Rima Matsunaga: ‘I Want the Other Groups to Succeed Too’ — On Bonding at Hello! Con

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The story

Juice=Juice’s Rima Matsunaga shared an anecdote in an interview with Nikkei Entertainment about meeting members of other groups at Hello! Con, where they tell her “I saw you on TV,” and said she wants not just Juice=Juice but every Hello! Project group to succeed. When this comment was picked up on a Hello! Project thread on 5ch, reactions were split — some voiced genuine appreciation, while others sarcastically remarked that she’s “getting full of herself.” A ranking table showing each Hello! Project member’s number of days in the group was also posted alongside the discussion, drawing interest as a handy reference.

What people said

1AnonymousSep 8, 2026 15:10
Source: Nikkei Entertainment
2AnonymousSep 8, 2026 15:10
Days in the group as of 2026/09/08 (based on Wikipedia entries)

4,127 days — Akari Uemura
3,361 days — Ruru Danbara (since 2017/06/26)
3,194 days — Tomoko Kanazawa
2,909 days — Sayuki Takagi
2,845 days — Karin Miyamoto
2,643 days — Yume Kudo, Rima Matsunaga (since 2019/06/14)
2,351 days — Reon Inoue (since 2020/04/01)
2,303 days — Yuka Miyazaki
1,889 days — Ichika Arisawa, Risa Irie, Kisaki Ebata (since 2021/07/07)
1,532 days — Sakura Ishiyama, Sakari Endo (since 2022/06/29)
1,447 days — Manaka Inaba
1,207 days — Mifu Kawashima (since 2023/05/23)
*,623 days — Nanami Yanagawa
*,442 days — Nia Hayashi (since 2025/06/23)
*,130 days — Aina Otsuka
3AnonymousSep 8, 2026 15:11
Oho! Someone's getting full of herself lol
5AnonymousSep 8, 2026 15:15
She's a good kid.
Well, can't expect ALL of them to blow up though
7AnonymousSep 8, 2026 15:20
Runo: "I saw you on TV…"
Ebata: *smirks*
8AnonymousSep 8, 2026 15:21
Don't go twisting it into something negative like that
9AnonymousSep 8, 2026 15:21
Music Station: "One of the best voices in all of Hello! Project — Juice=Juice!!"

Kudo: "HYOREMIAMORE!!" (garbled improvised ad-lib)
https://i.imgur.com/mYYajKb.mp4

Totally ruined the nice introduction Music Station gave them

Teary-eyed
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNBlIDYaYAAPyiC.jpg:orig
10AnonymousSep 8, 2026 15:22
At Hello! Con she's probably wandering around with a Music Station tissue box in her right hand and a CDTV water bottle in her left
No wonder all she can say is "I saw you on TV"
24AnonymousSep 8, 2026 15:30
She'll need to wear a disguise even backstage at Hello! Con at this rate
50AnonymousSep 8, 2026 15:37
She's cute though
52AnonymousSep 8, 2026 15:39
Riding high on herself, huh
53AnonymousSep 8, 2026 15:40
🐼: "Saw you on Music Station" (smirking)
🐙: …
55AnonymousSep 8, 2026 15:42
Re: #53
Mei Yamazaki's only been on Music Station once,
so she ranks below Yume Kudo, who's been on twice
92AnonymousSep 8, 2026 16:00
I'm a Juice=Juice fan myself, but could people quit chopping up Nikkei Entertainment articles into separate thread posts?
It's an eyesore

Background and key points

The days-in-group ranking table posted in the thread (comment 2) is simply a comparison of tenure length based on join dates as listed on Wikipedia — it’s easy to mistake it for a measure of popularity or internal group standing, which it isn’t. Matsunaga’s remark itself was a positive show of support for other groups, but the thread repeatedly saw comments calling her “full of herself,” with reactions focusing more on her attitude and status than on what she actually said. This isn’t unrelated to the fact that Hello! Project’s management has long deliberately created opportunities for cross-group interaction (like Hello! Con), which creates fertile ground for this kind of member-to-member shout-out to become a talking point. Meanwhile, comments mocking idols’ looks or abilities showed up frequently as a separate thread of discussion unrelated to the main topic, so those have been left out of this article.

*This article is an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “Rima Matsunaga: “When I meet people from other groups at Hello! Con, they say to me, ‘I saw you on TV.’ I want every Hello! Project group to succeed, not just Juice=Juice”.”

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