crazy japanese fans

Sometimes I profess to being a Johnny's Juniors fan. At least I know what "Johnny's Juniors" means, and can name about 10 groups under Johnny's Entertainment. I'm generally rather partial to Jdrama that stars JE artists, although that's a given element of partial. I'm fond of Arashi, I like some people in Hey! Say! JUMP and KAT-TUN (I also can't stand some of them, but anyway), I occasionally enjoy watching Kinki Kids and listening to their songs (incidentally, their new song "Yakusoku" is really pretty), like 80% of the Japanese population I think Kimura Takuya is a great actor if rather up himself, I like Ikuta Toma though most of all I like him going back to being best buddies with Yamashita Tomohisa.

But I don't generally follow up on their news except the little bits I come across in non-fan-directed sites, so I've never heard of the term "Yarakashi" until today.

There's no translation of "Yarakashi" in either English or Chinese, and from my understanding it's a breed of fans that's absolutely nutters - they stalk their idols, invade their personal space, camp outside their house, amongst other things.

The most recent "skirmish", if that, involves a "Yarakashi" fanclub of Hey! Say! JUMP (hereafter HSJ) who calls themselves "Heisei Maiden Army" (like, wtf?). Its members take the last names of the HSJ members - Yamada Erika, Chinen Mei, Yabu Iku, Takaki Shihomi, etc. At their head is an absolutely crazy bitch nutso who calls herself "Nakajima Mare". She is absolutely obsessive about Nakajima Yuuto - a quick scan through some Japanese fansites suggest that she stalks him, disrupts his schooling, bothers his family. Yuto's little brother is terrified of her.

Recently, in the PV making video for HSJ's new song "Mayonaka no Shadow Boy", Chinen Yuri makes a passing comment that Nakajima Mare interpreted as "The most despicable person is Yuto". Before I go any further, let's just point out that to any other HSJ or Yuto or Chinen fan, it's extremely obvious that this was a joke, because Yuto and Chinen have always been very good friends.

But Nakajima Mare, the crazy nutso she is, started really hating Chinen for the comment. She and her cronies gatecrashed the filming site for Chinen and Yuto's drama "Scrap Teacher", and while Chinen was trying to memorise his script, they screamed:
"That's disgusting! Stop pretending to be a girl! It's so disgusting!"
"Stop talking, your voice is so girly! Who's the despicable one? You're the one being hated! Can you quit JUMP?"

They then went to the HSJ concert at Osaka and screamed at him from the audience, "Girly" "Apologise to Nakajima-kun" "Get out of JUMP" "You're the most despicable one".

Now, it's not the first time that "fans" have stooped so low. In 2006 a bunch of "Yarakashi" fans brought placards of "Kamenashi die!" to a concert and screamed at Kame while he was MC-ing to shut his mouth. There's also reports of fans who camp outside Akanishi's house and steal his phone bills, then call his number incessantly. It's also no secret (to fans) that some of the older JE's are really harsh with fans like these and there's been rumours of encounters that resulted in verbal or physical assault.

But I think the major difference is the average age of these HSJ kids is about 16. Chinen, Yuto and Yamada just turned 15, and their youngest member Morimoto is only 14. They still go to school, they still live with their families, many of them have siblings, and they all have friends outside the entertainment world. It's crazy enough to be growing up living two lives simultaneously without having your showbiz life forcefully shove itself into your normal life.

Nakajima Mare is known to sleep outside Yuto's house. "Yamada Erika" also camps outside Yamada Ryosuke's house. Supposedly "Yamada Erika" claims that she forced a kiss on Yamada Ryosuke. Yamada Ryosuke's younger sister - who is not in the entertainment industry - has had her picture leaked.

Earlier, HSJ had already released a statement asking fans to get out of their private lives - especially fans who had gone so far as to install hidden cameras in Yamada Ryosuke's house. But recently they were forced to further and had made a video criticising the behaviour of some fans.

* I translated the first plea (from Chinese) since haven't (been bothered) found any English versions. It can be read at the end of the post.
* The video transcript, kindly translated, can be found here.
* The same person also made a concert report highlighting the same issues.

It's really sad. These kids are trying so hard to do well at their job, and their families obviously love and support them, but how does one feel when you see your own job getting the people around you into trouble, inconvenience, and sometimes even danger?

Thanks to Nakajima Mare, rumours about HSJ disbanding are flying everywhere. While I don't care about HSJ as a group (since I only like about 4 of them), they get along really well (unlike, ahem, KAT-TUN ==;) and it's unfair to both the HSJ members who've worked so hard and the properly behaved fans.

I know some fans are unhappy that a few groups were split to form HSJ, but that's nothing compared to the controversy caused by NEWS' debut. They now get along so well. Just leave them alone =__=

( HSJ plea Transcript )