18 replies to this topic

[sheikhyerbutay]

http://www.jpopasia....mes::19442.html

 

 

If this has been already posted in another forum, please accept my apologies.

[Krusha]

It has, in the General Thread in the Other Idols forum. Although, Tomita Mayu is no longer an idol. She's a singer/songwriter. 

 

There's a number of things that ought be pointed out here, which is that Japanese media first described this as an idol and an idol fan happening. And have basically gone with this ever since. It's incorrect, as she's a former idol, and her activity these days is as an aspiring pop star (i.e., self-described as singer/songwriter). The "fan" is instead an active stalker, as he has been bothering her for quite some time. He has sent her presents that she has not wanted, and has returned. She had reported this behavior (his stalking) to the police, but the police did nothing. And now look at what has happened...

 

This is a good article on the subject: http://www.japantime...r/#.V0Mghr4Sm73

 

I do not think this would've happened at any current 48G event for example, as they have security (especially after what happened 2 years ago). He would not be able to bring in a folding knife to an event. But as she's an indie level artist, I am sure that security in this case was not good enough. Now, normally you wouldn't really need security, because Japan is a low-crime country in this context, and there's not been a whole lot of cases with attacks. But only a couple are enough to change how things go from here, and I'm afraid that with media's constant harping on this being an idol and an idol fan, it can hurt how idols proceed. In other words security being ramped up even more, and with certain events cancelled. It could even damage idol's popularity amongst casuals. 

 

And, just to add: She was stabbed by the stalker 2 hours before the event would've started... 

 

Having said all of this I hope that Tomita Mayu can recover, and regain her health, and do what she likes again. As for the stalker/attacker, I hope he gets a long prison sentence. 

 

Japanese police needs to take these things more seriously, and the stalking law needs a revision. And then they need to look at Japanese mental health programs and how to improve them.

[Ares13]

hmm .. dunno if I should continue with this .. because the news were posted on the other idols thread which is a long passing thread of many many idols ..

In a while more .. probably it would be lost to a next page ..

 

This news actually been flash in many foreign news agencies .. including my country's main newspapers ..

In many case .. they did put her as an Jpop star .. which is technically incorrect as she is not really a star ..

 

I didn't know she is not an idol anymore but an former idol until reading the post here and the post in the other idols thread ..

Even so..  this actually have been bugging me a lot ..

The point to the case isn't about if she is an idol or not ..or even if this could happen to AKB48 or any of the main stream idols we know ..

Its more to a point that idols fans have been very defensive about it ..

I could understand that people would worry if this will give a bad reputation to idol or idol fans basically creating more misunderstanding among the causal or people who have little understanding of the idol culture ..

However .. I think we are really playing into this bad image as we look to disregard or even down play this even thought this is a real human being in critical condition fighting for her live ..

It seem we are more worried about how this would affect our interest .. and this really bugs me ..

Like the recent Kumamoto earthquakes .. I was concern about it because I got a idol I like from there .. but does it mean that if I don't have an idol from there .. I just disregard it ..?

well .. it seem so .. because I have seen fans who really do not care much about it .. and I believe I would be the same ..

 

The thing is the main reason of the attack is fan obsession .. it is something that is also in us being idol fans ..

She may not be an idol .. and the fan may not be an idol fan .. but the actions and reactions are very idol culture in nature ..

I believe I have many times been piss off for certain things like when the idols didn't response well to me and for any reason that make me feel being treated unfairly or even being look down upon ..

These feelings are very idol fan in nature .. that's why we don't like it when they did anything that would suggest unfairness within fans ..

The difference being that I would never hurt them .. at most I would just walk away from them forever ..

But the obsession is the same .. but we can always change our reactions ..

Years ago .. when I started .. I would never quit on any idols but now I have quit like at least 2-3 groups .. my whole idol fandom principles have change and I now I do have expectation on them ..

I think all of us if we stayed at something long enough will have an ever changing stand point on our fandom ..

 

This incident really affected me and I am re-examining my whole stand point and principles of being an idol fan ..

I am sadden by this because I kind of feel for her parents and her who is just a very young girl trying chase her dream of a performer/artist ..

I really hope she would pull through and recover from this ..

Pray for her ..

[☆RisaReinaSayu☆]

I only just found out about this. I know nothing about her but I really hope she recovers and takes a much needed rest to recover from this not only physically but emotionally and psychologically. This is truly an awful occurrence. Talk about fanboy gone too far. My prayers are with her, those who love her, and her loved ones.

[rcb2418]

I agree with Ares13.  The point here is not if she was an idol, former idol or if he was a fan.  It doesn't matter what she was since there's many people who don't care about that difference, period.  The point here is that she is a person, a 20 year old who is fighting for her life after someone who once claimed to be a fan stabbed her and why? All because she didn't give him a good explanation (according to him) on why she returned his gift.  It is ridiculous that in this time of age someone who wants to do what she loves most is close to dying because she did not accept a gift.  That is just outrageous.  We need to set aside the titles that were given to her and start seeing the seriousness of this issue.  We are all fans of someone and we also need to look at our actions as fans.  If someone whom I admire treats me like crap, believe me, I will immediately stop following them and I will stop being their fan.  That's how I would react.  I personally would not go stabbing every star that dissed me for whichever reason.

[Kinjiru]

No normal person would do this and it's clear that the guy has serious mental issues. There is no actual comparison to be made here with fans.

[Krusha]

People may have completely misunderstood the point of my post above... 

 

It was not at all an attempt to downplay the attack nor to disregard the entire thing by pointing out that she's no longer an idol, and leaving it at that, which I did not. 

 

Of course the main thing here is the attack (as there's a victim due to this attack), but second to that is the deliberate presentation of wrong information by media, as a way to gain more clicks and more views. This is dishonest, and shows a lack in journalistic integrity. Though this is something Japan struggles with more or less across the board in today's Japan, for a number of reasons. 

 

Furthermore, it's also about how the Japanese stalking law is in desperate need of a revision, so that it can help the victims of stalking. It is about how the Japanese police did nothing when she reported his stalking. Please do read the article I posted above.

 

And now we have a case where a woman is critically injured. 

 

Instead it gets reduced down to "Idol attacked by idol fan at idol event!!" which is nothing more than inaccurate clickbait bullshit. The real issue of this case which needs to be discussed in Japan, is not "idols" or "idol fans", but how a poorly constructed law (regarding stalking) needs a revision so that it can actually be of help to people living in Japan. One also ought to discuss how police did nothing to help Tomita Mayu. And finally, one ought to discuss how Japanese mental health policies are incredibly poor, and as a consequence, there are many ticking bombs walking around in Japan. What improvements can be done to this field? What attitude does Japan have to mental illness in general? How can this be changed?

 

These are the real issues to discuss. And as some of you may see, these are very important issues to discuss, and to resolve.

 

To reduce it down to mere "Idol attacked by idol fan!!!" addresses absolutely nothing. Not to mention it's inaccurate. And to talk about this as if it has anything to do with fans at all is incredibly ignorant. 

[pink-ku]

I was reading http://headlines.yah...000025-ann-soci

via: http://fujienyan.tum...d-a-knife-on-20

It happened in the public place which is hard to defend. Remind me of John Lennon, even perhaps with different purpose. One crazy individual. Man, that one nasty looking knife. If you google her name, it is all over the news.

I pray for her recovery.

[Krusha]

pink-ku, 

 

I would appreciate it if you could keep Tumblr links out of this thread. For the very reason that Tumblr is not trustworthy. Aside from the useless words in the Tumblr link provided itself, the knife pictured there does not correspond with the official news from Japan, which is that it's an 8.2cm blade folding knife used. And not a long triple-edged fixed-blade dagger, which blade is 7 inches or 17.78cm.

 

The dagger shown on Tumblr is also nowhere to be found in the actual news article you linked, from Yahoo Japan. So please let's stick to actual news sources.

[Zabieru]

Just heard about this not too long ago, I'm praying she gets better but this isn't sounding good so far. Never even heard of her before this incident. Even if she does recover it'll never be the same, and the lunatic who did this needs to be punished.

[sheikhyerbutay]

I have so many emotions and thoughts on this tragedy.  I don't know where to start.

The police totally dropped the ball.  There was plenty of evidence this guy was an insane stalker.

The Mom could of , should of done more.  Surely the are legal tools, like Protective Restraining Orders, that would have warned this man off.

[zam（仮）]

I'm with Krusha on this, especially post no.2.
Infact, Tokyo Girls Update put out an article that tries to address the same issue Krusha was trying to clearify.

Here is the article: http://tokyogirlsupd...0160591454.html

Btw, there was no mention of Tomita getting stab 20 times. I also didn't hear that on the news on TV(NHK).

Really this case is not about idols. As best I can recall, last year itself I can remember about 3 cases of stalking that ended in death. In all cases the victims have reported to the police about the stalker but they did nothing to stop them. All they did was call the person and gave him a warning, if they can get in touch with the suspect in the first place.

The TGU article gave a couple example of old cases if you want to get an idea what I was taking about.

[megumibex]

She's woken up

http://www.tokyorepo...-consciousness/

[Zabieru]

She's woken up

http://www.tokyorepo...-consciousness/

I was just thinking about her for some reason, couldn't find any sources to find if she was alright or not. Thank you.

[Mizura]

Has there been any news on her condition? I'm assuming she's probably still alive, but I haven't seen anything.

[suzukafan]

Has there been any news on her condition? I'm assuming she's probably still alive, but I haven't seen anything.

 

*bump*

[ceferquin]

Has there been any news on her condition? I'm assuming she's probably still alive, but I haven't seen anything.

 

http://www.asahi.com...1612170030.html

[Obsidian]

I'm glad the police admitted their mistakes in the case (Maybe she can get/has got some compensation to help her recover). It's just terrible what happened to her and what she's still having to go through, I just really hope she can eventually heal in every way and get control of her life back.

[sheikhyerbutay]

^^ Thanks ceferquin for posting the latest news update.  She has every right to indict the police and I hope she gets a very large settlement to compensate her for the Hell she has been through.  She will never fully recover.  She will never fully re-gain the dexterity in her hand to play complex arrangements.   I hope all the best for her.