Minegishi Minami on her bad drinking habits while a member of AKB48

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It is known that there are some idols who love to drink. Former AKB48 member Minegishi Minami is one of them (as it was often discussed on her YouTube channel, when she was a member of AKB48) and the former idol was recently featured an article with Aera dot.’s Fukui Shiho.

This is an excerpt from the article:

Minegishi Minami, who experienced abstinence from alcohol for 539 days. She drrunk heavily every night, and she once said she used to “lose her memory five times a week”. Minegishi recalls that at that time, she “may have been dependent on drinking establishments”.

Minegishi said prior to graduating from AKB48, “I decided to stop drinking because I wanted to graduate cleanly”.

She declared that she would not drink alcohol for the graduation concert of AKB48, which she belonged to.

Abstaining from drinking as a countermeasure against weekly magazines, Why did you raise the prohibition against drinking? Minegishi told Aera, “If I say so myself, I am a serious person who can think about people’s feelings when I am sober. I even sang along with people I met for the first time, and I was even met by someone I met at a bar who made an unexpected news report. I also knew that it was easy to intensify”.

If anything, Minegishi wanted to ensure that she doesn’t involve herself in any scandal that could ruin her graduation performance as “the last 1st gen”.

With that in mind, she quit drinking in December 2019. For her first two months or so, she had a hard time going out.

“When I opened my Instagram, my friends were having a drinking party, and I was sad that I couldn’t be there. When I casually tweeted about my abstinence from drinking, I once received a comment from a fan saying, ‘I look like an addict, so please don’t tweet’. I then realized I wasn’t dependent on alcohol, but I might have been dependent on drinking establishments.”

passed the AKB48 audition at the age of 12. With the concept of “idols you can meet”, the group expands its range of activities with the momentum of dropping flying birds. As a member of the group, Minegishi’s popularity and name recognition rapidly expanded.

When Minegishi turned 20-years-old, that is when she began drinking.

Minegish said, “I want to drink alcohol as soon as possible. I want to join everyone’s ranks. I had a strong desire to go to a drinking party. I drank a lot of champagne and drank it all at once. It wasn’t so much because it was delicious, but because it was so fun to drink and get drunk. I felt that I was able to temporarily dissipate my work stress with alcohol”.

Of course, there were members who were worried about Minegishi-san. Takahashi Minami, who was the general manager of the group, once scolded her, saying, “I’m afraid of the way you drink. It’s dangerous to get along with people you don’t know”.

However, she recalls that it was a time when those voices did not reach her.

“I had an inferiority complex towards the other members, such as not being chosen as Kami 7. Finally I was able to drink alcohol and made friends who enjoyed playing in that world. I felt like I was liberated. The next day after drinking, I was shown videos and photos by my friends, not once or twice. She didn’t remember anything, which made me nervous, but she showed me 100% drunk first, so you might think she wasn’t excited until she got there. For one year from the age of 20, she drank heavily ‘for entertainment'”.

“With no TV offers, drinking was the only thing I looked forward to. After dinner, I go to the store and continue drinking until around 9am. Sleep until night and go out drinking again. It is said that I spent every day like that. One time, I drank too much and skipped work. Even though I had lessons in the afternoon, I drank until around 12:00. I thought I could wake up, but it seems that I unconsciously turned off the alarm. I worried a lot. I had thought about quitting drinking, but I couldn’t choose not to go out drinking. If you go there, you’ll find someone who’s a regular, and you’re guaranteed a good time”.

For Minegishi, it was like a reason to live. When she returned to her parents’ home, which was saved by her parents’ presence, she complained to her parents, “‘It’s dangerous to drink all the time’.” By saying that, maybe I wanted to think that I hadn’t gone all the way to the point where it was really dangerous. It’s my ego, but my parents listened to me without pushing me away”.

Minegishi says he relied so much on “drinking establishments” but why was she able to quit drinking this time? Minegishi said, “I was able to set a goal of not drinking until I graduated, which was a big factor. I have witnessed many wonderful graduations in the past, so I wanted to end my activities as AKB48 with everyone blessing me with a beautiful appearance. Graduation. By making the announcement, I felt that I was freed from the ‘curse of drinking places’ by giving birth to responsibilities and goals”.

Minegishi graduated from AKB48 in May 2021. She later resumed drinking, but she enjoys it with her meals and traveled abroad to enjoy the famous sake of the region. She no longer drinks like she used to. “I don’t think anyone thinks they’ll be dependent on it at first. Even though they thought it would be okay if it stopped at any moment, they suddenly couldn’t stop, and they didn’t even realize it. Isn’t it? Maybe I felt that way too”.

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