UPDATE: AKS terminates former NGT48 Theatre Manager Imamura Etsurou’s contract, Hosoi Takahiro to retire, Togasaki Tomonobu receiving a lot of criticism

AKS Co., Ltd., which manages AKB48 has terminated the contract of Imamura Etsurou, the former manager of NGT48 Theater.

Announced on the AKB48 blog, it was also announced that Hosoi Takahiro, manager of the AKB48 theater will be retiring and the seat will be vacant.

Back in January, after the assault of NGT48 member Yamaguchi Maho was made public, an online petition calling for the resignation of NGT48 Theatre Manager Imamura Etsurou reached over 53,000 signatures.   AKS Co., Ltd., had replaced Imamura and transferred him to a new duty.

A third-party commission would investigate the case and it was found that Imamura took inappropriate action on a case relating to NGT48.

UPDATE: There is uproar from a photo tweeted with former AKB48 manager Togasaki Tomonobu, Hosoi Takahiro and Imamura Etsurou of the three together to drink.  This led many people to be angry that how dare the three post a photo on social media when Imamura himself has not apologized for his actions towards Yamaguchi Maho:

As for Togasaki Tomonobu, while he is no longer affiliated with AKB48G (as of August 2018), many fans were critical of him posting the photo on Twitter. Togasaki tweeted an apology:

Togasaki apologized for his post and for inconveniencing a lot of people. He said he will be reflecting on the lightning post without considering the situation and doing something that was irreparable.

While some were able to take the apology, others not so much, considering there were other tweets that happened after the first tweet went out. Needless to say, a large percentage of people were upset with Togasaki’s tweets.