NEWS Members Shamed by Netizens for ‘Insensitive Comments’ During Concert Amidst Johnny’s Sexual Assault Scandal
Kato of NEWS (from his Instagram), whose comments during a live performance have become a topic of conversation.The Johnny’s office, which produced the group, dropped its name on October 16 due to the sexual assault scandal involving the late founder, Johnny Kitagawa. While the public is looking at the former Johnny’s with a critical eye, a comment made by a member of NEWS is causing a stir.
“During a press conference held on October 2, the new president, Noriyuki Higashiyama, announced the name change to SMILE-UP. This company will only compensate the victims, and a new agent company has been established to handle talent management and other operations.”
The former Johnny’s office has thus chosen to make a fresh start, but just then, the careless words of one of its talents caused controversy. What caught the attention of the public was NEWS’s concert at Yokohama Arena in Kanagawa Prefecture on the same day (the concert started at 12:00 p.m.). At this time, fellow office mate Yuichi Nakamaru of KAT-TUN came to see the performance, and the NEWS members introduced him during the MC time.
As this was going on, Shigeaki Kato asked, “Can I mention Nakamaru-kun’s name? Isn’t he on the ‘NG list’?” This was apparently a reference to the furore surrounding the press conference on the second day.
“After the press conference, NHK programs and the NHK NEWS WEB news site reported that an “NG list” had been created with the faces of certain reporters to prevent them from being named to the list. The company that was entrusted by the office to manage the press conference reportedly brought this list to the venue, causing a firestorm on the Internet. We are not involved in the creation of the leaked documents, nor do we decide which reporters are not to be nominated.”
