Japanese Idol Assaulted by 2 Men Forced to Apologise on Stage for Speaking Out

Japanese Idol Assaulted by 2 Men Forced to Apologise on Stage for Speaking Out

Follow up to yesterday's post about Yamaguchi Maho of Japanese idol group NGT48, who was assaulted a month ago by two men who broke into her apartment, and spoke up a few days ago about the assault on twitter. Yesterday evening, during a concert with the group, she came out on stage and apologised to the fans for speaking out about the assault and "causing trouble".

Mahohon's greetings/apology with subtitle
raw: @/JAPAN20180701#NGT48 #山口真帆 #JusticeForMahohon pic.twitter.com/YCeJnftdgP

— mii (@sunshineyena) January 10, 2019

The way that she's apologising, by bowing at a full 90 degree angle, is reserved in Japan for apologising for severe misdeeds and injustices. Keep in mind, she was the one who was assaulted.


AKS, the company that NGT48 is under, has finally released an official statement. This statement contradicts their previous statement where they implied that there were no other members involved with the incident and basically called Maho a liar.



Members and former members of the group have also tweeted about the incident.

Strong statement in support of Maho from Kitahara Rie, Former NGT48 captain

英訳 Translation of Kitahara Rie's (former NGT48 Captain) tweet regarding Mahohon's assault and how management made the victim apologize #北原里英 #KitaharaRie #山口真帆#YamaguchiMaho #NGT48 #JusticeForMaho
https://t.co/z8DXTNPxiM pic.twitter.com/geBbVRWtUS

— ithebigc（ケリー） (@ithebigc) January 10, 2019

Yokoyama Yui, AKB48 member and "general director"

"With members' smiles, getting along with everyone, I want to reach for our dreams.
We will do our best, so management, please do so too.
Our fans' love is our biggest support." https://t.co/4kLEHX8e7G

— さくぴよ♡sakupiyo #PreciousChaeyeonDay (@39_saku_chan) January 10, 2019

Kashiwagi Yuki, NGT48 member

My translation of Yukirin's comment. You can sense how censored she has been and how frustrated she is. She should be. This whole thing is a farce. pic.twitter.com/kbdVthEI3d

— 不器用 '19 @赤月 (@estreasays) January 10, 2019

this is causing a lot of outrage in the jpop community on twitter and it's national news in Japan, but no international outlets have picked up the story yet. the police, the city, and the group management are trying to cover this up. she's lost a ton of weight and is looking absolutely skeletal.

sources: Kotaku, apology video, AKS statement tweet, yui tweet, kitahara tweet, yuki tweet