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The story
A ring design produced by M!LK’s Juutaro Yamanaka has come under fire on social media for allegedly resembling a product from an established jewelry brand, sparking discussion on 5ch’s Hello! Project board. Commenters were split on how seriously to take the resemblance, with one popular comparison likening it to “Frank Muller and Frank Miura” — a reference to a famous Japanese parody watch brand whose name and look mimic Frank Muller’s but which was ruled legally distinct. Some defended the ring on the grounds that it costs roughly 1/50th of the original, while others noted the backlash was worse precisely because Yamanaka himself is known to love high-end jewelry brands.
What people said
I heard Johnny Kitagawa was the first to bring flying rigs to Japan — supposedly Shonentai or someone was the guinea pig forced to try it onstage
There's also Mikitty's yakiniku incident, so we really can't talk
Background and Key Points of the Debate
The name “Frank Miura” keeps coming up because of a famous 2016 precedent: watchmaker Frank Muller sued the parody brand “Frank Miura” for trademark infringement, fought it all the way to Japan’s Supreme Court, and lost. That case established that a similar-looking product isn’t legally problematic as long as it’s “different enough that no one would mistake it for the real thing.” Drawing on that precedent, the thread saw parallel arguments: some defended the ring as falling within that same gray area, while others countered that costing 1/50th of the original doesn’t excuse reusing someone else’s design. The real point of contention is where to draw the line on calling mass-produced, fan-merchandise-style jewelry a “rip-off” — no legal conclusion has actually been reached here. The claim that Yamanaka favors high-end jewelry brands comes from posters in the thread, and whether the design similarity was intentional copying has not been confirmed, including any comment from his talent agency, as of this thread.
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “M!LK’s Juutaro Yamanaka Under Fire for Allegedly Copying Another Brand’s Design for His Produced Ring“.
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