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Idol Comments on AKB48 Fan's Illegal Dumping of 585 CDs

Police in Chikushino, Fukuoka charged a 32-year-old man earlier this month with illegally dumping 585 AKB48 CDs. Current HKT48 member and former AKB48 member Rino Sashihara recently commented on the incident.

Sashihara appeared on the episode of Fuji TV's Wide na Show variety program that premiered on Sunday. In the episode, Sashihara said, "Honestly, it's an awful shock, and although [the CDs] come with handshake tickets, I feel like I want to deliver the songs [to fans]."

Hitoshi Matsumoto of the comedy duo Downtown, who hosts the television program, responded to Sashihara's comment that idols should tell fans the proper way to deal with unwanted CDs. Matsumoto jokingly suggested making a song about unlawful dumping of items. He added that people sometimes use unwanted DVDs as reflectors to keep crows away. Matsumoto also said, "Construct something like an AKB temple and have a CD memorial service there."

Joking aside, the man who dumped the hundreds of CDs at a mountain in the city of Dazaifu in June created a large mess and potential hazard that other people then had to clean up. Reportedly, a man in Chiba originally bought the CDs to impact an AKB48 voting event. After inputting about 1,000 CD serial numbers, he asked other fellow fans in Kyushu to input the remaining roughly 600 numbers. These fans took up his request, but when it came to disposing of the CDs, one man dumped about 11 cardboard boxes of CDs at the mountain.

Sashihara was the winner of this year's AKB48 Senbatsu Election, her third consecutive win. It's unknown if the collaborated "ballot stuffing" that led to the CD dumping were votes for her or another AKB48 idol.

Locals discovered the litter and authorities were eventually able to track down the man who dumped the CDs. He may have dumped the CDs because second-hand shops often will not purchase more than two of the same product from a single person to avoid acquiring stolen goods.

Source: Sports Hochi via Yaraon!