Police send documents on idol group for alleged unauthorized street performance in Tokyo

TOKYO — Police referred a total of 10 people, including members of an idol group and their talent agency staff, to prosecutors on Oct. 22 for allegedly staging an unauthorized street performance in front of the busy train station JR Shinjuku from Tokyo, learned the Mainichi Shimbun.

According to investigative sources, the parties involved were four female members of the group in their 20s, the group’s agency president in his 30s, and five agency staff members between 20 and 50 years old.

The Shinjuku Police Station accuses them of violating traffic laws by staging a street performance on the sidewalk at the southeast exit of the JR Shinjuku Police Station in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward in May, without obtaining a road use permit from the Metropolitan Police. All the accused are said to have admitted to these allegations.

Investigative sources told the Mainichi Shimbun that there had been a series of emergency calls from people reporting that a live performance on the street was obstructing traffic around Shinjuku Station. Investigators at the scene confirmed that this idol group was performing on the street.

(Japanese original by Shohei Kato, Tokyo News Department)