Japanese pop star shaves head as punishment for dating (Video)

Japanese pop star Minami Minegishi was photographed leaving her boyfriend’s apartment, and she's now had to issue a tearful apology and shave her head as punishment.

The punishment comes because the managers of her pop group, AKB48, have a strict no dating rule, according to the BBC. She has also now been demoted to a trainee level in the group for “causing a nuisance to the fans,” according to the group’s management office.

Minegishi has since posted a video expressing remorse over her actions, seen below.

"If it is possible, I wish from the bottom of my heart to stay in the band," Minegishi says. “Everything I did was entirely my fault. I am so sorry.”

The photographs that showed Minegishi, 20, leaving the apartment of her boyfriend, Alan Shirahama, appeared in a Japanese tabloid. According to The Japanese Daily Press, Minegishi is seen in the photographs leaving her boyfriend's apartment in the morning wearing an oversized jacket, a cap and a white breathing mask.

Minegishi’s fans have been supportive of the pop star, although she says in the video, "I was supposed to be in the position where I always had to act like a role model... However, what I have done was such a thoughtless and lack of self-awareness behavior.”