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The story
In Hello! Project’s daily “Hello! Q&A” feature, Hana Goto was asked what she considers cute about herself and answered, “For better or worse, I trust people, so I figure I’ll probably get talked into buying a vase myself someday, lol” — a remark that quickly became a talking point on 5ch’s Hello! Project board. “Getting talked into buying a vase” is an old Japanese expression for so-called “spiritual sales” scams run by religious groups (con artists pressuring believers into buying overpriced “spiritually powerful” vases or seals). The thread saw posters invoking Junko Sakurada, an idol who faced similar rumors back in the 1980s, alongside surprised comments wondering whether the joke “still lands in the Reiwa era.” At the same time, the remark also pulled the conversation toward the broader social fallout from the former Unification Church, so the thread ranged from lighthearted banter to more topical exchanges.
What people said
Q: Tell us something you think is cute about yourself.
Suzuran Ise: I guess how I kind of live by my emotions?
Background and Talking Points
“Getting talked into buying a vase” is a long-standing piece of Japanese slang mocking so-called “spiritual sales” (reikan shōhō) scams, in which people are pressured into buying overpriced vases or seals claimed to carry spiritual power. Several celebrities — most famously Junko Sakurada — were the subject of similar rumors decades ago. The phrase drew renewed attention in recent years after the 2022 shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe brought the ties between the former Unification Church and Japanese politicians into wide public view, and several posters in the thread said that incident was when they first learned where the joke actually came from. Goto Hana’s comment was simply a self-deprecating joke about her own trusting personality, but reactions on 5ch split between people enjoying it purely as wordplay and others tying it directly to the real-world scandal — underscoring a generational gap in how the word “tsubo” (vase) is understood today. Note: comments containing political arguments or mockery of specific groups have been left out of this article.
*This article was compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Goto Hana: ‘For better or worse I trust people, so I figure I’ll probably get talked into buying a vase myself someday, lol’.”
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