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The story
On August 31, Morning Musume.’26 member Miki Nonaka revealed on her blog that “staff told me it’s difficult for Morning Musume. to release full live concert footage the way Juice=Juice does.” Juice=Juice has recently thrown itself into releasing concert footage for free, building up its presence in view counts and name recognition. The remark sparked debate on 5ch’s Hello! Project board over whether the caution around releasing footage comes down to rights issues and agency policy, or a gap in raw ability like singing skill.
This past year, on social media
2026-08-31 20:21:49
And also regarding concert footage,
Source: ameblo.jp / Original article here
What people said
What Nonaka means by "clips of Morning Musume live footage" is stuff like this
It's a clip of a clip
tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MafmLMJJ71k
Other groups started putting out more footage because of Juice, but none of it's getting views — it's just a pose for the fans, like "see, we treat every group equally."
Morning Musume, coasting on its name brand, is like Yoshinoya before the mad cow scare (BSE scandal)
Everyone was fooled by the name recognition, but once people actually looked, they realized Matsuya and Sukiya had their own strengths too — sounds a lot like how Sukiya ended up taking over the market
They just don't think now is the time to push Morning Musume hard, that's all
They're actually pushing pretty hard right now though
Maybe it's the Juice effect, but Morning Musume's getting easier media exposure too
But Makino's still in there
I guess having 6 members leave within a minute and a half of each other really does…
People kept complaining about the senior members hanging around forever
but now that Homa-Mei (fan nickname for a member pairing) jumped straight to the top of the lineup, that gets complained about too, huh
That really would be the ideal outcome
Though on Ookami (the Hello!Project fan board, nicknamed "the Wolf") it's mostly just infighting between factions that stands out
Morning Musume, Angerme, and Tsubaki Factory aren't at a level where people would say that, so no chance
The image of Hello! Project being skilled has actually been around for a long time already
Live vocals are the core of Hello! Project's appeal
I felt Central's 7 members held their own performance-wise, even next to Juice or Beyooooonds
Though with Makino and Oda gone and the 18th gen joining, they're back in a phase of polishing their performance for a while
Angerme's LuckyFes set without Hirayama and Goto was also really good, but stuff like that tends to be a one-off, fired-up performance driven by having fewer members and just an overall not-usual vibe — it's not something you can reproduce. So "that was good, so there's potential going forward" doesn't really follow, I think
But isn't the point that they need to keep that good performance level going for 2, 3 years straight?
I get that's tough as long as graduations and new members keep happening, but
Juice hasn't put out a graduating member and has only added a few new members who turned out to be hits, so that's how they've kept it up
Existing fans would leave, so it's nothing but downside
And it's Tsunku we're talking about, too
If you're thinking about new fans, drop the Tsunku songs first, genius
For reference, Juice has only put out one too, "Burabare"
Apparently they weren't even planning to make an MV for Burabare originally
There was also a push to use Burabare as a way to funnel people toward streaming
What's different about them compared to other groups?
Now that you mention it, I remember hearing from old-school fans that Morning Musume's rights situation is strict
Like, this is fine to use but that part isn't, stuff like that
Even the Burabare MV took forever to drop after they announced they were making it — people kept asking "when's it coming out"
and just left the archive up
That's exactly the kind of exposure that builds real popularity
Though it's a slap in the face to anyone who paid for a streaming ticket
Hello! Project basically always releases stuff on disc, but underground idol groups don't have that culture — that's probably the difference
Though for Hello! Project, I think they could be more proactive about putting Hello!Con footage on YouTube, since it's not getting a disc release anyway
If it's today's Juice=Juice, I'd want to see them do "SONGS" or "Aisaresugiru Koto wa Nai no yo" ("You Can Never Be Loved Too Much")
Background and Points of Debate
Morning Musume was formed in 1997 and has gone through many lineup changes over the years, and the rights to footage and songs are said to have grown more complicated generation by generation as a result. Juice=Juice, by contrast, has in recent years actively released concert footage for free and produced music videos, building up its presence in terms of numbers and name recognition. In the thread, several posters pointed out that this “full release” strategy does appear to translate directly into view counts. That said, it’s worth noting that the specifics behind Nonaka’s stated reason — that “rights issues are difficult” — haven’t been officially explained, and her own comment amounts to no more than something she heard secondhand from staff. The thread produced both a cautious view that “the amount of footage released doesn’t necessarily correlate with a group’s popularity” and a view that “the agency is deliberately controlling how much exposure the group gets,” with no clear indication of which is closer to the truth.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Morning Musume.’26’s Miki Nonaka: “Staff Turned Me Down, Saying ‘It’s Difficult for Morning Musume to Do a Full Release of Live Footage Like Juice=Juice’”.”
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