[Article] 01.09.2011 Hamasaki Ayumi’s Sudden Withdrawal From “Closing Stage” – What Kind Of Discord Was There?

Singer Hamasaki Ayumi (32) revealed via her personal twitter that she chose to back out from doing her annual closing stage, creating an issue. It was said that this was a way of showing objections towards her company Avex, but what exactly happened?

This event in question was organized by Avex, the summer outdoor festival “a-nation.” Hamasaki Ayumi had, aside from the first year, been the closing act for 8 consecutive years, yet she did not do so starting from the 27 August performance in Tokyo, to the surprise of many fans.

■ Feeling of distrust for the event due to co-performer’s appearance termination

Instead of Hamasaki Ayumi, the closing stage was performed by the Korean male idol group who had been reduced from 5 members to 2 members, the reborn “Tohoshinki.” Hamasaki Ayumi performed just before Tohoshinki.

According to reports, the reason given was “convenience of performance” but pre-event materials for the media showed that Hamasaki Ayumi would be the closing act. Because of this, there were many speculations discussed on the internet. There was also the opinion that this was done as a strategy to combat the fact that fans would start leaving after the Tohoshinki performance.

In the three days after the event, replying to questions posed to her, Hamasaki Ayumi explained why she had not been the closing act.

According to this, the a-nation event song setlist had included the song from her mini album to be released on 31 August, with Korean artist Juno (24). Juno is the twin brother of Junsu, one of the members of “JYJ,” the unit that broke away from Tohoshinki. Juno’s appearance was suddenly terminated, and instead AAA’s Urata Naoya (28) who would be performing together with her for another song in her mini-album, would be singing Juno’s song.

Because of this, Hamasaki Ayumi bore distrust for the a-nation event, and showed her objections to the organisers, Avex. She considered pulling out of the performance, but after considering about the fans and staff, she decided to stay. Instead, she requested to pull out from doing the closing act for the two Tokyo performance days.

■ Dissention concerning Tohoshinki a reason?

With regards to her sudden pulling out, Hamasaki Ayumi said “The important thing is not “how can it be seen” but “how to protect it,” and this is the belief that resulted in everything that has happened today,” she explained in her tweet. After her own revelation of this matter, the Tohoshinki fans became confused.

Hamasaki Ayumi did not offer any explanation as to why Juno’s performance was cancelled. But without knowing the actual truth, there were speculations concerning Tohoshinki and the dissention due to the lawsuit between JYJ and their Korean management company SM Entertainment. On the internet, judging from the circumstances, suspicions such as the fact that the SM side had shown their displeasure with the appearance of Juno, brother of JYJ’s Junsu and other similar speculations have surfaced.

SM Entertainment Japan, when asked about this matter, said “As we have entrusted this matter to Avex, please direct your questions to them. As for matters regarding Juno, as he is not managed by our company, we cannot give an answer.”

We tried to contact Avex Entertainment about this, but the spokesperson could not be contacted.

Translated & Shared by : dongbangdata.net

Original sources : [J-Cast News 1 + 2]

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