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J-pop singer Rina Aiuchi wins legal right to call herself Rina Aiuchi

Casey Baseel Dec 10, 2022
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Tokyo district says Detective Conan singer can once again use the name that everyone else already calls her.

On Thursday, presiding judge Tomoyuki Tobisawa handed down his verdict in a lawsuit heard in Tokyo district court. After considering the assertations made by both sides in the lawsuit, and carefully weighing them against codified law, Tobisawa came to the conclusion that yes, Rina Aiuchi is allowed to call herself Rina Aiuchi.

Ordinarily, that wouldn’t be the sort of thing you’d need official judiciary permission for. And no, this wasn’t a kanji kerfuffle, like the one that caused the Pokémon Center to issue an apology for calling Nicole Fujita Nicole Fujita. Instead, the lawsuit was necessary to untangle a legal dispute between Aiuchi and talent agency Giza Artist.

Though she never rose to quite the same heights as some of her more famous early 2000s J-pop contemporaries, Aiuchi carved out a respectable career as a high-energy vocalist, with her 2000 breakout single “Koi wa Thrill, Shock, Suspense” serving as an opening theme song for the Detective Conan anime TV series.

However, Aiuchi was born Rikako Kakiuchi. Rina Aiuchi is the stage name she took when she signed her debut contract in 1999 with Giza Artist, and that contract included a clause that the agency would retain exclusive rights to the Rina Aiuchi name in perpetuity, even after the end of their talent management contract for her.

Aiuchi and Giza’s working relationship ended in 2010, meaning that when she decided to return to singing in 2015, she had to do so under yet another stage name, Rika Kakiuchi, which she later changed once more to just R.

▼ Aiuchi performing a self-cover of “Ohh! Paradise Taste!!”, originally released in 2000

Recently, though, Aiuchi began using the Rina Aiuchi name in a professional capacity once again. In response, Giza Artist filed an injunction to block her use of the name, but that injunction has now been struck down in Tobisawa’s ruling. Tobisawa pointed to the section of Japan’s civil law code that states that “legal action contrary to public order and morality are invalid” and deemed that the rights to Aiuchi’s stage name being held indefinitely by the talent agency, even when the performer is no longer under contract or receiving compensation, were such a violation.

“I am very happy to be able to proudly perform as Rina Aiuchi,” the singer said following the verdict, so hopefully this will be her last renaming.

Source: Kyodo via Yahoo! Japan News via Otakomu, Asahi Shimbun Digital
Top image: Pakutaso (edited by SoraNews24)
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Follow Casey on Twitter, where he still remembers having to pay import prices to buy Rina Aiuchi’s “Navy Blue” in California.