NEWS Members Keiichiro Koyama & Shigeaki Kato Caught Coercing Underage Women To Drink Alcohol

 "Shuukan Bunshun" is the worst possible source for a news article.  The article title is translated from the original SB one. It's deceptive and designed to grab people's attention to when there's not much to the story. If the girls (allegedly) were a year older, there would be nothing to report.

Regardless of whether the headline is deceptive or not. It's still a problem that these two men tried to force 2 women and pressure them into drinking. Despite both women being underage at the time the recording was made which Johnny and Associates didn't even try to deny, but tried to brush it under the rug by stating that one of the women in the recording is currently 20 despite this recording being sometime before this woman was of the legal drinking age in Japan (notice how there's no other mention of the other women, who undoubtedly and speculatively not of age at this very time.)

I believe the wording is important, it gives the reader an opinion before (or if) they even read the article. I don't think "force" applies here, more like "encourage". The official statement says the girl lied about her age so nobody knew she was underage,  Moreover, they only gave one small sample where only Koyama's voice is heard and put the full recording behind a paywall so it's hard to judge the situation. Well, Koyama has already publicly apologized and was punished for this so I hope that ends the matter.  

While I am glad that they also hang out outside from work, this is definitely not something I am okay with. No matter whether the women in question were underage or not, coercing anyone, for it be male or female, to drink alcohol is not okay. Now of course we don't know what exactly happened, especially since there is a huge difference in "coercing" and "encouraging", so you can't really judge, but nevertheless, alcohol is something one should drink when they want to, not because someone else persuades them to.

'Coercing' is a strong word and should not be used unless it is assured that it has happened

Coercing = 'persuade (an unwilling person) to do something by using force or threats'

I have seen the video myself and would not call what they did as "using force or threats" to the girl to drink (please go and search up the video to check it out yourself). and just a reminder, it is a common act for a 'drinking party' to offer and encourage drinking as to lighten the mood of the situation. 

and most of all, people should understand that tabloid magazines and many other related media would try to use words that would appeal to people's interest.

But then regarding the age issue, they have said that they have been told they are of the correct age to drink, whether this is true or not I don't know but there is a 50/50 chance for this