I voted for W because I didn't see the point of voting for Hanabi or Blue Bird since she always sings them lol. Wish there were more than 4 choices.

Don't want to see W or aeternal. Voted for HANABI.

Here is the apologizes about Araki Shunpei (new dancer) smoking in the past and affirmation that he will not do it again %)

https://avex.jp/ayu/news/detail.php?id=1064649

That's crazy...

Is there a backstory to this I'm not aware about? I thought it was pretty socially acceptable for people in Japan to be smoking lol

EDIT: Oh, just read the article and it's about his underage smoking past. Lol

I voted for W. Don't wanna hear her butcher HANABI again and BLUE BIRD had it's fair share of performances this year.

Also ridiculous. I am TOTALLY AGAINST SMOKING. It's a disgusting habit. However "I promise I won't do it again." doesn't really fix things. They should've done checks before hiring people as ultimately this does damage to an already damaged brand.

As bad as smoking can be, you cant not hire someone for smoking. This is just a slow day news story :P

^It is a big deal over there... But I don't think that would be an elimination factor for Ayu not hiring someone.

Smoking so disgusting but the idea that you should background check someone to see of they've ever smoked is ridiculous, under age or not.

It's like the media looked for a reason to be honest. I liked what Ayu said about giving people chances, a nice way to deal with it.

While I agree with this, this is after all Japan and an overly sensitive market we are talking about. Anywhere else this wouldn’t even be in the news. So they should know better than to upset their customers xD

There's been trouble in the past with others in the entertainment industry for underage smoking/drinking as well. Japan is much more strict with rules than the western countries many of us are used to. It's all part of the culture difference.

I think it's great that they acknowledged it. Smoking at any age is so bad for you and those around you. I know this will be seen as overreacting or something but I think it's a good thing people said something.
Butttt, I will say that this probably won't change anything and he will just be more discreet about it.:laugh
They aren't really sorry about it, just doing damage control.

What bothers me most about this smoking "scandal" is that this isn't about trying to protect underaged teens from smoking. He broke a rule and this is why this is a big deal. One of the things I hate most here and honestly can't deal with is how people are allowed to smoke in bars, resraurants and cafés. The "smoking areas" in resraurants and cafés are a joke, most of the time there isn't even a door between the smoking area and the normal one. Even if there is, the door is always open and the rest of the shop still stinks. People take their little kids in the smoking area all the time and because, ironically enough, you are allowed to smoke in all kinds of closed rooms but you're not allowed to smoke in public most often, I see parents smoking in their car while the kid sits with them in the car.
Also funny: when buying cigarettes or alcohol, no one ever checks an ID or something. You just have to tap on the screen and say you're already 20. I can't count the times I saw very young people buy cigarettes and alcohol who were definitely not 20.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against cigarettes or alcohol and I definitely started drinking before I was 18 (but at least I had to be creative and not just tap on a screen lol). But I still think that there should be laws protecting teenagers and kids and also people who don't want to eat or drink while others smoke next to them. It is ridiculous to tell a 19 year old he should be sorry for breaking the rules and finding it normal for parents to smoke next to their kids.

That's so true. It was really frustrating for me in some restaurants, never went there again. I still had to make sure there were non-smoking seats before coming in. In many places though it was out of my control and depended on my luck if someone nearby decides to smoke or not. Thank god for non-smoking fast food chains.
Also some people on the streets don't care about the smoking areas - I saw multiple times people walking down the street and smoking.

Ahhhh this! I agreed with this.

Whenever my husband and I go to any restaurant or bar at the hotel, we will always ask for non-smoking area, but the smoking area just at the other side (“Smoking-area” <— | | —> “Non-smoking area”), no door no glass, we still can “enjoy” the 2nd hand smoke @@“

Oh yeah, this explains her TA posts for sure. So weird they made an official statement about it too. This must also be why he scrubbed his IG/Twitter after too since people probably saw it there. I think it became a big deal because Ayu was like "Hey, everyone go follow these new people!" and then they saw all that stuff, lol.

What's the point of voting until 23 except some kind of attention? Rehearsal already started. She will add something 3 days before actual performance? I don't think so. It's possible only if it's song she perform while moving around stadium

Probably rehearsed the options in case there are changes. She did that one set of a-nations where she had very different setlists iirc between stadiums.

Oh, my God, as someone who is super sensitive to smoke (like swollen red eyes, burning throat, the works) don't get me started on the bs that is "non smoking sections" in Japan. Lady would literally sit me right next to the open door to the smoking section and I'd see all this crap wafting out. UGH. The headaches were real. At least outside I could walk away / be in some fresh air. And a lot of the time it's just dependent on a specific restaurant. So I would go to a Jonathon's in one neighborhood and the sections would be completely separate and not an issue, and the next one a neighborhood over would be practically on top of each other. You learn real fast which ones are "safe" and which ones are to avoided unless you're desperate :\

My state has a no smoking ban on all areas within 20 feet of public buildings and most places don't allow smoking at all. I'm so spoiled here, lol. I'm going back to Japan in Oct and it's gonna be an adjustment.

Unfortunately, Japanese people get up in arms about really weird things sometimes. Underage smoking there is a big deal even though it's entirely hypocritical. I mean, I remember back in the day when Kago Ai (morning musume member) got caught smoking underage and her career was essentially ended after that.


And this is why I say "hypocritical". It's more about the fact that a rule has been broken and they got caught. That's it. Japan doesn't care about underage smoking or drinking at all so long as you don't get caught doing it. I worked in a bar in Tokyo for a number of years and when I suspected someone underage was being served, I told my manager. The response? We didn't check their ID, so it's fine. As long as we don't "know". And whenever I asked someone's age I got reprimanded for doing so. So.....yeah.....