Ootsuka Aina Has Left Juice=Juice & H!P as of 7/5

[321BreakinOut]

This just ruined my day. My heart ....

[Moh]

Well that sucks. At least they won't be replacing her.

[wotakubrandon]

I blame this forum for Aina leaving. Aina leaves right after the last member of J=J is eliminated from H!PS. Coincidence??

I didn't want to bring it up lol. Was she one of the first members to bite the dust this year? Y'all know UF* has been watching us

[sb]

I blame this forum for Aina leaving. Aina leaves right after the last member of J=J is eliminated from H!PS. Coincidence??

I take full credit. FACT: H!PS causes graduations. Look throughout H!P history, announcements of and actual graduations coincide with H!PS. My favorite being Maiha getting over 110 votes and then graduating a few days later. Feelings get hurt, it's how it goes.

I bet too THAT'S where the contract issues come in as well.


Aina's Dad: So since our daughter is now a full fledged idol some ass clown who goes by the name "sb" gets to take her to take her to some "Bastard Island" where fans vote on her fate?

Aina's Mom: It sounds so dangerous!

UFA Suit: No, no, the island is fictional, she will still be in Japan.

Aina's Dad: So there's no danger?

UFA Suit: Oh it's extremely dangerous. Backstabbing, bribery, cheating, violence. Nothing a child should honestly have to go through.

Aina's Mom: Well can't you do something about it? Can't you tell sb to stop?

UFA Suit: He's not under contract with us so we can't do anything. He told us if we gave him one of our finest women he'd stop. But all of our girls are already promised to comedians, washed up boy banders, or each other.

Aina's Dad: Then we can't have our daughter be a part of this!


Anyway, even though it looks like Aina's parents are why she's gone, it'll be interesting if she does end up as an idol somewhere else. Cause to me, that'll clear up whether her parents pulled her out because of time or money.

[DSQueenie]

It sounds like UF are really putting the blame on her family but perhaps the contract really isn't that great. It wouldn't be the first group where the idols get paid very little, usually it's not a problem since it's on the understanding that the pay will increase as the groups popularity goes up. From what I know idols that get a lot of work like Sayumi get decent money.

So I guess if the issue was money I'd be disappointed but if it was fame and they were angling to transfer her to another group (like a 48 group) then I would be really disappointed.

[koregaboku]

I don't have time to translate (at least right now) but Aina's blog entry was much more casual than I expected. It was basically "Sorry for not saying bye properly and thanks for being a fan. K, bye."

Karin's actually had a lot more sentiment behind it. She basically said she and Aina's grew together and were close because they're the same age/grade. How she enjoyed Aina's distinct singing style and what not. Karin closes with an appropriate "we'll work just as hard as 5-nin on Romance no Tochuu and be prideful about having had Aina as a member".

Also, this was unexpected. Picture me surprised. I doubt it was about school/studies though because UF* is supposedly pretty good about stuff like that (like clearing Yurina, Momochi, and Airi's schedules so that they can attend college). I think it probably comes down to salary or something.

Idols have notoriously bad pay and I wouldn't be surprised if J=J's salaries are pretty horrendous.

[randompasserby]

The last time we had some inklings on how much the MM members actually make was around the 4th gen up until the Kago fiasco and iirc, they made plenty enough.
Granted it was a very different time but can someone enlighten me where the assertions of idols being paid very little as common knowledge comes from?

I'd really like to read more about it if anyone's got an article or something that points to it, especially concerning H!P/UF because to my knowledge I've only heard about these issues in the k-pop scene.

Personally I'm more inclined to think that her family's priorities of their daughter's time and career just didn't line up with the direction H!P/UF's taking her.
...and the money, that probably comes into it too.
ok, mostly the money

[Nono]

I think wages and stuff were generally bad for most idols in 80s and 90s, but then Ami Suzuki sued Sony (and won) which basically forced more companies to smarten up and be fair. Ichii also once mentioned in a interview during her comeback that the pay back then wasn't that great. It did get way better like right after she left though considering kago and co used to on those highest earning female celebrity lists.

[Rm88]

Oh crap. I liked her a lot in J=J

[koregaboku]

^^
Entertainment industry insiders also have insinuated that idols will oft times make less than $1k (or 100,0000 yen) a month. Of course they didn't point fingers and say which management company or which group...

And even within groups there are discrepancies. For instance momochi and Sayu are likely to make far and beyond more than their group peers because of appearance fees they receive from being on variety shows and such. It may not be as big a difference but Chisato might make slightly more than the other girls on C-ute because of her regular gig with Gogosuma (not adjusting for the fact that Airi might get secondary payment for Buono!)