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The story
Bunshun Online reported that table tennis player Tomokazu Harimoto (23) has been sending direct messages on social media to multiple female TV announcers. The story blew up on 5ch’s live-commentary board, with posters speculating that one of the announcers herself may have been the source of the leak, while others argued there’s nothing wrong with it if both parties are single. At the same time, some brought up his relationship with fellow player Hina Hayata, and others compared his DM habits to those of athletes in other sports like soccer, splitting the thread between defenders and critics.
“Cho-rei!” to the Announcers — Table Tennis’s Tomokazu Harimoto (23) and His “Serial DM Flirting” (Cho-rei is his signature victory shout)
Source: bunshun.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
that's exactly why they're stuck in J2
He's supposed to be one of Japan's top athletes
Same goes for tennis, though there are plenty of players who don't do it that much
Yeah, he was mixed up in something like that too
Table tennis players seem like the type to keep pushing even after being turned down
Well, if you're not smooth about it you get sold out, I guess
Maybe it was an approach from someone she wasn't happy to hear from
Same logic applies to sexual harassment accusations too
If you're gonna go for it, targeting announcers at a local TV station is probably about the right level
Nah, if anything DM-hitting-on is more of an introvert move
Yonezu's way more of an extrovert than that
Well, if we're talking about cold-approaching someone you've never met and don't have contact info for, it's six of one, half a dozen of the other
He does seem like the type to skip a bunch of steps and just go for it
Maybe a guy with a broken sense of social distance
Yonezu and his 100 red roses 🌹(´；ω；｀) (referencing his infamous grand romantic gesture)
If she's already following him, he knows she's at least somewhat interested — that clears step one, and he's a medalist after all
Meanwhile a J2 player DMing someone who doesn't even follow him back takes some serious nerve
Former idols who've spilled the beans on this say baseball and soccer players do it a lot too
Tall, fair-skinned, lean and toned — they're basically a bundle of male attractiveness
I think volleyball actually has a lot of extroverted guys, though it still ranks lower on the social ladder
Lately they've got good looks, so they've started marketing them idol-style toward middle-aged women, haven't they
Also broadcast rights are cheaper, so it's probably easier for media to push
What about figure skating?
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Bunshun Online is a publication that frequently covers scoops about celebrities’ and athletes’ relationships and DM habits, and this article, too, appears to be based on secondhand information rather than direct interviews with Harimoto or his team. The thread split over where to draw the line on reporting private exchanges between two single people — some argued there’s no issue as long as both parties are unmarried, while others saw the act of hitting on someone via DM as inherently sleazy. Some posters also brought up a past incident involving a money-related scandal tied to a table tennis player, but it’s worth noting that was a separate, unrelated event from this report.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyo G) thread “[Bunshun] Tomokazu Harimoto Says “Cho-rei!” to Female Announcers in Serial DM Flirting.”
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