On August 6th, Arashi’s Sakurai Sho stayed at a hotel for work in Iwanaicho, Hokkaido. After he checked out, a woman said to be a hotel worker uploaded a photo of two can ‘chuhais’ and cigarettes that was left on the room’s desk, causing an uproar on the internet.
The controversy started when the woman tweeted, “Oh my gosh. Sakurai Sho-kun stayed at my hotel, and I am now going to the room he stayed in.” Her friend asked, “I want an empty can that Sakurai-san used,” to which the woman replied, “I kept a PET bottle, so I’ll bring it the next time we meet.”
After that, the woman reported that she had rested her head on the pillow that still had some hairs from Sakurai’s head, and commented, “I ‘hshs’ the towel he used.” The term ‘hshs‘ is used on the internet to emulate the breathing sound that one makes when sniffing something.
Replying to the tweets, people criticized the woman saying, “This is improper behavior for a hotel worker!” At the end of the day, the tweets were deleted, but it was too late. Of course, Sakurai is the victim, but because of the photo containing 5 or 6 cigarette butts, some fans have already labeled him as a ‘heavy smoker’.
Staff from TV stations commented, “Arashi is Johnny’s moneymaker, and above all, Sakurai-san has a clean image. The unexpected smoking scandal has made the agency nervous.”
Meanwhile, Johnny’s Entertainment explained, “That room was the manager’s room,” arguing that it was the manager who had smoked the cigarettes.
In response, a certain person related to the music industry revealed, “No no, Sakurai-san is the heaviest smoker in Arashi. About a year ago, I met him in the smoking area at NHK, and he smoked one after another. I don’t know if it’s from stress, but perhaps he’s at the stage of a chain smoker? Lately, there’s a rumor going around that he is aging quickly from smoking too much cigarettes.”
cr: tokyohive
