Member of NGT48, Yuka Ogino, was threatened to be killed through fax (Image via: Stage48)

Threatening An Idol Group Member, Man Arrested

NIIGATA - When you love someone, do not love it like he does. Fans could be crazy sometimes. They would do anything for their idol. On extreme level, one could kill for his/her idol. This is the case with Kazuki Domoto, who threatened to kill a spin-off idol group member, Yuka Ogino of NGT48 – an idol group based in Niigata.

The 24-year old Domoto was threatening to kill Ogino by circulating a mail in a convenience store in Kyoto prefecture to a news agency by facsimile on 9 May, threatening that he would kill a member from AKB48’s sister group. From camera footage to the facsimile trace, the police managed to arrest Domoto before things got any ugly.

However, a thief will never admit he is a thief, lest the prison should be full. The prefectural police stated that Domoto confessed that he did send the facsimile to the news agency on that date. Nonetheless, Domoto said that he never intended to kill Ogino, despite the fax that clearly said “I will kill Yuka Ogino”. The man is still facing charges for death threats, and waiting for sentence.

This was not the first case for NGT48, last month, Maho Yamaguchi, the former member of NGT48 announced her “early graduation” after she saw that AKS’ – idol group agency -- management of her case did not do any effect to her case. Her case was that in December 2018, she was harassed by two males after a performance.

Seeing that the company would not comply to her cry, -- in fact they pressed her to apologize for what she said on the press regarding the harassment issue -- she could not take it anymore. The peak was when she decided to quit – or to graduate – in April, stating that if the agency would not protect any of its members from this kind of crime, then NGT48 could not start again or develop to any directions. Some celebrities spotted this issue and they fumed AKS for being an immoral and irresponsible agency.

While its sister groups spread throughout the Asia continent, surely these two cases are piling up to reveal the "dark side" of Japanese idol industry.