A thread on 5ch’s Hello! Project board asked fans to name “the most ‘who cares’ scandal in the group’s history,” and users who remember those days piled on with one memory after another. From Natchi’s plagiarism controversy to a “yakiniku incident” reminiscent of the SMAP era, all the way to the story of a bugging device hidden inside a stuffed animal gifted to Rika Ishikawa, the thread filled up with the kind of trivia unique to Hello! Project’s 2000s heyday. At the same time, genuinely serious cases that actually forced a member into retirement — like Ai Murakami’s “shared umbrella” scandal — got mixed in too, sparking disagreement over exactly where the line for “who cares” should be drawn.
What people said
1AnonymousSep 9, 2026 14:39
What?
3AnonymousSep 9, 2026 14:41
The Tteokbokki Incident (spicy Korean rice cakes)
4AnonymousSep 9, 2026 14:42
The only one I can think of is Natchi's plagiarism scandal
5AnonymousSep 9, 2026 14:42
Shao-shao
6AnonymousSep 9, 2026 14:42
That recent thing with Ogawa
8AnonymousSep 9, 2026 14:43
Momochi's FRIDAY (tabloid) scoop
11AnonymousSep 9, 2026 14:44
The "Mushroom Stick" incident
She was literally just walking through Ikebukuro in broad daylight with a classmate
13AnonymousSep 9, 2026 14:44
The incident where water started dripping down from a Hello! Project member's room upstairs
16AnonymousSep 9, 2026 14:46
Wasn't it that they staked out Rika Ishikawa and all they got was a shot of her yawning as she left the hair salon?
Lol it's just a bunch of people trying to dredge this all back up
29AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:00
[Spotted] Rika Ishikawa Caught "Yawning (For Real) & Relaxing at the Hair Salon"
39AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:24
Re: #29, and also Momochi and Chinami's park date — I want to know what was really behind those blatant cover-up swaps
32AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:04
Does anyone else remember the incident where a stuffed animal given to Rika-chan as a gift had a bugging device hidden inside it?
33AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:06
It was only six years, but there were remarks and a firestorm of backlash
37AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:15
I wasn't a Sma (S/mileage) fan back then,
but I remember being surprised that every Sma fan I knew all knew about stuff like the "yakiniku personal message" or the "five months is a long time" line.
I still don't think it was a big deal, but apparently it was that shocking for them
38AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:22
Ishikawa had her family's house listed on Yahoo Auctions without her consent
She's basically a treasure trove of incidents symbolizing the chaotic 2channel culture of that era
Even the "will she or won't she" debate was about Ishikawa
I wonder why that is?
40AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:28
Eri Kamei's ex-boyfriend scandal
Photos were even published and it blew up into a firing controversy on the Ookami (idol) board, but it had zero effect on her personally
44AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:32
Re: #40
During a Niconico Live-style livestream,
Kamei's boyfriend's name was set as a banned word in the chat
41AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:28
I stopped supporting Ishikawa after she totally lost it at the school sports day event
42AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:30
If you mix in stuff that actually got an apology with baseless rumors, it just gets confusing
45AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:32
The time Mano-chan used Korean on her secret "ura-aka" blog account
46AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:33
Pinch Runner
The main character just kept getting fatter and fatter as the story went on
47AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:37
The fact that Mika from Coconuts Musume. joined an anti-whaling group after retiring
48AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:37
Ai Murakami's "shared umbrella" scandal
50AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:39
Re: #48
That literally forced her into retirement, so it's not exactly "who cares," lol
55AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:45
I laughed when the "yakiniku incident" showed up in the drama recreating Tsunku's battle with illness
56AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:47
Every time the Sma yakiniku incident comes up, Tsuji fans come flying in white-faced screaming "When you say yakiniku incident, you mean Takahashi's!"
57AnonymousSep 9, 2026 15:49
"Otaku slave" — brings back memories
That's been a thing since the Gomaki era, right?
Doesn't that culture exist anymore?
58AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:02
Reina and Penicillin's vocalist lived in the same apartment building
59AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:04
Reina made it to the final round of the 5th-gen auditions, but got disqualified once they found out she was still in elementary school
61AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:09
The "so what if she went to a gay bar" scandal
Background and points of debate
Hello! Project ran multiple groups simultaneously through the 2000s, building up a history where tabloid scoops and 2channel culture itself got passed down as “incidents.” The morningcoffee board has long covered Hello! Project as a whole rather than any single group, which gives fans of different generations common ground to bond over shared references. Where the thread split was over the standard for “who cares” itself — anecdotes that caused no real damage to anyone’s career were placed side by side with events that ended up having serious consequences, like Ai Murakami’s retirement or Eri Kamei’s firing controversy. It’s also worth noting for readers that many of the stories raised aren’t officially confirmed facts so much as rumors and personal recollections passed down among fans at the time, so some mix of unverified claims should be expected.
Leave a Reply