On September 23, at Nippon Gaishi Hall Forest Hall, the venue for a Morning Musume。’26 concert, a female fan in her 20s posted on X (formerly Twitter) that while she was standing alone outside the venue looking at her phone, a gray-haired man in a checked shirt who appeared to be in his 50s or older approached her, saying, “This is a pickup attempt! I thought you were lovely!” The post was picked up by a Hello! Project-related 5ch thread and spread as a cautionary tale for women attending solo — but opinions split, with some defending the man and others questioning the poster herself.
What people said
1AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:20
@
Morning Musume。'26 at Nippon Gaishi Hall Forest Hall
I'm a woman in my 20s — I was outside the venue, holding a parasol, alone on my phone, when a gray-haired man in a checked shirt, 50s or older, came up to me and said, "This is a pickup attempt! I thought you were lovely!" 💦 Ladies attending solo, please be careful. #morningmusume
3AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:22
If it were a silver fox, fine, but a creepy old man trying to pick her up is just hilarious
56AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:39
Re: #3
Even a silver fox would be a no-go
58AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:40
Re: #3
Even a silver fox is a no-go
Being a middle-aged guy at all is the problem
4AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:22
@
To new female Hello! Project fans under 20:
Only meet up with men when your parents are attending with you, or during big group gatherings.
One-on-one meetups aren't recommended.
Trading goods one-on-one isn't recommended either, if you can help it.
— From a fearless fan in her 30s who's had several newcomers come to her for advice after being pestered by guys on the prowl for dates (deai-chu)
5AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:23
If she's gonna get hit on anyway, she'd rather it be some hot young newcomer, right?
7AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:23
So this is the plan to scare off the female fans, huh
8AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:23
So if he'd been hot, it would've been fine?
9AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:24
Don't just casually slip in a "Nacchi" line like that!" (a nod to original member Abe Natsumi's famous "…da na to omotte" catchphrase)
10AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:24
You guys throw around "hot guy" so casually, but there really aren't that many of them…
11AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:24
The old-guy fans who don't call out female fans for trash-talking the members are true gentlemen
12AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:25
There were plenty of that type over by the Village
13AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:25
He was probably lying in wait on purpose, but I bet an old man showing up was the last thing she expected lol
18AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:27
Bit of an overreaction, no? Getting hit on isn't that big a deal lol
19AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:28
If it's outside the venue, wasn't he probably just soliciting for something? Does she really need to call that "getting hit on" just to brag about being popular?
22AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:29
At this rate she'll start calling flyer handouts "getting hit on" too lol
25AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:30
Does anyone actually meet people at a concert venue?
26AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:30
The truly creepy ones talk to you right next to you inside the venue. Outside, it's definitely just some kind of solicitation.
30AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:31
You get veteran fans, men and women alike, getting hyped up together with the whole "oh, you're always here too!" regulars' routine — I bet some guys watching that get the wrong idea
31AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:31
So how are otaku supposed to meet each other, then?
42AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:33
Re: #31
Go find someone on a dating app
32AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:31
Creepy old men like this are probably why Hello! Project isn't popular with young people
35AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:31
You guys are overreacting because you're old men too lol
39AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:32
"This is a pickup attempt!"
↑ Way too creepy…
41AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:33
Quoting a famous line and thinking it'll charm her into giving him a shot, what an idiot
74AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:48
Oh come on~ weren't you secretly happy about it though
88AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:51
Re: #74
She's obviously happy about it — that's why she's bragging about it in a post
78AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:48
He can pull a stunt like this at 50 because he never matured past his teens or twenties mentally. If he had a real job and a family, he wouldn't even think this way.
84AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:49
Re: #78
Same goes for women — if you're normal, you don't get obsessed with idols in the first place
85AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:49
Even a silver fox — if a 50-year-old does it, it's creepy
86AnonymousSep 23, 2026 19:50
Re: #85
What, even guys like Sorimachi Takashi or Takenouchi Yutaka don't count?
Background and Points of Debate
Not just within Hello! Project, the areas around idol and artist concert venues draw large, unspecified crowds, and warnings aimed at new fans have repeatedly circulated on social media. In this thread too, the debate went beyond simply criticizing the man’s age or looks — commenters split over questions like “would it have been fine if he’d been a good-looking older guy?” and “did the woman who posted about it bear some responsibility herself?” with no consensus reached. Hello! Project’s fanbase spans a wide range of ages and genders, and it’s not unusual for fans who don’t know each other to strike up conversation near a venue, so opinions differ on whether being approached at all is the problem, or how it was done. Worth noting: since this happened outside the venue and wasn’t the kind of incident that would draw police involvement, how much of a safety concern it really represents ultimately comes down to individual perception.
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