Hamasaki Ayumi and Avex face investigation by Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department

[truehappiness]

The PR event happened on April 7, at the front of the 109 building in Shibuya. Roughly 8,000 people gathered to see Hamasaki, resulting in temporarily blocked roads. Before her appearance at 109, she also paid unexpected visits to a few major record shops, going from store to store by car while some fans followed her on foot.

Even though the events officially took place in stores, police determined that the scope of the event required a permit for the use of the roads. Because a permit was never obtained, authorities revealed on Thursday that they plan to send the matter to the prosecutor's office in order to further question the manager and Hamasaki herself.

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."

[jimex289]

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?

[IYFreak]

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....

[ayumixfan]

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.

[truehappiness]

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.

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

[RikkuChii]

Originally Posted by Maxker

"In Shibuya? Heehaw. I should be allowed to move where I want, without having to submit an application specifically for this," she said, smiling.

Haha, go Ayu!

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

[ayumixfan]

^ 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.

[Kikaru]

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

[ayumixfan]

^ 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. ^-^

[Cawaii~Onna~]

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.

[kuri♥ayu]

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".

[truehappiness]

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?)

[ArchangelLegend]

"In Shibuya? Heehaw. I should be allowed to move where I want, without having to submit an application specifically for this," she said, smiling.

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!!!

[Kikaru]

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.

[ArchangelLegend]

Originally Posted by Kikaru

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.

[taskinillusion]

Originally Posted by ayumixfan

That's very unfortunate, but I guess it shows how artists should definitely personally make sure everything was done properly themselves.

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?!

[waterballoon]

Originally Posted by Kikaru

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.

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

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

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.

[AyuTan]

Originally Posted by juicy

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.)

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

[ImpactBreaker]

Originally Posted by waterballoon

She's just being ayumi hamasaki.

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.

[waterballoon]

Originally Posted by ImpactBreaker

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 Japn. She can't really pretend she's a reguar person and cry about having a normal life, unless she doesn't want to be a star 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 populationb and the media. Some tools always come with the whole package and you can't order it 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?

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