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The story
On 5ch’s Hello! Project board, a discussion broke out over the stark difference in stage set lavishness shown on the Hello! Project TV program “Hello Sta,” comparing tour stages. The original poster asked why Morning Musume’s set — ahead of Oda Sakura’s graduation tour — looked more extravagant than Juice=Juice’s, even though Juice=Juice is said to be the agency’s top earner. The thread expanded from arguments over staircases and lighting design to comparisons of venue capacity for the fall 2026 tours, with points like “Morning Musume mainly plays big halls, Juice=Juice mainly plays small halls” and “Juice=Juice actually has a higher average capacity per show” complicating any simple ranking of which group is doing better.
What people said
Did they think people would be satisfied just because there's a door? lol
Whoa, those stairs even have a handrail
Budget's getting cut starting next tour
No worries, Juice=Juice's got us covered on the money side
Exactly this
Give us our money back
Musume. = Angerme >>> Juice >>> everyone else
You don't know how bare-bones Angerme's set is?
Exactly
What matters to the agency is Musume. and Angerme
Juice can go whatever
Why not just judge by current popularity?
It's only got two staircases
If anything that's on the plain side
"Set's cheap too" ← wait, what?
Aw, sounds like that stings lol
I heard back in the day appearing on Kōhaku would spike your fee instantly
Wonder if that's still true now
Morning Musume tours big halls
That's the difference right there
A packed small hall versus a half-empty big hall —
which one's actually worth more?
Small halls are cheaper to rent too, so Juice=Juice's cleaning up
The set for Hello! Project flagship Morning Musume
Juice doesn't even get a raised platform?
Aren't they supposed to be the best-selling group in Hello! Project?
but I have heard complaints that the lighting overall is too dark
Sounds like they're prioritizing mood over anything else
It starts so dark you can't even see the members, then they show up on the monitors later, and it all lights up at once for the finale
Capacity-wise there's not much of a gap with Musume. anymore
Morning Musume '26
Fall 2026 tour (Oda's graduation, 29 shows) *halls only
Total capacity: 57,541 seats (down 8,795 from last year)
Average capacity per show: 1,984 seats (down 26 from last year)
Angerme
Fall 2026 tour (no graduations, 25 shows) *halls only
Total capacity: 40,637 seats (up 18,773 from last year)
Average capacity per show: 1,625 seats (up 1,018 from last year)
Juice=Juice
Fall 2026 tour (no graduations, 24 shows) *halls + Nippon Budokan
Total capacity: 50,074 seats (up 30,048 from last year)
Average capacity per show: 2,086 seats (up 1,176 from last year)
Go look up how much they're making on cheap weekday hall rentals
That final four-show run at Kanadevia Hall has gotta have a really good profit margin
No other group could pull that off
That's not even counting Musume.'s Yokohama Arena date, or Juice=Juice's Pia Arena and Taiwan shows
Roughly speaking Juice=Juice's total capacity is a little over 80% of Musume.'s
So far they're selling 100% of seats
Sounds like it's selling well
Hard to really tell
Can't help that, nobody has the exact numbers
No day-of tickets left
Merch sold out
those are the facts, and this is just speculation based on those facts
It really is selling well
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Hello! Project’s agency doesn’t officially disclose how much each group earns, so the thread’s view that “Juice=Juice is the top earner” is based on fan impressions rather than confirmed figures. Venue counts and capacities, on the other hand, are public information that can be tallied up — and according to the fall 2026 tour numbers posted in the thread, while Morning Musume’s total capacity is larger overall, Juice=Juice actually has a higher average capacity per show. Morning Musume’s current tour is also tied to the milestone of Oda Sakura’s graduation, meaning the production budget may reflect the significance of that particular tour more than the group’s overall popularity. Several posters in the thread argued that judging agency pecking order or earning power purely from how fancy a stage set looks is premature, since lighting and staging choices may simply differ by group’s creative direction.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Watched today’s Hello Sta and man, why does Morning Musume’s set look fancier than Juice=Juice’s?“
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