Mina Chan, a Japanese influencer based in South Korea, killed herself while broadcasting live from her Seoul apartment in the early hours of Wednesday, police revealed.
This case brought the focus back to the issue of online abuse prevalent within K-pop fan groups.
The Japanese woman was found dead at her Seoul apartment in Yongsan District at about 5:33 a.m. on Wednesday, the Seoul Yongsan Police Station confirmed. They were called out when one of the woman's acquaintances reported that her friend attempted self-harm while going live. The woman had approximately 80,000 followers on TikTok.
Numerous users on TikTok and X requested that law enforcement intervene during the broadcast. The police are now investigating the circumstances of the woman's death.
Mina Chan was very popular in the fan group of the boy band ENHYPEN, called ENHYPEN's fan base, ENHYPEN, where she used to attend fan sign events and concerts. She was claimed to be 26 years old; however, the age was not confirmed by the authorities. The Associated Press does not usually use the names of people who committed suicide unless they were famous or the families agreed to it.
The first negative reactions toward her appeared after the ENHYPEN concert in the USA in late July. According to fans, the woman tried to give sunflowers to member Sunoo and ask him to give them to member Ni-ki. This moment became very popular on social media platforms.
In the evening of July 31, member Ni-ki (his legal name is Nishimura Riki) commented that he felt disappointed that some concertgoers wanted attention only for themselves during the TikTok livestream. He didn't mention anybody specifically.
Many users considered his comment a response to Mina's actions, and she made an apology post online.
However, neither Ni-ki nor BELIFT LAB, the company representing the group, confirmed the comments were referring to the woman. The singer's official fan site denied that the comments were targeting any particular person.
So far, the police haven't stated anything about the cause of death or any criminal investigation of online activity. Defamation and insult in South Korea are criminal offenses, and the prosecution has successfully prosecuted cases of online abuse against famous people before.
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