J-Pop Idol Allegedly Assaulted at Her Home, Then She Had to Apologize for It
By Bryan Ke
NGT48’s Maho Yamaguchi publicly apologized during the group’s third-anniversary concert for bringing up her alleged assault that has rocked the idol community over the past few days.
During the event on Thursday night, the 23-year-old member of NGT48 (the sister group of AKB48) was filmed on stage as she apologized to fans for “causing trouble,” according to Billboard.
Echoes of support from fans can be heard in the video as Yamaguchi states that she wanted to hide the act through her recent actions. She also said that she already spoke to NGT48’s management and hopes to take the group in a new direction.
According to the artist, she was attacked by two men on the evening of December 8 as she was about to enter her home in Niigata.
The men, who are both 25-year-old university students, grabbed the idol’s face as they tried to force entry into her home. Police immediately came to her aid before the men could enter Yamaguchi’s home. In the end, no charges were pressed against the men and they were released.
“We wanted to talk with Ms. Yamaguchi, and we didn’t think it would be such a big deal,” the men said. The men were later released by the authorities and received no charges.
The idol only started talking about what happened a month after the attack. SoraNews24 reported that she dropped hints during a live stream on Showroom. Fans believed in her livestream that she implied the attackers got her address from members of her group. She went on to say, “Even though our management said they would clean up NGT48, and even though I’ve been waiting for a month, they haven’t dealt with the situation at all.”
The live stream was cut short, but before going off the air, Yamaguchi said she had feared for her life during the incident, saying, “It doesn’t feel like I’m alive.”
In her now-deleted series of Twitter posts, translated by a fan, she implied that the men may have possibly acquired her home address through one of the members of the group.
The management, however, denied the suspicion that a member gave out Yamaguchi’s address to the two men and have also been relatively silent on the matter, Kotaku reported. Fans have since supported the idol and her apology for her own assault.
Featured Image Screenshot via Twitter / 48_cap (Left, Right), Instagram / nohohon_mahohon (Middle)
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