SoraNews24 —Japan News—

Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.

TOP

» Japan
» Idol draws such massive crowds at Tokyo college that police can’t guarantee safety【Video】

Featured

Weird
Studio Ghibli
Jobs

Idol draws such massive crowds at Tokyo college that police can’t guarantee safety【Video】

Casey Baseel Dec 7, 2018
Tweet

When once-in-a-millennium idol Kanna Hashimoto is stopping by, crowd control in a must.

Back in 2013, the Japanese Internet crowned Kanna Hashimoto the “once-in-a-millennium idol,” largely thanks to one extremely photogenic snapshot of the vocalist. Since then, the spotlight has only shown more brightly on the 19-year-old Fukuoka native, as she’s gone on to appear in movies and commercials, been nominated for the annual world’s 100 Most Beautiful Faces list, and, in no doubt the proudest moment of her show business career, personally sold a pair of eyeglasses to a SoraNews24 writer.

So it was a pretty big deal when the Broadcasting Research Club at Rikkyo University announced that Hashimoto had agreed to be their guest at the Tokyo college’s school festival on November 3. Though she isn’t an alumnus, having such a prominent figure from the entertainment world appear on stage and address the crowd was something no student of broadcasting, celebrity follower, or idol worshiper would want to miss out on, and Hashimoto herself sounded extremely enthusiastic when tweeting about the event on November 2.

▼ “This will be my first time going to a school festival, so I’m really looking forward to it! I hope to see you all there,” tweeted Hashimoto.

明日、立教大学の学園祭に出演させて頂きます！
私、学園祭等に行くの初めてなんですよー！
だからすっごく楽しみにしてます。。
ぜひ皆さんも遊びに来てください〜。
14:15頃に屋外特設ステージだそうです！ pic.twitter.com/URuditBt5p

— 橋本環奈 (@H_KANNA_0203) November 2, 2018

Hashimoto was scheduled to make an on-stage appearance at 2:15 p.m., and roughly an hour before that organizers started handing out vouchers for admittance to the limited-capacity venue that had been set aside for Hashimoto’s talk. However, they grossly underestimated how many people would show up to try to claim a ticket.

立教橋本環奈に来たけど
人がヤバすぎる、、
会えんのかな、、！
運営頑張れ、、、！ pic.twitter.com/lhUciqUGu2

— ケロケロますみ🐸🌸 (@masumisyacho) November 3, 2018

https://twitter.com/4tetora4/status/1058579585992802304

Rikkyo University’s pedestrian pathways were quickly turned into rivers of writhing fans, who weren’t so much lining up as fusing themselves into a single massive organism with the singular desire to lay its many eyes upon Hashimoto.

立教に橋本環奈来るとこうなります pic.twitter.com/eDIJnAr2Fg

— etsu (@youtheamay) November 3, 2018

https://twitter.com/3PYYjiWljVkJ9SF/status/1058579314793316352

And just to clarify, Hashimoto herself isn’t visible in any of these pictures, nor was she within the line of sight of any members of the huge group of fans. This is still an hour before she was scheduled to appear, and all of these people are just hoping to be close enough to the front of the line/horde to get one of the tickets they’ll need to eventually be let into the actual venue.

立教大学橋本環奈トークショー整理券配布場所の様子

やべぇよやべぇよEDC JAPAN 2017のMashmello並みだよ暴動かよ pic.twitter.com/6yf4g0BsFp

— Lucy (@edm_Lucy) November 3, 2018

https://twitter.com/hykw_a916/status/1058577474005553153

There were so many people that they soon overflowed the walkways, spilling into and through the bushes that line the paths as clouds of dust hung in the air from the sheer number of people milling about.

https://twitter.com/ZAKIDonchan/status/1058578831504601088

橋本環菜効果で立教の植物折れる... pic.twitter.com/wl2CpYqAZ1

— エビ (@MSFsMvLyupFNSk3) November 3, 2018

Still, die-hard Hashimoto fans held their ground, not wanting to give up their chance to see Kanna-chan in person. Unfortunately for them, their faith would not be rewarded.

https://twitter.com/HimeTakanashi/status/1058578138630840320

The crowd became so gigantic that the police showed up, and informed the event’s organizers that they didn’t feel they could guarantee the students’ safety anymore (in total six female attendees reported minor injuries from falling to the ground while being jostled in the crowd). With the scale of the broadcasting club’s planned event clearly beyond what it was prepared to handle, the organizers decided to cancel the star’s appearance.

https://twitter.com/3745zakkys/status/1058588381444096000

Both Hashimoto herself and the broadcasting club apologized for disappointing their fans, with Hashimoto also expresses her hope that those who sustained injuries have a speedy recovery. While it’s got to be a let-down for fans, at least it’s been a learning experience for the students in the broadcasting club, who in the future might want to take a page from Japan’s number-one cosplayer and just assume the crowds for A-list guests are going to be huge and hold such appearances in wide-open fields.

Sources: Hachima Kiko, Jin, Livedoor News/Oricon News, Sponichi Annex
Top image: Wikipedia/Nesnad

Follow Casey on Twitter, where the food stand he helped run at his college’s school festival wasn’t dangerous, just unpopular.