Jpopmp3s blog

Live twitter feed as situation develops.

The media circus around Jpop idol, SMAP member Tsuyoshi Kusanagi`s arrest for public indecency is quickly reaching OJ Simpson proportions.
The reported facts of the case are as follows; Two nights ago Kusanagi, 34, was arrested in Hinokicho koen, a park in Tokyo’s Minato ward, not far from the currently popular Midtown Tokyo complex. Police were called at around 3 am when people who live near the park complained of a drunk and naked man shouting and singing loudly.

SMAP idol Kusanagi looks hungover almost 12 hours after his arrest for public indecency

Surprised police arrived at the scene to find a totally naked Kusanagi shouting things like  “kora!” and “baka!”(“Oi” and “Stupid”) and singing in Korean with his clothes neatly folded in a pile on the ground. When he was approached by the officers he reportedly flailed his arms and kicked his legs before being covered with a vinyl sheet and escorted by police back to Harujuku police station. When asked why he was not wearing any clothes he apparently shouted at the officers, “What’s wrong with being naked!”

He had spent 5 hours in a nearby izakaya with 2 friends, a male and a female drinking beer and sake on the rocks. The owner of the izakaya, when interviewed by the various wide shows ever since, say that he had about 10 drinks before he left and was so drunk that no taxis would pick him up. Alcohol breath tests by the police found that he was 5 times over the legal limit to drive a motor vehicle.  After separating from his 2 friends at about 2 am he went to the nearby park, removed his clothes and started shouting and yelling. Questioned after his arrest, he says he remembers removing his jacket but has no idea why he was naked.

He has been held in custody ever since and as of the time of writing this, he was being returned to Harujuku police station after being interviewed by prosecutors who were to determine if his actions warranted being held over for a longer period of time. He is widely expected to be released sometime this afternoon.

The media is going crazy over this story with some of the most ridiculous reporting scenarios I have seen. One morning news show must have had their art department up all night creating the detailed cardboard buildings representing the condominiums surrounding the park for their diorama that they used to illustrate the path he took as he staggered around the neighborhood. Another show had a reporter standing in the spot where he was arrested as an assistant carried into the shot a life-size naked mannequin and placed it where they guessed he was standing to illustrate that even though it was 2 am, enough light was shed on this area of the park that it would have been easy to see everything.

By mid morning the wide shows were running segments along the lines of “angry fans respond” but they were having a hard time coming up with any angry responses from people in the street. Most people expressed mild surprise, but let’s face it, he was naked in a park while drunk, he didn’t exactly murder any puppies or anything.
Bigger fan responses were coming from fans in Korea where Kusanagi is apparently quite famous as he can speak Korean and makes a number of appearances in that country. Judging from the dastardly sounding Korean song of his which they played during this segment, I would venture that Korean fans should hope that he is sent to the big house for a long time, hence sparing them the aggravated assault in their ears.

Speculation as to his future in the business is running wild with everybody weighing in with their opinion. His employer Johnny & Associates agency issued a press release saying that they sincerely regret the disappointment to fans, sponsors and the public. With financial losses of an estimated 5 million dollars from dropped commercials and sponsorship deals, as well as disruptions to television programs shooting schedules, Johnny’s has a lot of butts to kiss. All members of SMAP appear regularly on a large number of television shows, from variety shows to music and comedy shows, as well as their own weekly cooking/variety show, SMAPXSMAP. Next Monday’s episode of SMAPXSMAP was recorded today without Kusanagi and other shows in which he regularly appears have either been delayed, canceled or awaiting a decision by the networks.

Toyota rental lease, P&G and Yamasa have all dropped ads featuring Kusanagi as well as the Association for Promotion of Digital Broadcasting, which has featured Kusanagi as their main character for informing viewers about the changeover since 2006. The head of that association held a press conference yesterday to announce the dropping of Kusanagi as their spokesperson and to call him a “saitei na ningen”, literally, “the lowest type of human”. Johnny’s must be better connected than earlier suspected because he called another press conference today to retract his statement calling Kusanagi “saitei”.

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