Japanese Company Will Close After CEO Criticizes Boy Band on Social Media

Empty storefront with sign in Japanese saying "Tenant Wanted")
Picture: kamekichi / PIXTA(ピクスタ)
A small cosmetics company in Japan was using its official account to attack the band number_i, as well as McDonald's and Suntory.

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Ever make a tweet so bad that it ended your company? That appears to be what happened after a cosmetics maker’s CEO criticized a Japanese trio on the company’s official account.

The tweet was aimed at the band number_i, a three-member male trio. The group formed when its members split off from King & Prince, a group that belonged to the now-defunct Johnny’s Entertainment, and joined the new agency TOBE, founded by former Johnny’s talent Takizawa Hideaki.

The members of number_i
The members of number_i. (Picture: TOBO official website)

This didn’t sit well with some people – one of them, apparently, being the CEO of cosmetics company Reju. In a now-deleted tweet on social media service X, the company’s official account called the members “traitors” for leaving Johnny’s and King & Prince. “There’s nothing cool about them,” the account huffed.

Reju Cosmetics tweet criticizing number_i

The tweet – a personal opinion that, for some reason, became the company’s opinion – apparently didn’t sit well with number_i fans because, after that, the company posted a tweet containing a lengthy apology for its CEO Miyauchi Atsuro’s comment.

Tweet from Reju Cosmetics

Besides apologizing, the letter read, “As we should take responsibility for this inappropriate tweet, we have decided to close the company. We will cease all sales and only respond to opinions and inquiries from here on out.”

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Some commenters on social media lashed out at the company for its initial faux pas. Others, however, pointed out that it’s weird a company would close over a tweet. “Feels like you were maybe already on the brink of closing,” one quipped. Another commenter claimed that the company appears to be a one-man operation with only an online store.

Netizens also found that the official company account had previously lobbed jabs at both McDonald’s and Suntory.

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Jay Allen

Jay is a resident of Tokyo where he works as a reporter for Unseen Japan and as a technical writer. A lifelong geek, wordsmith, and language fanatic, he has level N1 certification in the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) and is fervently working on his Kanji Kentei Level 2 certification. You can follow Jay on Bluesky.

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