ASOBISYSTEM idol project KAWAII LAB., home to groups including FRUITS ZIPPER, CANDY TUNE, and CUTIE STREET, has told fans that breaking its event rules could see them refused entry on the day or barred from future events, while more serious breaches could lead to police reports or other legal action.
Posted on the KAWAII LAB. official site on August 30th under the title “A word of caution and a request to everyone”, the new statement outlines rules covering venues and their surroundings, identification and ticket fraud, crowd behaviour, and the handling of benefit-event tickets.
“If these rules are not observed, we may refuse admission to the performance or event on the day”, the notice says, with measures potentially extending to bans from future events. “In cases of malicious conduct, or depending on the circumstances, we may also report the matter to the police or take other legal action”, it adds.
KAWAII LAB. does not identify a particular incident behind the timing of the post, but the statement arrives after a number of problems involving several of the behaviours it now addresses project-wide.
The most recent came at CUTIE STREET’s two-night CUTIE STREET 2nd ANNIVERSARY LIVE 2026 “8TREASURES” at Nippon Budokan. On August 26th, the group said multiple cases of CDs being illegally dumped at the venue and neighbouring facilities had been confirmed the previous day. CD sales were suspended while organisers consulted the venue and surrounding facilities, then reopened with all CDs sold by reservation from that point.
Sales at the shows were tied to a lottery. Every ¥1,200 spent on eligible CDs and video products earned fans a postcard and a scratch card, with prizes including a participation ticket for a send-off event where photography was permitted. A single transaction could yield up to 100 scratch cards.
Neither CUTIE STREET nor KAWAII LAB. said why the discarded CDs had been bought, though the incident prompted criticism online in Japan of sales campaigns built around multiple purchases and added benefits. The project-wide rules published four days later told fans to take rubbish and personal belongings home, and specifically prohibited illegal dumping at venues and surrounding facilities.
Ticket and identity abuse has been a longer-running problem. At MORE STAR’s first one-man live, MILKY STAR, in July, KAWAII LAB. discovered fraudulent entry involving transferred or resold tickets and forged tickets, with the identity checks required to deal with it delaying both doors opening and the start of the show. It said anyone caught entering fraudulently could be removed immediately, reported to police for offences including fraud, or face civil and criminal legal action, and warned that identity checks could be carried out at random after entry.
That followed a broader warning in December after forged benefit tickets were used at a ‘KAWAII LAB. BEST ALBUM’ release event at LaLaport ANJO. The project said it had also found cases of people using identification belonging to somebody else, or forged identification, in order to use transferred or resold tickets, along with tickets obtained using false names and personal information. It said forging and using benefit tickets could constitute offences including counterfeiting of securities and fraud, while misusing or forging identification could fall under separate criminal offences under Japanese law. Those involved faced exclusion from future events, police reports, and other legal measures.
Many of the underlying live rules are not new. Notices issued across KAWAII LAB. in June 2024 already prohibited exchanging assigned seats, holding more than one ticket per person, excessive jumping, disruptive calls, and the exchange, transfer, resale, or proxy purchase of benefit tickets, with removal or exclusion from future events among the potential consequences. Anyone who breaks the rules or refuses staff instructions can be removed without a refund or denied entry.
The new notice adds provisions covering issues that have surfaced more recently and makes the possibility of police reports and legal action explicit at project-wide level.
Those rules also follow KAWAII LAB. artists beyond events the project organises itself. “The above prohibitions and precautions apply not only to live shows and events organised by our company”, the notice says, extending them to externally organised shows featuring its artists, where fans must also follow whatever rules the outside promoter imposes.
KAWAII LAB. is also managing a much larger audience than when it launched in 2022. The project now encompasses FRUITS ZIPPER, CANDY TUNE, SWEET STEADY, CUTIE STREET, and MORE STAR, with 38 members across the five main groups. Its artists are increasingly reaching some of Japan’s biggest venues, with FRUITS ZIPPER performing at Tokyo Dome in February. KAWAII LAB.’s own fourth-anniversary programme occupied K-Arena Yokohama for five consecutive days that same month before two further shows at Kobe World Memorial Hall in March.
Applications opened in July for KAWAII LAB. ASIA GLOBAL AUDITION 2026, the project’s first simultaneous five-country audition, seeking prospective idols in South Korea, China, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Successful candidates will enter training programmes supervised by its Japanese team and run in collaboration with local partner companies.
