Masaya Makino (42), the president of management agency Avantgarde, has been arrested for tax evasion. Back in January, the company was formally accused of hiding more than 1.15 billion yen in earnings over a period of three years, evading roughly 345 million yen in taxes.

The company behind Avantgarde is currently known as Ichi Estate Corporation. Its talent management operations were merged last year with the company Avilla, which now represents all of their celebrities, including Yuko Ogura (25) and Kaori Manabe (28).