WEST Nakama Junta Apologizes for Taking Photo of Someone’s Mailbox

Despite his post receiving over 20M views, Japanese idol Nakama Junta faced heavy backlash from netizens for sharing a photo of a “Mickey Mouse-shaped”mailbox and subsequently issued a public apology.

On June 15, Nakama Junta of the Japanese boy group WEST issued an apology on X after facing backlash for his recent actions.

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His statement of apology, which has been viewed approximately 20 million times, includes the following:

“I deeply apologize for causing concern and inconvenience to everyone with my post this morning.

We have contacted the owner of the photo in question to apologize and have deleted the post.

I deeply regret it. I’m very sorry.”

The confusion arose when Nakama Junta shared a photo of a red mailbox on his personal X, along with the comment:

“I was staring out the window of my car when I spotted a mailbox that looked like Mickey Mouse and it cheered me up.”(excerpt from the original post)

I’m very sorry for causing concern and inconvenience to everyone with my post this morning. I have contacted the owner of the photo in question to offer my apologies, and have deleted the post. I deeply regret my actions. I’m very sorry.

— Junta Nakama (@j_nakama_w7_3) June 15, 2024

Despite being a known Disney character fan, particularly of Mickey Mouse, he received criticism rather than praise from fans. This was due to him sharing a photo of someone’s mailbox without their consent, with many accusing him of invading a regular citizen’s privacy rather than spreading positivity.

Here are a few of the comments:

“Do you know that you are violating the privacy of regular people?”

“You took a picture of someone else’s mailbox and uploaded it to social media without permission. You have no literacy or morals.”

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Despite Junta’s apology, he still faced a significant backlash as netizens called for him to retire from using social media altogether.

“Isn’t it a lie that he apologized to the owner of the mailbox?”

“If he deleted the photo of someone else’s mailbox after 11 pm, does that mean he attacked the mailbox’s house at that time?!”

“That’s too scary.”

“He’s always getting flame wars and his usage never seems to improve, so I’m serious, Nakama Junta should retire from social media immediately.”

“He really should stop using social media now.”

In addition, his followers concurred that he should take a break from X and recommended that he use his Instagram to share photos if he desired.

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To the surprise of many, despite his X, Junta’s IG was flooded with adoration and encouraging messages from his fans, including:

“I’m always on your side.”

“I always love you and always will.”

“It’s going to be okay.”

At the moment, Nakama Junta, who is 36 years old, is part of Johnny’s WEST, also known as WEST. He joined the group as a new member in 2014 and they made their debut under SMILE-UP with the single “EEJANAIKA”from Johnny’s Entertainment.

In response to the sex abuse allegations against its former founder Johnny Kitagawa, the company changed its name to Starto Entertainment in 2023.