Pregnancy of Active Girl Group Member Causes Tension Among Group Members

Recently, the Japanese girl group MAX reunited and spoke about incidents in their history as a group.

MAX originally debuted as a subunit of Super Monkey‘s in 1995 before the group’s disbandment. Following the success of their first movie and debut album, MAX continued as a four-member group, seeing a continuous rise in popularity.

During a recent appearance amid their 30th-anniversary celebrations, the group opened up about member Mina’s departure. Mina was announced to be pregnant in 2002, and a marriage followed shortly after, with her initially going on hiatus.

Despite saying that Mina would not be replaced, singer Aki Maeda joined the group, effectively replacing her in the line-up. Aki remained in the group until 2008, with Mina surprisingly being announced to be rejoining the group for activities.

According to the members, the reason for some internal dispute was not that Mina had gotten pregnant, but how they found out. The members had a pact to introduce anyone they liked romantically to the others at the time, but this did not happen with Mina.

Instead, the group members found out about her pregnancy through the agency, which created distance between her and the others.

While on the show, Mina spoke about her time away from the group, during which she was rumored not to have contacted them. She said she felt like she “ruined something important,” which motivated her actions.

I felt like I had ruined something important, so I changed all my contact information. I tried to avoid watching music programs altogether.

— Mina

However, the members have put this behind them and are ready to continue as a group for decades!