{"id":14898,"date":"2013-02-02T17:02:14","date_gmt":"2013-02-02T17:02:14","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-02-02T17:02:14","modified_gmt":"2013-02-02T17:02:14","slug":"Japan-pop-idol-shaves-head-after-sex-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=14898","title":{"rendered":"Japan pop idol shaves head after sex scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Japanese starlet who shaved her head and issued a tearful YouTube apology after spending the night with a man was scrambling Friday to redeem the girl-next-door image of all-female group AKB48<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Pictures of the roughly-shorn head of Minami Minegishi, 20, were emblazoned on national newspapers and Japan’s Twitter scene was abuzz over news that the pop princess had broken the band’s cardinal rule: No Dating.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A sobbing Minegishi told fans she had decided to shave her head as an act of contrition after a popular weekly magazine published claims of a night of passion with a 19-year-old boy band member.<\/p>\n

“I don’t believe just doing this means I can be forgiven for what I did, but the first thing I thought was that I don’t want to quit AKB48,”<\/strong> she says in the video, which had been viewed on YouTube more than three million times.<\/p>\n

Minegishi<\/strong>, who had long, silky hair at the time, was snapped leaving the apartment of Alan Shirahama, a dancer in an off-shoot of the popular boy band Exile.<\/p>\n

Tabloid magazine Shukan Bunshun published its article Thursday, and hours later Minegishi was pleading to be allowed to remain with AKB48<\/strong>, one of the world’s most successful acts by revenue.<\/p>\n

The tryst was “thoughtless and immature” she told fans.<\/p>\n

“If it is possible, I wish from the bottom of my heart to stay in the band. Everything I did is entirely my fault, I am so sorry.”<\/p>\n

AKB48, a 90-strong pool of girls in their teens and early 20s, is a money-printing juggernaut that makes much of the accessibility<\/strong> — and the implied availability — of its idols.<\/p>\n

In return for their chance to grace television screens, subway adverts and the covers of Japan’s countless celebrity magazines, members of the collective must adhere to strict rules of behavior.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They are allowed to have “one-sided romantic feelings” for a boy but can never progress beyond hinting at their crush — and must never disabuse their legions of male fans that they might one day stand a chance with their fantasy woman.<\/strong><\/p>\n