Ado’s agency Cloud Nine has said it will take firm action, including legal measures, against abuse aimed at its artists, amid a backlash surrounding the singer’s headline appearance at K-pop event INKIGAYO LIVE in TOKYO. In a statement published on September 26th, the company said it will work closely with police and its lawyers, and use disclosure requests to obtain the names and addresses of anonymous posters.
The statement says excessive abuse and false rumours about Cloud Nine artists are appearing widely online. It lists seven kinds of behaviour, including direct attacks on artists over social media and passing off photos of other people as an artist’s real appearance.
“While we respect the expression of our fans and others, we intend to take firm countermeasures, including legal action, against the above acts, which may give rise to legal liability for defamation, obstruction of business, and the like”, it reads.
Neither Ado nor the event is named, and much of the wording repeats a policy statement the company published in 2021. The new version adds a reporting form for abusive posts, which Cloud Nine says it will use to investigate cases with outside lawyers where necessary.
Cloud Nine president Takuya Chigira explained how the booking came about in a post on X (formerly Twitter) the same day, which also linked to the form. “We appeared at this event after an invitation from the organisers, who wanted to bring K-pop and Japanese artists together in one place”, he wrote. “I was the one who took that wish on board and made the final decision for her to appear”.
“She herself performed hoping that people in Korea would get to know Japan, and that Ado’s fans would get to hear some wonderful K-pop”, Chigira continued. His post did not address why Ado closed the night.
Chigira said the agency would deal in turn with comments that appear to be abuse as opposed to opinion, “to protect the artist”. He also thanked Ado’s fans for their concern, adding that “she is okay now” without explaining what they had been worried about.
Ado closed the sold-out second night of INKIGAYO LIVE in TOKYO, a two-day event from SBS’s long-running Korean music show Inkigayo, at Belluna Dome in Saitama on September 23rd, sharing the bill with IVE, BE:FIRST, &TEAM, INI, and HANA. Posts from some attendees afterwards blamed her for a photography ban and the lack of a curtain call, and questioned why a Japanese artist was closing a K-pop event, with some of the criticism turning personal. Others felt her final song, ‘Odoru Ponpokorin’, her weekly Chibi Maruko-chan opening theme since December 2025, was out of place at a K-pop show.
The event’s published rules ban all photography and recording, with no reference to any single performer. Ado’s set came with an extra venue notice barring binoculars, a restriction also used at her own concerts.
Attendees reported that the first night ended with a curtain call bringing all of the performers back on stage, but the second ended without one after Ado’s set. At the time of writing, neither SBS nor the organising committee had explained why.
Organisers had promoted the event as a fusion of Japanese and Korean music culture since its June 26th announcement, with Lilas Ikuta and =LOVE among the J-pop acts on the first night and BE:FIRST and HANA joining Ado on the second. Before the show, Ado wrote in Korean that she is a K-pop fan and was really happy to be appearing.
Ado heads to South Korea next, headlining the opening day of XMF 2026 (Xnterstellar Music Festival) at Paradise City in Incheon on October 3rd. It continues a string of festival closing slots this year, after she closed out Lollapalooza’s AIRBNB stage in Chicago on August 2nd and headlined SUMMER SONIC in Tokyo and Osaka on August 15th and 16th.
Cloud Nine was not the only agency to warn of legal action on September 26th. ASOBISYSTEM said it may consult police and file disclosure requests over “clearly excessive, malicious behaviour” aimed at FRUITS ZIPPER, days after clips of the members celebrating Luna Nakagawa’s solo debut on THE FIRST TAKE fuelled speculation online about relations within the group. The notice did not refer to the clips, and followed an August warning from ASOBISYSTEM’s idol project KAWAII LAB., home to FRUITS ZIPPER, that breaking its event rules could lead to police reports and legal action.
About Ado
Ado is a Tokyo-born singer and utaite who emerged from Japan’s online cover-song scene to become one of the country’s biggest international artists. She began uploading covers in 2017 and made her major debut at 17 with 'Usseewa' in 2020. The song became a huge hit in Japan and introduced the vocal style that has become central to her music, shifting from whispers and deep growls to screams and rapid-fire delivery. Ado has remained visually anonymous throughout her career, usually performing in silhouette and using illustrated characters in place of a public-facing image. Her debut album, 'Kyougen', arrived in 2022, the same year she reached a wider audience as the singing voice of Uta in One Piece Film: Red. Songs including 'New Genesis', 'Backlight', and 'Fleeting Lullaby' joined a catalogue that already included 'Gira Gira' and 'Odo'. Her music has moved freely through Vocaloid-influenced pop, electronic music, rock, rap, and heavier experimental territory, with collaborators including Giga, TeddyLoid, Yasutaka Nakata, Vaundy, natori, MARETU, and Kikuo. Her second original album, 'Zanmu', followed in 2024, with the 40-track 'Ado's Best Adobum' marking five years since her major debut in 2025. Ado's live career has grown just as quickly. Her first world tour, 'Wish', travelled across Asia, Europe, and the United States in 2024, including a sold-out UK debut at London's Troxy. Weeks later, she became the first female solo artist to headline Japan's National Stadium, performing to more than 140,000 people across two nights. She returned overseas in 2025 with 'Hibana', a 33-city world tour across five continents that drew more than 500,000 fans and included a sold-out show at The O2 in London. Ado has also moved into artist production with the horror-inspired idol group Phantom Siita. In 2026, she signed with WME for representation outside Japan, performed at Lollapalooza in Chicago, and headlined SUMMER SONIC in Japan. Despite the increasingly large stages, her roots in utaite and Vocaloid culture are still easy to trace. Her career has been built around the strength and versatility of her voice, with her identity kept deliberately out of view.
