Jessi wrote:Japanese society tends to come off as very unforgiving in a way that we just aren't in the US and in other countries. I mean look at all the things that happened to Britney Spears in 2007 and yet she was able to come back and release a few more successful albums and get a few TV deals despite everything. I was a huge fan of Kago, Ichii and Mari and even with the scandals I don't think I can openly dislike them. Even with Kago, I'm more concerned for her than anything else.
I think it comes down to a trust thing, on top of not following rules and all that. From my understanding, fans of said members (or anyone involved in a scandal) most likely feel betrayed. It may seem silly to us, especially divorces and such, but if you don't follow society in the way it wants you to (having a happy marriage, for example), people will make fun of you.
Another part of it is honour. If you fuck up, it's seen as shameful and dishonourable and you're gonna be reminded of it for the rest of your life and made an example of so that people (and you) don't make the same mistake. Some of it is probably over trivial things, but most of it seems justified to an extent.
I don't always agree with the extent that Japanese society (at least online) tends to make fun of people caught up in scandals. A lot of the time they're pretty much nothing, but there is that cultural difference which is important to remember (not saying you're not aware of it, Jessi).
From what I know, nobody involved in a scandal really recovers their original popularity, if H!P members are anything to go by. Mari and Kago were both massively popular until their scandals came out (and with Kago it was the repeat offences of smoking that lead to UF being like "bye", they did try to give her a chance). Mari's finally starting to appear on TV again after her divorce but from my knowledge the general public still doesn't like her much. With Kago, yeah, I just feel sorry for her since in her case most of it was beyond her control. She keeps making dumb decisions, but that's not entirely her fault either...
Another example is Nacchi. After her plagiarism scandal, she went on hiatus for two months (and I think a single was cancelled?) and once she came back she wasn't as popular. She still fared better than most of the other members, but her popularity was definitely impacted.
I could be wrong on some of this, but that's my interpretation anyway. I don't disagree with it all but I don't agree with it all either. As I said, I never liked Mari, Kago or Ichii before their scandals so it doesn't mean much to me personally.
Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2016 4:09 pm