Original article [here].

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Past at Sun Music black history? Hamasaki Ayumi fails to show up at Aizawa Hideyoshi-san’s wake
31 May 2013.

Sun Music’s production CEO Aizawa Hideyoshi-san’s wake was held a few days ago. All the influential talents who had been nurtured by CEO Aizawa showed up at the venue to pay respects to the deceased. Even talents who did not belong to the company, or belonged to “rival” companies, such as Matsuda Seiko, Sakurada Junko and Saigou Teruhiko also turned up to speak of Aizawa-san’s virtues.

Information claimed that influential talents such as Sakurada and Sakai Noriko turned up around evening time of the night-long wake. Throughout the night, all past celebrities from Sun Music showed up. However, there was one superstar who did not turn up, and that was Hamasaki Ayumi.

An artiste under avex management, Hamasaki Ayumi is often named as the female pop princess of the 2000s. After coming to Tokyo, she had first belonged to Sun Music. The press present at the wake was kept waiting as they discussed if Hamasaki would turn up. In the end, she failed to do so.

“Magazines at that time were no longer looking for diamond-in-the-rough stories, so the Hamasaki then did not have much chance of appearing in print. She was involved mostly in swimwear modelling and acting jobs, much like a true idol. And when she withdrew from those activities, her face was featured on Sun Music’s talent-nurturing advertisements posted at train stations in the city. Eventually, she joined avex in 1998 and debuted as an artiste, and her past connections with Sun Music became a taboo subject in the industry.”

However, even after joining avex, Hamasaki’s ties with Sun Music were not completely severed.

“When Hamasaki debuted at avex, there was an agreement for 10% of all her sales to be given to Sun Music. That was treated as a semi-permanent contract. During her peak when every CD she sold was a million-seller, Sun Music also received much money.”

By not turning up at his wake, just how does Hamasaki think of CEO Aizawa, the man who gave her the chance to enter the entertainment industry?