Not So Golden Tickets

AKB, which runs several theaters throughout Japan and a few in other Asian cities, compels fans to buy CDs and other group-related paraphernalia in return for a better chance of meeting members of the group in person.

On June 1, the group held its sixth “general election,” where fans get to vote for their favorite member, who is then crowned as such in an elaborate ceremony.

More than 50,000 fans attended the ceremony at a soccer stadium in Western Tokyo. To cast a vote in this election, fans had to buy the group’s latest CD single, “Labrador Retriever,” which costs a little more than 1,600 yen ($15). In each single is a “ticket” with a URL and serial number written on it.

The holder goes to the URL site and registers the serial number to vote. One ticket equals one vote. Once registered, the serial number cannot be used again. Dedicated fans buy lots of CDs to stuff the ballot box.

The winner this year was Mayu Watanabe, who received 159,854 votes. According to entertainment website Gadget Tsushin, the top 80 vote-getters garnered a total of 2,277,635 votes, which means the AKB organization grossed at least the equivalent of $37 million in CD sales related to the election.

Of course, none of the fans need more than one CD of the same song. In the past weeks after the single went on sale, used goods stores in Tokyo were flooded with copies, with most selling them for as little as 100 yen each.

While none of the used copies had the voting ticket enclosed, at least one fan was fooled into thinking he could buy his votes cheap. Someone put up for sale three lots of tickets on Yahoo’s auction site: 1,000 tickets on May 22, and 500 tickets each on May 23 and May 27.

The tickets had been purchased with the CDs, but the CDs weren’t included. Bidding was closed less than half a day after each lot went on sale. The set of 1,000 went for 950,000 yen, the first set of 500 sold for 450,000 yen and the second set for 430,000 yen. The seller made about 915 yen per ticket.

Then, on May 29, in the review section of the auction site, the individuals who bought the tickets complained they had already “been used,” meaning the serial numbers were already registered and therefore useless. The buyers wanted their money back, but the seller pointed out that he never said the tickets hadn’t already been used to vote. All he said was that the tickets had been removed from the CD packaging. At least one of the buyers said he would contact police, though there seems to be little the authorities can do.

In a similar incident, a 25-year-old man was arrested by police in Hyogo Prefecture for illegally dumping 89 cartons containing 1,000 bags of Calbee potato chips in two locations.

The retail value of the potato chips was about 300,000 yen. Each bag contained a label that allowed the buyer to enter a contest to meet the idol singer/voice actress Nana Mizuki after one of her concerts.

According to the premium rules, three labels earns the holder one chance to enter the lottery.

The entrant has to cut the labels off the bags and glue them to a postcard and send the postcard to a special address. After removing the labels, and being left with what presumably is more chips than anyone could want, the buyer elected to just dump the whole lot in a field or forest somewhere.