fradiger
(the world is a beautiful cat and i must meow meow meow)
181
One thing from the statement I would… maybe like clarification on? understandable if you can’t comment further I guess.
IYYF said:
Mr. Hasegawa found out about the concerns raised in these conversations by an event staff member who is very close to Mr. Hasegawa, causing Mr. Hasegawa considerable distress.
By staff member do we mean just like, event staff? (e.g. volunteers, judges, vendors), or are we talking like an IYYF staff member? If the former, how did this internal IYYF meeting leak to said event staff? And in what capacity?
I have a feeling this was he said/she said/they said and blew out of proportion.
I found out afterwards that Taka actually traveled to Osaka during the contest, didn’t come to the venue, but posted pics of himself in Osaka and then left without seeing anyone.
Taka didn’t try to resolve this even though he had plenty of opportunity. Seems weird to put the responsibility for that on everyone but him.
I was vague on purpose because I’m not throwing anyone else under the bus here. There’s no reason anyone needs to know who this was or for them to deal with the mess that I’ve had to deal with.
Fair, sounds like a strange thing to do, didn’t know this happened.
Edit: I stand by the opinion of reaching out to touch base and welcome someone who is feeling unwelcome (unjustly) is a pretty easy thing to do. And it falls on the responsibility of those who represent a possible authority of presenting a ban to clear things up.
Again this isn’t to point fingers at Steve as I think he was just wrangled into some major JYYF/ JN yo-yo scene drama.
Definitely a bad look for all the folks here making up conspiracy theories about “business rivals” without knowing that Rewind and SpinGear actually sell multiple product lines to each other.
Hey I said that but it was because Taka said the banning was due to a rivalry between the “green and blue (Rewind) and red and orange (Spingear)” It wasn’t a wild conspiracy theory like that’s what he said so I put it out there.
here is the post where he said that. So yeah the business rivals line was not a conspiracy theory.
fradiger
(the world is a beautiful cat and i must meow meow meow)
189
Translation from a JP-speaking community member:
Gonna delete this immediately.
I’m getting a lot of likes from people on both the blue/green(rewind) and red/orange(spingear probably?) sides (note:i think he means on his story about being banned)
I’m writing about getting banned from entering the comp although I havent done anything wrong, what are you implying by giving me more likes than I’ve ever gotten before now? That it’s natural I should disappear?
The whole admin side is garbage, get lost
He’s since deleted these posts, but … certainly there’s history here we are unaware of.
My two conclusions are either that Taka is just unhinged and is jumping straight to that conclusion, or Taka has felt so wronged by history with the JYYF that he thinks it’s justified. Personally I’m more on the second camp since the statement talks about how Taka refuses to interact in an official capacity with the JYYF.
In the end I guess it doesn’t really matter, but I’m confused why it matters that Taka didn’t sponsor any event in Japan? JYYF seems to think that’s a huge issue, so there must be more going on in the background. I understand he’s a big shop and member of the community, but in the end it’s everyone’s own choice whether or not to sponsor something.
Then when you read: " As a result of this discord, there were private, internal conversations among JYYF board members expressing concern that Mr. Hasegawa would attend the 2023 World Yo-Yo Contest and attempt to use this event to actively protest the JYYF or disrupt the event." If Taka never showed up to other contests, since 2015, in Japan to protest, why would they think he was going to this time?
Seems like there are a lot of issues behind the scenes in Japan that are not being talked about. They obviously thought he, at least in his own mind, had grounds to protest. They seem to know why he may want to, but no mention of whatever the original issue in 2015 was.
It’s good that Steve is aware of what’s going on, I think that’ll help quite a bit in any future issues that may arise.
7 Likes
fradiger
(the world is a beautiful cat and i must meow meow meow)
191
Yeah the first paragraph read to me like a way to just discredit Taka in a legally-sanctioned fashion to establish that he was a “problem” already and that this is just a logical extension, but the logic doesn’t hold up. What did the IYYF think Taka would even do …not show up again? It’s not like he was a security risk or anything… right?
People shouldn’t forget what Taka has done for the community over the years.
The IYYF didn’t think anything because the IYYF wasn’t involved in any of this until Taka claimed he was banned and then I suddenly had to become part of this.
The JYYF conversation, as I understand it, basically amounted to “Hey, do we need to worry about Taka showing up and being a jerk?” and then people shrugging and saying “I don’t know?” and then doing nothing because ultimately no one thought he would. He’s been actively boycotting and criticizing their events since 2015 and he tried to start his own rival organization and contest series so I think it’s a pretty reasonable question for them to ask, and I think that their final response of shrugging it off and not worrying about it was also pretty reasonable.
I definitely understand Taka being upset to hear that people were asking if he was going to cause problems, but then responding to that by actually causing problems seems like not the best way to handle that? Which is what I told him when we talked in person.
Since I was there at the venue from set-up to tear-down and I’m one of the people in charge of overseeing the entire thing, yeah I’m sure he didn’t show up and get turned away.
Not sure if you can answer this Steve, but are Taka’s criticisms justified?
I could be way off, but it seems if he’d been working with the JYYF up to 2015 and then just stopped and has been critical of them since, there must be something going on. But sounds like something the JYYF needs to work out, not sure if the IYYF has any oversite to be a liaison.
General statement: I also don’t believe that just because of Taka’s history in the community that he is exempt from any bad behavior, we all need to be held accountable when needed. So I’m not a “Taka hasn’t done anything wrong” in any of this, just seems there is a whole lot more to the background of this that what anyone knows.
Thanks for wading through the mud for all this Steve
3 Likes
fradiger
(the world is a beautiful cat and i must meow meow meow)
198
Agreed. I’m not in the camp of Taka did nothing wrong, and some of his behavior is definitely odd (traveling to the city of the venue but not trying to enter, etc.), but I would like to believe that Taka had a tangible/sensible reason to …react the way he did. It also reads quite weird to me that the situation went from roughly “should we worry about taka?” “i dont think so” to Taka finding out and instantly assuming he was banned from the event.
I guess this whole thing feels to me like there’s some serious bad blood between Taka and the JYYF, and I’m very curious to hear more about that.
Also shouldn’t this be classified as an announcement on the IYYF website, and not hidden away in a link only page?
TBH I really can’t imagine why you need to know that much about other people’s disagreements especially when they don’t affect you?
It’s the second blog post on the News page. Considering that this whole thing amounts to “these people don’t get along and that’s ultimately not the IYYF’s problem” I don’t see why it needs more real estate on our website than that?
It’s hard for me to understand them, but from what I understand of his criticisms, I don’t agree with them. I’m aware of why Taka and the JYYF no longer work together and I agree that they shouldn’t in any professional capacity. I also don’t see any good reason why he stopped just going to contests as a spectator.
7 Likes
fradiger
(the world is a beautiful cat and i must meow meow meow)
200
They’re public figures who represent the interests of the community, of course I’m interested in their disagreements (we’re basically in the boxing ring of drama, an internet forum), especially when they bleed into the public circle after causing such public drama, and have ramifications for the community.
This would be different if we were talking about Taka the individual and Hironori the individual, but we’re not. We’re talking about Taka, who is representing Spingear, and the JYYF, and if it’s personal drama that is causing that rift, then my post is moot anyway. After all it wouldn’t be the first time personal drama had some dumb effects (e.g. yoyorecreation/rewind).
