amused
Recently, SHINee was forced to cancel their event in Japan due to safety issues as too many fans were gathered in the area. However, media in Japan have been reporting that the reason why there was such a big crowd was because the organizer of the event stated that the group holding the event is “a 5-member group with a name beginning with the letter S.” This made the crowd believe that the organizer was referring to a popular Japanese group, SMAP. This has angered netizens and resulted in criticism that SHINee was trying to boost their popularity with SMAP’s name.
Following the cancellation of the event, SHINee expressed, “Given that there was such a big crowd, it is a shame that we had to cancel the event. But we still want to thank our fans for their support.” However, local Japanese media later revealed that there has been a mistake as the only reason why so many fans gathered is because there were workers handing out fliers on the streets, with a message telling the fans to find 5 Santa Clauses with the name starting with S. As the clue given fits SMAP, rumours began to spread that SMAP would be at the event, and the crowd started to gather based on false information.
It will never be known as to whether the organizer’s intentions were to mislead the public; however, with the event canceled, it is a big disappointment for the fans who attended the event in hopes of supporting SHINee.
THE PAMPHLET
Fan Response (something to consider - thanks
chizzyrei for the re-post <3)I'm a SMAP fan who don't blame SHINee one bit but think I should explain what really happened.
I knew about this since the day of SHINee event because it made a huge scene on twitter and on Japanese boards/blogs.
1. What happened is most Japanese people didn't see the poster because the posters were only distributed in Shibuya that morning. However, there were tweets and tons of retweets all over twitter on that day that "An all-male group with 5 members, whose name started with S" will be at Shibuya on that day. Everyone or at least almost everyone thought it was SMAP. Why did I know? Because during that time, "SMAP" was #1 top twitter trending in Japan. I know for the fact that many SMAP fans went there because they ranted on twitter and blogs afterward. And that's why gossip sites in Japan picked up on what happened and made news, which the Chinese media later translated.
2. SMAP is one of the biggest act in Japan. They may not sell as much as before but their latest album still passed 400K and many still consider them to be bigger than Arashi and AKB48 because of their longevity and how they have changed the industry. They are the biggest selling idol of all time in Japan and #10 out of all artists. For some of you K-Pop fans who don't know SMAP, let's say when TVXQ was invited to be on SMAPxSMAP, they were extremely excited and it made huge news in Korea. Jang Keun Suk was the guest in the show not too long ago, and he kept repeating that he is a SMAP fan. He later got a bouquet and a fruit basket as gifts from SMAP to congratulate him for his concert at Tokyo Dome. He was so excited and posted the pictures of those gifts on facebook. Korean media must also thought this is a big deal because these gifts made it to the news as well.
3. SMAP released their Beijing Concert DVD on Dec 7, the same day as SHINee's album. Plus, December 8 was the opening day of their exclusive shop that opens annually for only a limited time. Last year, SMAP shop had special promotion in Shibuya too. So it's actually not too farfetched for SMAP fans to think that this could be a SMAP event.
4. The reactions after people who came for SMAP found out that it was SHINee were not nice at all. And I truly fear for SHINee because SMAP is a Johnny's group. Actually, they probably still earn more revenue for Johnny than Arashi because they host many more shows and appear on many drama/movie/stage shows. Stepping on Johnny's toe isn't the thing any artist who want to break into Japanese market would want to do. You can ask Cassies how hard it was for TVXQ when they were allegedly "blocked" by Johnny when they tried to get into the market.
Source: Taiwan yahoo via koreaboo & re: response: nnnc
IDEK. Although it doooooes seem pretty sketchy to me because cawmon now, those "hints". Too bad for Shinee having to cancel though. WHAT DO Y'ALL THINK? 8D
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