Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Ex-AKB48 manager Nodera Takashi is currently in prison, but it’s what he did while shooting the AKB48 documentary “The Show Must Go On” that’s now drawing attention. Shukan Bunshun reports that while he was a manager of AKB48, he shot hours of hidden camera footage and possessed videos of the members doing everything from undressing to using the bathroom.
Police found 75 films totaling 15 hours in length of tosatsu footage (peeping videos) on the hard disk of his personal computer. Police also discovered more than 200 still images. The videos of AKB48 members were shot between 2009 and 2010, and mainly consist of the girls changing clothes, taking breaks or using the bathroom. In one 58-minute clip shot in 2010, an AKB48 member is seen lounging fully naked on a bed in a hotel room. Footage taken on New Year’s Eve in 2009 shows members inside a dressing room for NHK’s “Kohaku Uta Gassen” prior to and during the celebratory countdown.
As for what he did to land in prison, well after he was removed from his position with AKB48, he got 16 months for sexually assaulting an elementary schoolgirl. Nodera has a wife and a child.
AKB48’s agency, AKS, has refrained from commenting.
“Since we are not able to confirm all the facts at this stage, we will withhold comment.”
Uh … wow?
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised given how fucked up the entertainment industry is and given some of the problems AKS have had with their staff being suspect as fuck, but still, this is exceptionally bad from a privacy standpoint. One would think this would hurt AKS in terms of recruits or that it would change the status quo, but I have serious doubts about that.
As far as Nodera goes, I would hope this could be used to put him away for a significant amount of time, because paired with the sexual assault of a minor (16 months?), it should be enough to establish a pattern of behavior like this. Perhaps most importantly, I’d honestly like to know why he was laid off from AKS in 2010 and whether they knew about anything going on.
Just disturbing.
