don't know why, but I think this is another of the media's tactic to divert attention away from the Swine flu incident at Osaka... it's honestly really sad to see that Ayu has been made used as a decoy for the media. :(

Maybe i'm wrong, but i strongly believe that one of the reasons why Ayu's popularity is decreasing since Rainbow is the girl-power songs...

^ Makes sense, since Real me was from RAINBOW, and it was her first Girl-Power song...

But ironically, Kuu's popularity existed because of the girl power vibe that she gave off with the strong sexual display-whatever-you-wanna-call-it.

Just really interesting though.

Looks like Asia has begun to write about the news. The story was just the main headline in the news broadcast in Hong Kong.

Yule.com (China)
Tencent.com (China)
Nanyang.com (China)
Tom.com (China)
Sina.com (China)
UDB.com (China)
881903.com (Taiwan)
Wenweipo.com (Hong Kong)

....Maybe this will become the next album name: GUILTY ---> NEXT LEVEL ----> JAILED! xD

Wow, why is this getting so much attention overseas...?

Because it brings a lot of money to those tabloids. xD

Ugh. I hope she can just pay a big fine, say she's sorry, and everything will be good again. No need to rip on the poor girl. WHAT THE HELL IS THE BIG DEAL?! You're honestly going to go after a sincere person such as her? This pisses me off...

I have to say, I'm a little disappointed by the topic of investigation. My first thought was..."did someone get busted for a scam?"

...anyhow...

my question is ... why a month after the event? I'm not familiar with Japan's judicial system, but if the police honestly saw it as a problem shouldn't they have gotten to it right away after the event?

Although I'm fairly certain someone on the PR team would be fired. I'm not familiar with the entertainment industry, but isn't it their job to get the permit and everything cleared? It's what PR teams are for, right?

I dunno, I think while Kuu's female fans do feel that her image gives off a more "girl-power" vibe, it's never really directly stated in her songs. It's more or less IMO something similar to reading between the lines.

Whereas Ayu's girl-power is very directly put in her lyrics.

It took them a month after the event to figure out it was a huge problem. If it was a huge problem this should have been bought up a day after the event, not 30 days after. This could not have come at a more worse time for her and her staff with her tour and everything underway. If she has to go through the legal process, that will severely impede on the things she has to do as Ayumi Hamasaki; namely upcoming appearances and releases etc. I hope from the bottom of my heart it's not as serious as it's looking right now with the words "prison sentence". I certainly hope it does not go that far. Looks like 2009 will be another year filled with misfortune for her...

I feel really sad for Ayu :( I mean... she can't even go outside peacefully... she is working hard for her fans, she went outside, to shibuya, risking herself (she is only one little woman with 70 bodyguards in front of 8000 people) because she knows her fans are happy seeing her and knows that she causes panic in the streets, she is fighting to give the osaka fans another performance, and suddenly appears all thi issue...

I mean... I put myself in ayu's situation, I would be really really sad... so sad that I wouldn't be able to put it into words... :(

The media blows everything out of proportion in ANY country. North America and Asia alike. This will blow over in a few months. The media and tabloids are going to make it seem like a bigger deal than it is. :rolleyes

This is so dumb! Why would they do this to anyone... I hope this dies out though!

nah, she probably won't get convicted.
I mean, it's not like she jumped in the middle of the street singing with smoke coming from nowhere and half naked dancers woowing her.
She is a free person and has a right to move everywhere she wants. and if she wants to make her fans happy by signing books etc it's only fair. not her fault everybody loves her. people waiting for the buses and stuck in traffic should have join in and share ayu love :roflmao

it would be kinda cool if she had hung from 109 in this alterna ball though.

yeah same thing happened with hide from x japan when he died, there were crowds like crazy, but I'm sure no one got fined for that....... this is stupid.

As long as we believe that it is not ayu's fought, then she will be fine... We just have to hope that Avex ,Vivi, and Shibuya 109 takes care of this problem as soon as possible. So it won't hurt her image any more then it is right now.

does thos mean police has a money crisis too? :laugh

geez, they want to make money out of air or smth? sure, robbing Ayu for RIDICULOUS fines must be reaaaally cool...:eviltongu

there's already swine flu & somwhere tour cancelled, she has a lot worse probs

ooooor...is it avex trying to give her a break cuz of scandal, as they did it with Kuu's "amniotic fluid" thingy back in 2008? haha =/

What!?:bchuck When she goes to airports, I'm sure they most likely make a report from it beforehand, so that proper security can be held. No wonder the press knows when ayu is going to ariive on airports a few days earlier. You can't really compare both situations. If ayu wants to walk freely the way she wants, she should give up being a celebrity. :shrug I'd expect her to be mature enough to know that stardom has its price, so hopefully that wasn't really her reply.


Maybe the whole news is fake, but if it were true, it wouldn't be nonsense. You don't need to arrest people on spot to consider that a certain activity broke the laws. For example, if I get a fine for disrespecting driving laws, I'll often receive the fine a month after (and will only have to pay it then). Also, waht she did probably went through a police report and enquire to check if what she did was considered illegal or not, and now the sentence has come. That's not an unusual situation in police. In my case, when I worked in army, some illegal activities made by certain privates would take a week or two in order for the whole situation to be investigated and only then a sentence would be placed upon. As I've said, the fact you don't arrest someone on spot is far from a proof that they didn't do anything illegal.


If she wants to be a normal regular human being, she should quit the massive concerts, all magazine appearances, all her divaish obsession of being the latest fashion trend, etc. Her reply only shows two things to me: she's either extremely naive and immature, or on the other hand not a very sincere/honest person. :shrug I personally don't understand how someone wants to have a normal life and still lives in diva paradise. Makes no sense :rolleyes I personally hope "her reply" was made up by the tabloid, otherwise, even kuu can lie better :shrug I know I'm souding crude, but even if I'm an ayu fan, I find her excuse a little pathetic.

I think you're getting a little too into this whole thing, Impact. Haha.

True, but this was a surprise event. I wonder how many people they thought were going to show though.. 900? 1000? At any rate, 8,000 people is like, INSANE and I don't think they could've even had the event if they wanted to if they submitted paperwork and stuff for it and expected that many people.. haha.

Not really as much as those who defend an opposite point of view from me. I like to read stuff with some criticism and it doesn't matter if it's ayu, or somebody else I respect (or not) [Not saying I'm RIGHT either as I could as well be wrong, but obviously, I'll defend my point of views unless someone is really able to convice me otherwise]. If an artist messes up, I'm not one to take a ride on the mess just because they did it and I LOVE them; and if I notice they're really being unfair on the article, I'll say so. If the police is really after this incident, and it really happened like it's mentioned there, I find it unfair to just come here and say the police did the wrong thing just because I'm an ayu fan and she always has to be perfect and right. :laugh On the other hand, even though I think that way, I personally am wishing that she won't get in any serious trouble becuase of this.

hm...well..i think she's free to walk around...but to promote...might be against the law

dont know what to say about this :| hope everything gets resolved~

well, i agree with Impact, but only partlly.

when it comes to events like the promotion of the Diary book, it's a public event and it NEEDS permition.
if Avex didn't get the permition to hold that event there and at that time, then it's only normal for them to sue Ayu/Avex.

on the other had we have them complaining about a mess created by FANS for seeing her comming into 2 major record stores. now THIS is simplly STUPID. it's like saysin she can't go to the supermarket or walk on the street if she wants. she is still a human beeing, no mather how famous she is, and for that she does not need any permition at all.

edit: oh, and one more thing, that promotion was like weeks ago, isn't it SUPERSTRANGE how they're only now making a mess about it??

Hmmm...not make light of this, but I'm wondering if the cause of this is probably an error in judgment on the PR staff part -- aka underestimate the number of people showing up. AKA the highest number of people they estimated probably would cause a little raised eyebrow in the crowded-ness, but nothing like blocking traffic.

I don't want to be disrespectful to Ayu or anything, but I'm surprised that with the way her sales are going, she still manage to attract 8,000 (That's' more than I hear for Harry Potter's book events and such). 2000 - 2002? probably. But post 2006 - 2007? not really. I'm wondering if her and the PR team thought the same thing.

(and am I the only one who laughed at the article about the part of the rabid fans scaring children?)

How reliable is the magazine FRIDAY? Isn't that the magazine that ruined Ai Kago's career??

:yes

Some say that the Ai Kago smoking photos were an inside job or something.

Which is to say that they aren't exactly that reliable. Though they are right sometimes, they exaggerate at times, haha. They're very into idol-paparazzi shots.

Oh, and Ayu's staff seemed to have permission to do the event in stores and etc. BUT they didn't have permission to take up all the space that the crowds took. That's what I'm taking out of this, anyway.

This is completley idiotic....She is her own person and she should be able to do what ever she wants.... Heck if walking on a sidewalk is fined then I'd be dead broke by now.... I hope everything pans out. Stupid people just ganging up on Ayu and avex.

Every time ayu does something controversial, she is a lot more "in your face" than Koda.. Even if koda has a very sexual image, she doens't do much more than this... And even so, before Koda doing this stuff, Ayu had alread done some "sexy" stuff like LOVEppears to Rainbow album covers (all of them showed a lot more skin than japanese public was used to).

In the end, Ayu have a lot of sexy stuff, kissed a guy on screen (a chinese one, and there are a lot of problems between Japan and China even nowadays), did a gay video (and not a fetishist one), the "asia is one" thing, the girl power songs and some pvs that criticized some aspects of japanese culture... most of that was done after Rainbow

It could be someone got hurt and/or they are thinking they could get some money/exploit ayu and avex by making a fuss over what happened and now the police have to follow on the report :confused

they're not getting fined for walking on a sidewalk, lol. they're getting investigated for blocking traffic (could have caused accidents, delaying police+ambulances, etc.)

The fans were the ones blocking traffic, not Ayu/the staff.

Which is what I have a problem with. I don't think that they expected THAT many people to show up... hm.

but the fans were there because of their planning/event, so they have to take responsibility. they should have planned it out better or picked a more suitable place.

avex doesn't really use their heads when it comes to most things and this is just another example of that.

I dunno, who expects 8,000 people to come to a book release event?

I'd say they were probably expecting MAYBE 1k to 2k at most. I honestly wouldn't have thought such a turnout was possible, but hey, it was. I guess it was because it was Ayu's first appearance since like, LOVEppears or Duty. And it was a secret apparently, so... people weren't really supposed to know..

Agree with you...:yes:yes:yes

In my opinion, Ayu being able to go where she wants and promoting a product are two separate things. She should be allowed to go anywhere she wants without a permit [doesn't she catch trains and do other things like regular people? Or am I mistaken?]. Just because you're a celebrity doesn't mean you need "permission" to go anywhere. Will she attract a crowd? Most likely yes. But if she's willing to deal with that, she should be able to do so without a piece of paper that says, "You can go out to a restaurant tonight," or whatever she wants to do.

However, I do think she would need a permit to promote something in a public area. But seeing as the event wasn't hosted by her, but simply to honor her, I don't feel she's responsible. If she had not shown up, and there were 8,000 people there, who would they blame? In either situation, it's Kodansha. The tricky thing is, however, her visiting record stores. If she decided to do that on her own accord to promote her album/book whatever without permission, she's at fault. But if the record store thing was part of the event Kodansha had planned out, then she's not. So I hope they investigate fairly and straighten things out quickly.

i dont see the problem, they're just making a fuss because shes ayu

It appears that the record store thing was before the Kodansha-related event, but to be honest, I don't think THAT is what caused the uproar... though I wonder how many artists can randomly cause a riot in less than an hour with their appearance in a CD store..

Then if that's not what caused the uproar, why are they *****ing at her about it? :laugh

I hear about artists holding events all the time and none end up this ridiculous lol. Although it's probably because this one was poorly handled but it still goes to show Ayu's still queen :)

I don't like law enforcement. Police here in California are rude and they're stiff as hell. I hate how they're practically emotionless and they all look like men (even the women). "No no, we're right. Now get out."

Hmm...I don't understand why they can't just give her a stern warning and fine her. I'm sure that would be more than enough to get the message across to Ayu that what she did could have possibly led to a lot of problems. Is there really a need to go through the whole legal process and turn this into a big thing? I'm quite sure they know the damage this could do to a big celebrity such as her, who gets huge publicity over anything whether it's good or bad. Effectively what they are doing right now is bullying her I think. If they take the time to ask themselves if she truly committed a crime that day, I think they'd find their answer real fast. In concluding, you're going after the wrong people Tokyo Metropolitan Police-san. Why don't you use your resources to go after some real criminals?

Ayu has a responsibility as an artist, since people can get hurt hording around just to see her. If it's the law that you have to get a permit, than Ayu should have gotten one. I don't think it's that hard. She is a human being who has the right to go were ever she wants to be she is also a star. she knows that being a star isn't like being a regular person where you can just walk down the street freely.

-But I really don't think that this should be getting this much media coverage, she'll probably just get a fine. for a second I thought I was gonna read that Ayu was laundering money or something....

I agree with Impact 100%. Seriously Impact is like one of the only posts that made sense to me :S . You guys keep saying its Avex's part to get a permit. THat is infact true but it was just reported that she walked around when avex didn't plan for it -_-. I'm pretty sure this means that Avex planned as she shows up for the event and leaves when it is over. She chose to deviate from the plan, and that means she has to be punished for her actions. How can it be Avex's fault if she decides to deviate from it x_x.

It shouldn't matter when the time of the crime is commited and the time the fine and stufff begins... Thats like saying if a murder was commited a month after the police brought it up and everything, then its ok to get away with it... A crime is a crime... of course this is not anywhere close to a murder.

The thing is that I think she was doing the walking around BEFORE the event started, so the crowd hadn't been formed yet..

Haha, go Ayu!

Still, it sucks it had to get like this, you know?

^ yeah i know but she still deviated from the plan... why would she go around the area where she knows there is an event with fans recruit. If avex planned her to go around and didn't get the permit then I'd blame them, but since she decided to go around the area by herself, the blame is going to be placed on her. :( Its unforunate that when ur famous you have some restrictions, but that is life. she should've went to visit another day before or after the event so avoid the crowds of fans.

Did the article say she purposely deviated from the avex plan?

^ oh I see, I didn't see that 2nd article at the bottom on the first post yesterday o_o. But yeah I guess the main reason why its still her fault is because she was part of the event which caused it. Unfortunately even if it was her manager who didn't get the permit, she was a part of it so they're probably fining both. That's very unfortunate, but I guess it shows how artists should definitely personally make sure everything was done properly themselves. An incident like this happened to rain too. Its unfortunate really. :(

Maxker posted,
According to SINA, Ayumi is accused because it was her choice to visit all the music shops in the area. This happened spontaneously, and was not planned by Avex. Many other artists had probably not been allowed for this by their staff, it shows how much power she has over her own career. ^-^

Now that I know the point of this case which was just posted a few pages back.
You're right. It IS ayu's fault, but still...this whole thing sucks - -"
I don't want ayu to get into this kind of trouble.

It isn't easy at all...being famous person.

I highly doubt anything will come out of this. It will either be forgotten later on or someone will get fined. And that person isn't going to be ayu. She's not gonna end up going to court or jail for this so I don't even see the point. This is just for promotion (of the news & tabloids). They know that if they say "hey AYUMI HAMASAKI is in trouble with the law for blah blah blah" people will read about it. They use her name rather than saying "proper permission for ayu's x event was not obtained by whoever was in charge of it".

I don't think anyone thinks it's not partly Ayu's fault, but.. still. You can't really place the blame solely on her when it's a whole group of people's faults. (avex? herself? fans? Kodansha? 109?)

What?! The investigation was an unintended consequence of her actions and Ayu should know better. Yet even after this, she cutely continues acting she can do whatever she wants regardless of what law that can possibly be broken. I would have prefered her to apologize and learn from her actions and simply pay the fine. She should have known that there can very possibly and probably be "chaos" on the streets. Overall, I still don't see this as a big deal.

Regardless, this is just plain stupid news. It's just about some road traffic law, and it gets violated everyday anyway. It's only on the media because it's Ayu, so people will be interested in it. There are probably more serious news out there in Japan that could have been covered, but knowing the audiences' interests, they might as well cover Ayu's petty traffic fine that I might be able to pay off.

Anyway I always wanted to say this that's not out of randomness - Ayu you naughty naughty girl!!! :D

Well, the moral of this story is, it's not always great being rich and famous.

Also the rich and famous should really invest in inventing invisible cloaks.

I wish Ayu would wear an invisible cloak, but the cloak did not make her invisible, just the cloak itself.

I see the points you're making and all, but seriously... How do you really expect AYU, with all that she's doing at any given point in time, to "personally make sure everything was done properly" herself?! :thud

Agreed, and agreed. It just seems like the media wants to blow things way out of proportion just because it's Ayu and she's controversial.

The thing I feel the saddest and am the most pissed off at is that... she's not suddenly appearing on the streets singing Sparkle with dry ice and a platform or something...

She's appearing at an event like a really normal person, baring bodyguards, fans and cameras aside. I mean she's just attending an event... waving hands, and walking around the streets, visiting the record stores.

It's like, she's not really doing her 'singer' job at all. She's just being ayumi hamasaki.

And that her being a human doing somewhat-human things and getting blamed and getting into legal problems just because of that makes me feel really sad for Ayu... she doesn't deserve something like this imo. It's just a fan service. Sigh.

Ahhhh, still xD It shouldn't matter, I mean well it does, but it's like she mean't to.....Supers star or not.... DX

see? if I isolate your sentence it gets really ambiguous. She is just being ayumi hamasaki (the regular person)? or is she just being ayumi hamasaki (the artist)? It's impossible to dissociate both. ayumi is not a regular artist still trying to achieve stardom. She's a very famous star/celebrity in Japan. She can't really pretend she's a regular person and cry about having a normal life, unless she doesn't want her profession anymore (and even so, given her fame, it would take quite some time for people to dissociate both). artists who want to have a regular person's life are dellusional about the profession they have. It's like someone being the president of a country and saying they want to have a normal life with no pressure from the population or the media. Some tools always come with the whole package and you can't order them separately. And I believe ayu knows that well.

I know what you mean, and I guess it's just sad at times when you're all rich and famous but you can't even do simple things like walking around the streets~

My thought would be she got carried away with the event that she thought it would be all right to just walk around and all that... yeah. So it's definitely partly her fault... but the media imo is blowing things up.

As in a fine and a warning would work fine, why go through all these trouble? :shrug

P.S: I thought ayumi hamasaki = person and Ayu = singer/artiste? Lol.