Tout who made ¥10m from Arashi tickets arrested
A 25-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of illegally touting tickets to concerts by Japanese boyband Arashi.
According to police in the city of Sapporo, quoted by Fuji TV, Izumi Nakayama is alleged to have resold online 300 tickets over a period of 18 months to the tune of approximately ¥10 million (US$98,450).
Popular ‘idol’ group Arashi (pictured) only sell tickets to members of their fan club, and announced in April that facial-recognition technology would be used to prevent those who had purchased secondary-market tickets attending their Japonism Show arena tour.
“There’s no problem if you buy a ticket to use yourself, end up unable to do so due to circumstances and then resell it”
The group have also lent their support to the #ResaleNO anti-ticket touting campaign, which is backed by leading industry groups and last month took out full-page ads in a number of Japanese newspapers.
According to RocketNews24, Nakayama is accused of violating the Secondhand Articles Dealer Act, as she lacked the permit needed to resell the tickets. Authorities also apparently took exception to her buying up the tickets with the sole intent of resale: reports the website: “According to the website of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police,” reports RocketNews24, “there’s no problem if you buy a ticket to use yourself, end up unable to do so due to circumstances and then resell it. However, that clearly wasn’t the case with Nakayama, who has admitted to the authorities that she intended from the very beginning to resell the tickets.”
According to the International Ticketing Yearbook 2016, there are a number of well-known secondary ticketing sites in Japan, with the most established including TicketStreet, Ticket Camp and Ticket Ryutsu Center. Unlike Nakayama, large-scale resellers on those sites presumably have the proper permits.
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Ticket resale? NO, says Japanese music business
Japanese music industry associations, festivals and more than 100 of the country’s most popular performers have announced their support for #転売NO, a FanFair Alliance-style campaign aimed at ending ticket touting in Japan.
In a joint statement, the Japanese Federation of Music Producers (FMPJ), Japanese Association of Music Enterprises (JAME), All-Japan Concert and Live Entertainment Promoters’ Conference (ACPC) and Computer Ticketing Council say #転売NO (pronounced “tenbaiNO” and translated as “#ResaleNO”) say ordinary music fans are being robbed of the chance to see live music by the resale of concert tickets, and express their concerns over the “huge profits” being earned by many large-scale touts.
Its manifesto, taken out as an ad in Japanese newspapers, is signed by 116 artists, including one of Japan’s most popular male ‘idol’ boybands, Arashi – who IQ reported in April were deploying facial-recognition technology to prevent ticket touting on their current tour – and veteran rock group Southern All Stars (pictured), and 24 festivals and live events, including Fuji Rock, Metrock, Air Jam, Rising Sun Rock Festival and Sweet Love Shower.
The launch of #ResaleNO follows that last month of the similar FanFair initiative in the UK, which is backed by a number of British artists, managers, agents and concert promoters.
“If tickets become more expensive due to malicious resale, that profit is not being utilised for the creation of new content”
Hidenori Nakai, executive director of JAME, says: “Tickets should be available at their regular price. If they become expensive due to malicious resale, [the profit] is not at all utilised for the creation of new content.
“We are deeply concerned about such a situation, and want to continue our efforts towards the eradication [of touting].”
Ike Mitsunori, president of FMPJ, adds that the secondary ticket market as it stands risks hurting the “good relationship between artists and music fans”.
According to the 2015 International Ticketing Yearbook, the most established secondary ticketing outlets in Japan include TicketStreet, Ticket Ryutsu Center, TicketCamp and internet auction sites such as Rakuten Auction and Yahoo Auction.
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