<p>A Japanese starlet who shaved her head and issued a tearful YouTube apology after spending the night with a man was scrambling today to redeem the girl next door image of all-female group AKB48.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Pictures of the roughly-shorn head of Minami Minegishi, 20, were emblazoned on national newspapers and Japan's Twitter scene was abuzz today over news that the pop princess had broken the band's cardinal rule: No Dating.<br /><br />A sobbing Minegishi told fans she had decided to shave her head as an act of contrition after a popular weekly magazine published claims of a night of passion with a 19-year-old boy band member.<br /><br />"I don't believe just doing this means I can be forgiven for what I did, but the first thing I thought was that I don't want to quit AKB48," she says in the video, which had been viewed on YouTube more than three million times.<br /><br />Minegishi, who had long, silky hair at the time, was snapped leaving the apartment of Alan Shirahama, a dancer in an off-shoot of the popular boy band Exile.<br /><br />Tabloid magazine Shukan Bunshun published its article yesterday, and hours later Minegishi was pleading to be allowed to remain with AKB48, one of the world's most successful acts by revenue.<br /><br />The tryst was "thoughtless and immature" she told fans.<br /><br />"If it is possible, I wish from the bottom of my heart to stay in the band. Everything I did is entirely my fault, I am so sorry."<br /><br />AKB48, a 90-strong pool of girls in their teens and early 20s, is a money-printing juggernaut that makes much of the accessibility -- and the implied availability -- of its idols.<br /><br />Fans have frequent opportunities to meet their favourites, who are rotated in and out of the public eye, according to popularity.<br /><br />In return for their chance to grace television screens, subway adverts and the covers of Japan's countless celebrity magazines, members of the collective must adhere to strict rules of behaviour.<br /><br />They are allowed to have "one-sided romantic feelings" for a boy but can never progress beyond hinting at their crush -- and must never disabuse their legions of male fans that they might one day stand a chance with their fantasy woman</p>
<p>A Japanese starlet who shaved her head and issued a tearful YouTube apology after spending the night with a man was scrambling today to redeem the girl next door image of all-female group AKB48.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Pictures of the roughly-shorn head of Minami Minegishi, 20, were emblazoned on national newspapers and Japan's Twitter scene was abuzz today over news that the pop princess had broken the band's cardinal rule: No Dating.<br /><br />A sobbing Minegishi told fans she had decided to shave her head as an act of contrition after a popular weekly magazine published claims of a night of passion with a 19-year-old boy band member.<br /><br />"I don't believe just doing this means I can be forgiven for what I did, but the first thing I thought was that I don't want to quit AKB48," she says in the video, which had been viewed on YouTube more than three million times.<br /><br />Minegishi, who had long, silky hair at the time, was snapped leaving the apartment of Alan Shirahama, a dancer in an off-shoot of the popular boy band Exile.<br /><br />Tabloid magazine Shukan Bunshun published its article yesterday, and hours later Minegishi was pleading to be allowed to remain with AKB48, one of the world's most successful acts by revenue.<br /><br />The tryst was "thoughtless and immature" she told fans.<br /><br />"If it is possible, I wish from the bottom of my heart to stay in the band. Everything I did is entirely my fault, I am so sorry."<br /><br />AKB48, a 90-strong pool of girls in their teens and early 20s, is a money-printing juggernaut that makes much of the accessibility -- and the implied availability -- of its idols.<br /><br />Fans have frequent opportunities to meet their favourites, who are rotated in and out of the public eye, according to popularity.<br /><br />In return for their chance to grace television screens, subway adverts and the covers of Japan's countless celebrity magazines, members of the collective must adhere to strict rules of behaviour.<br /><br />They are allowed to have "one-sided romantic feelings" for a boy but can never progress beyond hinting at their crush -- and must never disabuse their legions of male fans that they might one day stand a chance with their fantasy woman</p>