The Fukuoka Prefectural Police have filed charges against a man in his 30s from Dazaifu, Fukuoka Prefecture, who allegedly illegally discarded 585 CDs of the girls pop group AKB48 on a mountain, it was learned Tuesday.
The police turned over to the prosecutor's office Monday their case against the man, whose name was not disclosed. The man reportedly admitted discarding the CDs on a mountain in the city and told investigators he did not know what to do with them after obtaining the voting tickets they contained for the pop group's annual popularity poll.
Discarding of AKB48 CDs has recently become an issue, as many such cases were reported after the yearly polls, with more fans buying loads of CDs of the same single just for the sake of getting the right to vote several times.
AKB48 fans need to purchase the group's CDs in order to vote in the popularity poll, which is conducted to decide which members will appear on the new single. The latest event was held in Okinawa in June and people had to enter a serial number written on the voting tickets to vote online.
The man, along with fellow fans, removed voting tickets from some 1,000 CDs sent from another fan in Chiba Prefecture and were given some 600 of them to take home after they voted for one contender, according to investigators.
The case came to light in mid-June after a resident walking on the mountain found several boxes of CDs with the sender's name and address.
