Shion arrested for drugs

[hpg23]

Originally Posted by noidea

Is it really such a big problem to take drugs in japan? Something is seriously ****ed up...

Being a celebrity, is practically the worst you can do. There is almost no way turning back and they tend to be really dramatic with it; public apologies, websites closed and halting all of promotion.
There is usually a couple "big" scandals in Japan a year, and when you look at all the fuss and all the problem with them, its really funny, because if most of that stuff happened in the West it wouldn't be considered a scandal at all, and no one would give a damn. Many careers have been ruined because of things like these.
Let me see, in recent history, we've got:

-Erika Sawajiri, actress, singer and model who at her peak was HUGE, ruined her career with her bad attitude (like, she was mean to some journalists on a few ocassions). Later on, she travelled to Ibiza, Spain, supposedly to study, but it was later on rumoured and found that she had been using cocaine there, thus, she was dropped of her model agency, I believe, and no TV channels wanted her to star on it. She is almost forgotten now, and she was practically everywhere on 2005-2006.

-Noriko Sakai, singer, was recently charged for drug abuse too, and she practically lost her career, facing imprisoment.

-Narita Shoji, former Johnny idol, was arrested for marijuana posession this month.

-Koda Kumi, in one of the most famous cases, was suspended for months thanks to her infamous "rotten fluids" comment on the radio. All promotion for her then brand new album Kingdom was halted and her website was taken down. She even appeared on TV crying and apologizing, and before each show on Kingdom tour (which she tried to cancel) she also apologized to the audience. I remember seeing tabloid pictures of her looking fat and depressed, and many doubted she would go back, but she did, probably thanks to her success and her apoligizes.

-Ai Kago, Morning Musume member, got practically erased from showbusiness a couple years ago, when she was found dating a man twice her age.

-Uchi Hiroki and Kusano Hironori, members of the band NEWS, were also "punished" by Jonnhy because they were caught drinking underage.

-Ami Suzuki had a huge scandal that crashed her career, because her management was evading taxes. She went against them, breaking one of the golden rules of showbiz in Japan: never bit the hand that feeds you. She was only able to come back some time after, thanks to her re-debut with Avex, and with a lot less success than what she once had, when she was one of the tops.

-Tetsuya Komuro, famous producer of Namie Amuro on her beginnings was also involved in legal problems, when he tried to sell over 500 songs composed by him, but which were owned by Avex. This was one of the biggest scandals this year, and he found it almost impossible to come back.

and many more cases, and it's really hard to return, and if you do, usually the artist's popularity is sliced in two.


Anyway, I agree with you, I think that drugs should be allowed and controlled by the government... they could do something to ban its usage (maybe sell the harder drugs at indecently high prices), but I think that if something is forbidden, people tend more to consume it.