CHIBA —

Ex-Morning Musume member Ai Kago, 20, on Sunday returned from filming a movie in Hong Kong and once again apologized for cutting her wrists earlier this year. Kago, who was fired by her agency for smoking, recently confessed she had cut her wrists due to stress and has only resumed her activities.

At Narita airport, Kago said, “Since I have never worked on a serious film production, it was a good lesson for me in Hong Kong.” Asked if her revelation that she had cut her wrists was a publicity stunt, she answered: “I’m sorry for causing so much trouble and confusion. It was not a publicity stunt. I just didn’t want to keep the fact secret.”

Latest 15 of 22 Total Comments Show All

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  Altria at 02:26 PM JST - 9th June

  Did she answer correctly?

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  timorborder at 03:03 PM JST - 9th June

  "House Arrest" would probably be best translated as "Being Grounded." She got caught smoking (while in the care of the production agency, and they sent her home to her parents to be grounded). On a more sinister level, "House Arrest" might actually mean being tied to a chair and being forced to watch old Morning Musume performances, if this is indeed the case, then she probably could not wait to get the razor blades. Whatever the case, I think she is done as a "talento." Look for her working in samurai dramas in the future, with her career going further down hill from there...

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  burikko at 03:12 PM JST - 9th June

  "House arrest" ? It is a punishment in feudal age. The translater is living in 18th century? I think that 自宅謹慎 means "behave onself at home".

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  blvtzpk at 08:05 PM JST - 9th June

  Knives? Mental disturbance? Let's check her social background, as per the PM's request.

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  Triumvere at 08:21 PM JST - 9th June

  Ah, the girl who had her career arbitrarily ruined by her own record company because a photo of her smoking a cigarette underage showed up in a magazine spread.

  I like how their "acceptance of full resposibility" involved destroying her future in the music buisness. Talk about absurdly unfair, to have all your dreams and hopes taken away from you for so minor a transgression. I'd cut my wrists, too.

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  thepro at 11:46 PM JST - 9th June

  ruined her career? wasn't she only 17?

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  medievaltimes at 11:52 PM JST - 9th June

  Move to the USA and you will get more famous and more money. Idol worship at its best/worst.

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  usaexpat at 11:55 PM JST - 9th June

  this whole thing is crazy, since when does a talent agency impose house arrest? So are celebrities endentured servants to the agencies they work for or what? A very warped system and the whole fired for smoking thing is really over the top.

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  DanManjt at 12:53 AM JST - 10th June

  自宅謹慎 means home confinement -- by the cops, by your parents, when one's company or school imposes it, and you comply because you have no choice...if you want to stay a member of good standing in that institution/organization. Well, you have the choice not to obey, but then the authority can always make matters worse for you. with the ultimate sanction being, of course, expulsion. Yes, in Japan, companies and schools possess the non-legal power to impose such sanctions on their members. Should this surprise anyone? They are only 140 years out of Feudalism/

  Or as I like to

  自宅謹慎 ! What a wonderful phrase

  自宅謹慎 ! Ain't no passing craze

  It means "home confinement" for the rest of your days

  It's our hierarchy - philosophy

  自宅謹慎. !

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  DanManjt at 01:18 AM JST - 10th June

  woops

  BTW that last past is sung to the Lion King "Hakuna Matata" melody.

  So, yeah, a company can "ground" an employee. Think about it. A 35 year old man comes home from work and informs his wife he had some trouble at work, and as a result, he is grounded for a week. Well, that's Japan.

  In this case, I surmise the statement issued by Up Front used the phrase in conjunction with the passive voice, making the translation 自宅謹慎 a little more tricky. Y'know, the famous use of the passive voice to talk about things as if they were natural phenomena that no-one had any control over. Like "Sorry you have to work the following three months straight, but the schedule has been made." That kind of thing.

  So when UP Front's Representative Director, Kawaguchi Yuukichi, issues the statement, he's really not really taking personal or having his company, which he represent, take responsibility for the content of that statement. He is only reprting, as it were, things beyond everyone's control. "... she was imposed to house arrest in her parents' home."

  Rather awkward, isnt it. But it captures the essence of what is going on and the thinking behind that process. Sometimes it is important in translating to leave in the awkward and clumsy translation in order to capture the cultural and social context in which the language is used. Eg I prefer often translating 調和 or simply 和 as "social order" and not harmony, as it is often done, because order implies the ever=present social hiearchy which harmony, I believe, intentionally obscures. And drawing attention to the top down structure of Japanese society so reflective in the language, is an important part of communicating the real meaning of language in Japan.

  To conclude, then, I think grounded is a fair rendering of 自宅謹慎された, but the translation as it occurs in the article does a fine job of communicating what really was said.

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  KitsuneYoukai at 04:01 AM JST - 10th June

  Another lunatic...Oh! I got fired so now I'll slash my wrists. How pathetic is that???? Geez, get a new one or new career. Are they really that soft?

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  borscht at 06:28 AM JST - 10th June

  When the horror of a 17-year-old in Japan first broke, I - and a few others - was less than impressed. Walk down any street in Anytown, Japan and see the same thing. Now that Kago has explained why she slashed her wrists, can the media let it go and let her get on with her life? Or will they not be satisfied until they hound her into a second - and possibly successful - attempt?

  So, Kitsune, it's not Ai that needs a new career, she's already embarked on one (making movies). It's the media (like JapanToday) and whoever wrote this 'article' than needs to move on to a new career.

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  Betting at 10:54 AM JST - 10th June

  DanManjt, I thoroughly agree with you 100%. People tend to forget that Japanese is only 140 years out of feudalism. 140 years is only a short time and a culture is always influenced by its past. Every country in the world is the same.

  I wonder what will happen in the future to these young kids who commit the same kind of transgressions as Ai.

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  Nessie at 05:16 PM JST - 10th June

  Thanks, Timor.

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  DanManjt at 02:02 AM JST - 11th June

  Betting,

  Yeah, old attitudes die hard. Though when putting it that way obscures though the Feudalism of the past may be gone, the deep cultural commitment to hierarchy is not a relic of the past. Its an ever present, fully modern guiding principle. "The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past."

  I see little indication that Japan or Japanese are moving away from their traditional values of order, hierarchy, social cohesion and communal conscience. Karl Van Wolferen, in the Enigma of Japanese Power, identified this notion of Japan at the Crossroads as incorrect and intentionally misleading. Foreigners (Westeners) have been predicting such change for generations, and it does not happen. The more recent views see Japan as having lost her way: no longer dedicated committed to the narrowly defined national mission of catching-up, and therefore loosing its values. John Nathan's Japan Unbound: A Volatile Nation's Quest for Pride and Purpose is a fine book a along this line.

  But I disagree with the subtext of his and others. Japan is not moving away from her values; she is losing faith in them. Because of the economic doldrums and the failure of her "Peace Constitution" to bring the country the status she desires. I think that a loosing faith, as it were, in the "traditional" values in Japan's case does not herald a moving towards a society based on greater liberty, personal freedom and individual rights.

  And when such societal tethering occurs, in the West, the conservatives and the liberal battle it out. But there are no if any Liberal in Japan. Japan will, I believe, do what she has done in the past, and that is rediscover of "traditional" values that binds them together.

  So, I think in the future, these young kids who commit these kinds of transgressions will be treated in very much the same way. In the short-run, the sanctions may not work all that well, but in the medium term, they will.

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