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The story
A post about Hello! Project’s Juice=Juice member Uemura Akari has been making waves on 5ch. During a bus tour event, she reportedly said, “I want us to play Osaka-jo Hall next. With things like this, you’ve got to call it first” — then, in a lower voice, told her junior members, “That’s my dream right now. I’m counting on you, kouhai.” Thread commenters point to the group’s first-round sellout of their November Orix Theater show (even on a weekday) as evidence, and debate whether Osaka-jo Hall — with a capacity of over 10,000 — is really within reach.
What people said
What got me the most was when Uemura said, "For the next bus tour, I want us to do Osaka-jo Hall (even though it's a huge venue). With this kind of thing, you've got to call it first" — and then, in a quiet voice, gave Ruru-chan an encouraging word: "That's my dream right now. I'm counting on you, kouhai."
Isn't the capacity like 13,000?
Plus a lot of the members are from Kansai anyway
It's not like mobilizing everyone's relatives is gonna fill the place
I'd love to see it live at least once
That's exactly why it feels like such an insanely high bar
Though that was a quarter century ago, so things were probably totally different back then
(Not counting Nea Joy — that's a weekday too, but it's during summer break)
A 3pm weekend start might fill it up, but a 6pm weekday start? Not so sure
Why is Juice=Juice the only group people worry about "next year" for, and why would they get bashed if seats don't sell out next year?
Other groups are playing to half-empty venues right now
Isn't it not that simple though?
If they do get on Kohaku, that's just icing on the cake — even without it, Osaka-jo Hall should be doable
So that means ANGERME is already a lost cause, huh
or pull in the best members from other groups for a few songs
They should just funnel every usable Hello! Project member into strengthening Juice=Juice
Juice=Juice is already Hello! Project's strongest lineup as it stands, so the current formation is fine
If sending ANGERME on a big-hall tour wasn't a risk, then what was it?
Yeah, what even was that about
No way a coldly calculating agency actually thought that one through
They put ANGERME through a reckless tour too — it's probably just groundwork to make a Juice=Juice arena tour seem reasonable by comparison
Background and Key Points
For readers unfamiliar with the scene: Juice=Juice is a girl group under Hello! Project, the umbrella idol franchise (Morning Musume, ANGERME, etc.) run by Up-Front Group. Uemura Akari is a current member speaking at a “bus tour” — a fan-event format where members travel with ticket-holders, more intimate and lower-stakes than a full concert. Osaka-jo Hall is one of the largest indoor arenas in Kansai, seating well over 10,000; commenters cite figures from 13,000 down to “1,500 more than Budokan,” the Tokyo arena long treated as the ceiling for idol acts. Its significance in Hello! Project history is concrete: it’s where Nakazawa Yuko, a former Morning Musume member, held her graduation concert roughly 25 years ago — a scale historically reserved for milestone farewells, not a routine tour stop.
The thread doesn’t split on whether Uemura’s ambition is sincere — nobody doubts that — it splits on whether ticket demand can actually scale that far. Optimists point to the November Orix Theater show selling out its first round even on a weekday; skeptics note a weekday 6pm start is a different proposition from a weekend afternoon, and that momentum this year doesn’t guarantee it next year.
What outside readers likely miss: the “blackout curtains” comments refer to a real, common idol-industry practice of curtaining off unsold sections of a hall to hide empty seats — posters raise it here as a real risk, not hypothetical, and note sister group ANGERME’s own big-venue tour reportedly struggled this way, which is why some see it as quiet groundwork rather than genuine gambling on Up-Front’s part.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “Uemura Akari: “I want Juice=Juice to play Osaka-jo Hall. With things like this, you’ve got to call it first. That’s my dream right now — I’m counting on you, kouhai.”“
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