On last Sunday, 2014-06-25, in the Iwate prefecture of Japan, a man (24 years old) was arrested due to the attempted murder.
He participated to the "shake hand event" with the "idol" group AKB48.

AKB48 theater.jpg


AKB48 is the "idol" group in Japan.
"Idol" is a kind of entertainer who is young, good-looking and attractive.
AKB48 is the girl-pop group.
The name stands for 48 girls in Akihabara.
There is a AKB48 theatre in Akihabara and some of the members have a show almost every day.
The number of the members are about 90 now.

There are "sister" groups SKE48 in Nagoya, NMB48 in Osaka, HKT48 in Hakata, SNH48 in Shanghai, and JKT48 in Jakarta.
So the total members of all the groups are about 360 now.

If you buy the CD of them, you find "shake hand ticket" sealed in the package.
They have the "shake hand event" in many places in Japan.

Before the "shake hand event", they had a mini concert.

Then the staffs arrange the "shake hand lanes".
There are about 10 lanes for the shake hand.
For some lanes, there is only one member of AKB48 (who is popular).
For some lanes, there are 4 or 5 members (who is not so popular).

So the people who participate the event (the fans) must choose the lane.

If you got only one ticket, you can walk in the single lane for once, and you can shake hands with the member(s) for once for each member.
You can shake hands with 3 seconds for each member per one ticket.

If you got two or more tickets, you can come back to the shake hand lanes, and then you can re-choose the lane.
You can shake hands with the same girl twice or more.
Or you can shake hands with the two or more different girls.

So the big fans might buy 10 or more CDs to obtain more shake hands tickets.

For once in a year, AKB48 and its sister groups would have "the selection members election".
The fans would vote their favorite girls so the girls would be ranked.
The top 16 girls can sing in the next CD.

To vote, you got to buy CD again.
There is a "election right ticket" with serial number sealed in the package.
So the fans would vote from mobile or PC with the serial number.
If you want to cast 100 votes, then you got to buy 100 CDs to obtain 100 serial numbers.

So the big fans buy many CDs (the many copies of the same CDs), and they shake hands for many times, and cast votes to the favorite girl to let her ranked higher.

I like AKB48 and their performance because they are so cute and vivid.
This is one of the coolest content from Japan.
But I think the system which encourages some big fans (including kids) to buy the many copies of the same CDs is crazy.
This is the addiction business like gamble, drugs, alcohol etc.

The arrested man participated the shake hand event carrying a kind of saw under cover of the jacket.
There were many security men including retired policemen, but they could not find it.
He didn't shake hands of any girls, but instead, tried to slash down the girls.
The two girls and one security man got injured.

He said to the police: "I wanted to slash at any girl. I didn't care who she was."