453 replies to this topic

[sacul097]

Wait, what's going on with JK Ninja Girls? If they're giving refunds, is the release cancelled? If so then Rio must have done something REALLY bad if they're willing to lose all the money they put into promoting the movie

[Juandalyn]

What baffles me with this is how people are hating on H!P for firing Rio for something she did to herself whatever she has done! I've been on hello project pages on Facebook and Instagram and the consensus seems to be that it's H!P's fault and they are a rubbish company for firing her and because they've fired her they're going downhill as a business! 

 

There's people who're still at UF's throats for firing Aibon. And Aibon definitely did break the law so...

[Obsidian]

Wait, what's going on with JK Ninja Girls? If they're giving refunds, is the release cancelled? If so then Rio must have done something REALLY bad if they're willing to lose all the money they put into promoting the movie

No it's still going ahead but they are offering those refunds for specific screenings and events. Obviously they fully understand that Rio fans may no longer want to see it.

[WorldGN18]

After reading Ayapan's blog I dk what to think anymore... because it seems like they aren't angry at her

[-=o=-]

After reading Tagucchi's blog post, I think Rio's jealousy of Rena having Tagucchi all too herself finally manifested. Those intra-idol love triangles can be brutal!

[Lurkette]

Hmm, considering the statement and the specific circumstances, this is my theory: Rio had decided that she wanted to graduate by the end of the Kobushi tour in May, even if that meant only leaving a week or two between her announcement and departure. While this normally wouldn't be an issue for H!P, since they did allow Saki to do this and had other girls leave under ~mysterious circumstances~ with little to no notice, they were concerned about Kobushi's commitments to promotional events for the film, which would fall later in the summer. Rio was coerced by the company to stay until the end of the summer H!P tour so that she could attend said events, but this was not what she had originally planned nor was it what she wanted to do. She decided to rebel, either by becoming less agreeable with staff members or by developing a truancy habit, and the company decided to end her stay early, as it was clear that she had no intention of trying to fulfill Kobushi commitments until the date they decided upon. 

 

Relatively straightforward, just that the film complicated things, since they likely had some agreements in place with TOEI to help promote in exchange for production, and they didn't want to just let her go before even trying to fulfill them. Ultimately, though, I doubt Rio would have had an actual graduation ceremony, as the groups without official rotating lineups do not usually have full ceremonies for the girls who depart, so the only thing we're really missing out on is time. 

[taylorniw]

^Seems likely. The lack of Rio in their promo events recently did not go unnoticed. Didn't they do a tv appearance without her too?

[Fall]

The more the other members continue to talk about Rio in Kobushi's blogs, the more I'm willing to believe that her contract being canceled was a concession to Rio to let her leave sooner rather than a punishment. I don't think there's any ill will in the termination.

 

In every Kobushi blog today, rather than distancing themselves from her, the members made no effort to refrain from mentioning her and they were giving supportive comments about Rio at every opportunity, posting pictures of her, and expressing their love of the group as 8 members.  Aside from that, they were apologetic to the fans that may be inconvenienced, but otherwise focused on expressing their desire to continue on with 7 members.

[Moondoggie]

The more the other members continue to talk about Rio in Kobushi's blogs, the more I'm willing to believe that her contract being canceled was a concession to Rio to let her leave sooner rather than a punishment. I don't think there's any ill will in the termination.

 

In every Kobushi blog today, rather than distancing themselves from her, the members made no effort to refrain from mentioning her and they were giving supportive comments about Rio at every opportunity, posting pictures of her, and expressing their love of the group as 8 members.  Aside from that, they were apologetic to the fans that may be inconvenienced, but otherwise focused on expressing their desire to continue on with 7 members.

Just the idol lip service really, they aren't really allowed to be negative so they'll make some relatively positive statements as they would have done had Rio done the summer tour and left after that. Then they can tell everyone that they'll give extra effort as 7 members and job done. Idol blogs won't tell you a think about what the agency is thinking about the situation or air any dirty laundry. I doubt any members of the group have ill will at least but I doubt this contract termination was a very happy occasion where everyone thanks each other and exchange an emotional goodbye. Somewhere guys in suits were probably getting an ear bashing because it made the agency look bad in their business dealings. 

[KawaiiLand]

Wow.. whats behind Rio's mind .. what incident leading to these

[Fall]

^^I agree, the business side of things would still have been a serious response.  I'm mostly just assuming that there is no big scandal behind the release since nobody is really distancing themselves from Rio or disassociating themselves from her right now.  It seems like it was entirely just a business decision to cut their losses and not have to pay someone that didn't want to be there (which was what i meant by concession) or that they thought may make the agency look bad or unreliable.  Since we still know basically nothing about the "broken rule" specifics, the reaction from the fallout may at least help rule out some of the speculation on the absolute worst case scenarios that people are imagining, like drugs.

[yeahman]

Yeah I wouldn't take their blogs that seriously. It's not like they could go "bye bitch and good riddance".

[YellowAccel]

^Seems likely. The lack of Rio in their promo events recently did not go unnoticed. Didn't they do a tv appearance without her too?

IIRC, she was ther but she dissapeared between the performance and the talk segment.

[MusubuDantotsu]

^ That happened during their last visit at Full Chorus.

 

Here is some talk about the situation concerning Rio (for the ones who understand Japanase well unlike me):

http://www.dailymoti...藤井梨央-契約解除の話_fun

[Ares13]

I just know about it .. so I am very late ...
I am just reading back a lot of pages to see what happen ..
So I should not comment as I think I don't know enough ..
But am interest to know about this ..
 

As for future questions of Rio's employment history, since H!P works under an exclusivity contract with a statutory agent (her parents), to my understanding of Japanese contract law, this will neither count as being fired in her future employment records nor was the contract binding to her specifically.  Since she's still 18 (with legal adult age in Japan being 20), the contract would have still been with her parents under Rio's consent as statutory agents rather than Rio herself, absolving her and her parents of prejudice since minors are considered to lack competence and reasoning capacity in transactional and service agreements.  Given how soon after her birthday this was and the timeline for her intended graduation, it is likely that any issues that would have resulted in negotiations or the termination of her contract would have started a few months ago, which actually seems to have been hinted in the announcement.
 
There's very little in the way of actual details as to what the dispute entailed other than those vaguely given in the announcement and speculation by the fans.  When the announcement mentions "improvement" it seems to have been in context to an improvement to the circumstances of the contract violation or actions by Rio or her statutory agent rather than anything regarding improvements to her performing abilities.  When the announcement mentions her parents, it seems to refer to a person or persons acting in the capacity as her statutory agent (parental authority).  Regardless of what the rule she may have broken would have been, it seems they were in talks to try and work out a solution with negotiations breaking down after conditions were not met.  If the agency has any consistent history with anything at all, it is that they have no patience for contract negotiations of any kind.
 
With Hirose's regretful blog post and her continued love for, and comments regarding, her activities with Rio, there is very little that we could speculate about what happened with any reasonable level of certainty.   The only things we know for certain are that she was already going to graduate, but the agency found reason or cause to terminate her contract early.

where is this in Japanese law ..?
like specifically the Act and chapter or something ..
Because this would mean that people who finish high school but not going to the college, or people who finish college before 20 will have to get a statutory agent just to get a job?

Furthermore, I am not sure about Japan law but in many other countries law .. minors are not considered to lack competence and reasoning capacity in transactional and service agreements...
If not, they can't buy food, take a train or bus ride, or make any orders or purchases ..

[Fall]

Civil Code Art. 4 for age of majority, Article 5 for juristic act of minors (with permission of their statutory agent outlined in article 6), and Article 6 for conditional permission to carry out business under those guidelines.  Also, you don't normally sign a contract to buy food, a contract being what is meant in the legal context of transactional and service agreements.

[Moondoggie]

7 to go....

[Ares13]

Civil Code Art. 4 for age of majority, Article 5 for juristic act of minors (with permission of their statutory agent outlined in article 6), and Article 6 for conditional permission to carry out business under those guidelines.  Also, you don't normally sign a contract to buy food, a contract being what is meant in the legal context of transactional and service agreements.

Thanks I will check it out which I would take some time, maybe a long time since I do not understand Japanese
and on the contract thing .. I am not going to get to that ..
So thank anyway ..

===============================================

All I can say is .. what is happening to the big idol organization nowadays this year !!!
We got marriage declaration in event watch by the whole country and fans round the world ..
A sad passing of an idol ..
Closing down of a trainee program which use to cover 6 major prefectures in Japan ..

then we got a super stable organization who has been well known for stability doing bunch of shake-ups and having plenty of controversy ..

sigh .. can we hope this year would end quickly and next year is a better year ..

[JPope]

^

 

Are you not entertained?  

[Obsidian]

http://www.tokyo-spo...ainment/706435/

So as far as I understand it this article has a little 'insider' info. Basically this ties in with what a lot of people have guessed about the situation. She wasn't putting the effort in. This was causing two situations. One was increasing rumours/gossip from fans, who could (as confirmed by a couple of us) see the drop off in performances. There is no proof she was involved romantically with anyone though. Secondly this was causing problems within the group.

If the article is to be believed the dual pressures of impact on the fans, and their other charges within the group forced their hand.