AKB48's members have found themselves in trouble over dating over the last several years. Last year, prominent members Rino Sashihara and Yuka Masuda were respectively shipped to a far-less-popular sister group and forced out of AKB after they were caught with boyfriends. Minegishi's story starts out similarly, as she was photographed by Japanese tabloid Shukan Bunshun leaving the home of Alan Shirahama, a member of male-idol outfit Generations. They reported the story in an issue published on January 31, and later that day the video was posted to the AKB48 YouTube channel.

Tear-filled apologies are common following idol scandals, but Minegishi's video was more troubling than usual. Most immediate was her shaved head—in Japanese culture, shaving off one's hair signifies either a new start or, in extreme cases, an act by someone begging for forgiveness from someone they wronged. In the video, though, the head-shaving highlighted the ridiculousness of what was going on—here was a 20-year-old woman begging for forgiveness and starting anew all because she presumably had a boyfriend. Apologies like this also aren't usually filmed with the subject front-and-center. It was uncomfortable to watch.

Several days later, AKB48's management made the video private on YouTube after, they say, fans told them they had "felt Minegishi's good faith." Although plenty of fans showed outrage over her situation, others thought the punishment was just for her crime, citing the contract she signed stating she couldn't date, and welcomed her apology. Others thought that shaving her head seemed a bit drastic, but still believed what she did was wrong.

Over the weekend, Minegishi again apologized to fans at a live event.

This episode has illuminated the most problematic aspect of the Japanese music industry, which is the strict adherence to fantasy even at the expense of the performer's humanity. Ian Martin of The Japan Times sums up the relationship between fans and stars when he writes "the fans and the group members take an emotional journey together, and even though it's a journey along a set of rails determined by marketing, management and industrial factors, at least they can believe that the girls themselves are sincere." Groups like AKB48 strive to create a personal connection between fan and performer—the group's tagline is "idols you can meet." Part of that process involves making fans feel close to the singers themselves, to the point where the consumer feels like he or she has the power to make them more popular. To maintain this illusion of control, members of the group can't do anything to show they are independent from fans—which includes dating.

Although these rules exist for both male and female performers, there is an imbalance in who gets punished and how they are dealt with. In Minegishi's case it's especially glaring—whereas her apology went up in front of millions, Shirahama has only issued one small apology, and he has not had to be recorded saying his "sorry's" or been compelled to do anything as extreme as Minegishi did to repent. The number of male idols caught in similar situations is far fewer than their female counterparts, and when they do find themselves in the spotlight the punishment tends to be far different. In 2012, male idol Jin Akanishi got married without telling his management, causing controversy. His upcoming tour was cancelled, he was removed from a TV drama, and his fan club was dissolved. These were all economic punishments, but Akanishi never had to apology multiple times or do anything as demeaning as Minegishi had to.