<figure id="attachment_448896" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-448896" style="width: 1847px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b77f4d75"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/12/2843d6aba28503c50c2feedfee40295b.png" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-448896" class="wp-caption-text">STARTO ENTERTAINMENT&#8217;s intra-junior group &#8216;ACEes.&#8217; The group was newly formed as a result of the reorganization of junior groups in February 2013 (image from Junior&#8217;s official website).</figcaption></figure>
<h3> Controversial &#8220;Restaurant Roulette Project</h3>
<p> STARTO ENTERTAINMENT&#8217;s junior group, &#8220;ACEes,&#8221; filmed on location in Kyoto for a YouTube channel project. While the ACEes and the YouTube staff were criticized, a &#8220;concerned party&#8221; came to the rescue.</p>
<p> Of the &#8220;Junior CHANNEL&#8221; programs featuring several Junior members, ACEes is in charge of Saturdays, and the October 11 episode began the &#8220;Launch Reward Trip&#8221; for the concert tour that ran until August.</p>
<p> The first starting point was Kyoto, and when it came time to have breakfast, the members decided which restaurant to go to by playing roulette among two possible restaurants: &#8230;&#8230;. This &#8220;restaurant roulette project&#8221; is causing controversy.</p>
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<p> The restaurant that was not chosen was said to be waiting for them even though it was after hours, and a scene in which member Fukada Tatsuo (23) calls to apologize is shown in the video.</p>
<p> In the November 1 episode, they played roulette to decide whether to go to &#8220;Gion Tokuya&#8221; or &#8220;Gion Kinana,&#8221; this time over a Kyoto sweet. When Tobiki Ukisho (23) called &#8220;Gion Kinana&#8221; to inform them of the situation, the other members bowed apologetically around him.</p>
<p> A similar roulette event had been held in the past on location in Fukuoka.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In the July 19 announcement, there was a supplementary message saying, &#8220;We ask for your understanding that there is a possibility of cancellation on the day of the event (&#8230;&#8230;),&#8221; and &#8220;We plan to add some material to the restaurants we will not be going to. After that, a roulette game was held for popular ramen restaurants. When Ryuto Sakuma (23) called to apologize, the message &#8220;The person who came up with the idea of this project experienced the rigors himself.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Unfortunately, &#8220;Hakata Ramen ShinShin,&#8221; which did not win the prize, was not open for business, but a representative from the store was waiting for him. After an awkward moment on the scene as the person on the other end of the line replied ruefully over the phone, ACEes was told, &#8220;Shindo! Egyo!&#8221; and spilled out their true feelings.</span></p>
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<p> Some viewers who saw these videos took to X (formerly Twitter) and other sites,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I&#8217;m watching the ACEes YouTube video, where they make appointments at two different restaurants and decide which one to go to by playing roulette, with the feeling that it&#8217;s a big hassle for the restaurant.</span><br>
<span class="strongInContent"> I stopped watching because the scene where they call the restaurant and say no makes me feel bad. It&#8217;s too hard to listen to the disappointed waiter&#8217;s voice.</span><br>
<span class="strongInContent"> The girls themselves say in the video that they&#8217;re sorry, and fans have been complaining about it for a while, so I hope they&#8217;ll stop this project soon.</span></p>
<p> The store staff wrote negative comments such as &#8220;I&#8217;m sorry,&#8221; and &#8220;I wish they would stop this project as soon as possible.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The furor escalated, and the restaurant posted a &quot;follow-up&quot; post on social media..."></div>
<h3>In response to the uproar, the restaurant called for</h3>
<p> As a result of the spread of these voices, the news site Smart FLASH published an article on November 5 titled, &#8220;YouTube Project Conceived by ACEes Members &#8216;Stupid and Annoying and a Moral Issue,&#8217; Viewers React, &#8216;Cancellation of Restaurant&#8217; Causes Controversy. News.</p>
<p> News, and the article was criticized as &#8220;a breach of manners&#8221; and &#8220;nothing but a nuisance,&#8221; as well as blaming the ACEes and YouTube staff.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In the midst of all this, on November 14, &#8220;Gion Kinana,&#8221; a restaurant that was not selected for the Kyoto location, uploaded a video on Instagram. According to the store&#8217;s proprietor, he was contacted by an acquaintance and became aware of the commotion over ACEes&#8217; YouTube video.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The general manager prefaced the video by saying, &#8220;It seems that people who care about us are protesting,&#8221; but he also said that he had been told in advance of the project&#8217;s intention, such as, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know if we can appear (on YouTube) or not,&#8221; and that in addition to the phone call scene shown in the video, he later received an apology, saying, &#8220;I apologize. In addition to the phone call scene shown in the video, he also said that he later received an apology from the restaurant, saying, &#8220;I&#8217;m sorry.</span></p>
<p> In addition, the video in question included a scene showing the store&#8217;s products, which resulted in &#8220;positive&#8221; results, such as customers who said, &#8220;I saw the YouTube video and came here because I was curious, even though I missed the roulette game,&#8221; as well as mail-order orders.</p>
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<p> The general manager followed up by saying, &#8220;So we are not bothered by it at all, or rather, we are grateful to hear about it. He thanked those who were concerned and urged, &#8220;Let&#8217;s not make things so rough and let&#8217;s be calm.</p>
<p> ACEes fans on SNS were thrilled with the consideration on the part of &#8220;Gion Kinana,&#8221; and in the comments section of the video, one could see people declaring their intention to visit the store and others reporting that they had ordered the products online.</p>
<p> In this case, the store that was not selected in the roulette game did not voice their dissatisfaction with the project on social networking sites, but rather, the uproar caused by a small group of fans and viewers developed into an uproar involving ordinary Internet users.</p>
<p> Nevertheless, there is certainly room for improvement, such as splitting the event into two groups and visiting both restaurants, as there is a risk of putting a burden on the restaurant side for this kind of project.</p>
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 STARTO ENTERTAINMENT's junior group, "ACEes," filmed on location in Kyoto on their YouTube channel. The "Restaurant Roulette" project they did on location in Kyoto is causing controversy, saying that the restaurants are being inconvenienced.

YouTube location project for the junior intra-group “ACEes” comes under fire… but the restaurant follows up with a follow-up.

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