Japanese idol

An is a type of entertainer marketed for image, attractiveness, and personality in Japanese pop culture. Idols are primarily singers with training in acting, dancing, and modeling. Idols are commercialized through merchandise and endorsements by talent agencies, while maintaining a parasocial relationship with a financially loyal consumer fan base.

Japan's idol industry first emerged in the 1960s and became prominent in the 1970s and 1980s due to television. During the 1980s, regarded as the "Golden Age of Idols", idols drew in commercial interest and began appearing in commercials and television dramas. As more niche markets began to appear in the late 2000s and early 2010s, it led to a significant growth in the industry known as the "Idol Warring Period." Today, over 10,000 teenage girls in Japan are idols, with over 3,000 groups active. Japan's idol industry has been used as a model for other pop idol industries, such as K-pop.

Sub-categories of idols include gravure idols, junior idols, net idols, idol voice actors, virtual idols, AV idols, alternative idols, underground idols, idols, local idols, bandols, and Japanese-Korean idols.

Definition

Roles and training

An idol is a type of entertainer whose image is manufactured to cultivate a dedicated consumer fan following. Talent agencies commercialize idols by recruiting preteens and teenagers with little or no experience in the entertainment industry, and market them as aspiring stars. Idols are marketed for their image, attractiveness, and personalities. An idol's main objective is to "sell dreams", offering fans a form of escapism from the troubles of daily life. Idols are predominantly singers, but are also often trained in acting, dancing, and modeling. This style of recruiting and training was pioneered by Johnny Kitagawa, the founder of Johnny & Associates, and has since been used in other pop idol industries such as Korean idols in K-pop.

Idols often spend time isolated from family and friends while enduring busy work schedules, with some agencies withholding job assignments from their talents and notifying them of work on short notice to prevent them from taking time off. Some talent agencies do not rigorously train their idols and market them as amateurs who will gain experience over the course of their careers and with support from their fans. Despite being trained in multiple roles in entertainment, idols in Japan are not expected to meet the high standards of performances that professionals in their fields do. Because of their manufactured image, idols are generally not regarded as authentic artists. Likewise, many young Japanese artists pursuing careers in acting or music reject the idol label in their bid to be seen as professionals.

Music from idol singers is generally categorized under J-pop, though talent agencies may label them under the sub-genre "idol pop" for further distinction. Many idol singers find success as groups rather than individually. Within each idol group, the members are sometimes given distinct roles. One example of a role is the center, who occupies the center position in the group's choreography and thus receives the most focus. Another example is the leader, usually relegated to the oldest or most experienced member in the group, who acts as an intermediary for the members and the staff.

Public image

Idols are seen as role models to the public, and their personal lives and image can sometimes be tightly controlled by their talent agencies. Common restrictions include not being allowed to smoke or drink in public, or pursue romantic relationships.

Outfits

Idols generally perform in elaborate costumes for specific performances. Costumes are created for each song in their promotion cycle, as well as graduation events, and some groups have their own in-house costume designer. AKB48, in particular, has had over 1,102 costumes created for the group since 2017. The outfits worn by female idols are generally described as "cute", while outfits worn by male idols are described as "cool."

Among many idol groups, school uniforms have been used as a standard costume. The integration of school uniforms in the idol industry originated from Onyanko Club, who debuted in 1985 with a concept based on school. Following their disbandment in 1987, other groups began adopting school uniforms as costumes, such as CoCo and Ribbon, two groups put together by Fuji TV's audition programs, followed by in 1992 and Morning Musume in the early 2000s. When AKB48 debuted in 2006, the group used a school concept and the members have performed in various stylized school uniforms. Since then, other groups have used stylized school uniforms as costumes, such as AKB48's sister groups, Sakura Gakuin, and Sakurazaka46, with some modifications to suit the groups' image and choreography.

In 2017, '' Nihon Tarento Meikan'' noted that stylized school uniforms being used as costumes gained popularity through AKB48 due to their unique designs, the short skirts, and the neatness of the uniform. The uniforms found popularity with men, as they represent their "eternal longing" and nostalgia for high school, while only gaining popularity with women in the 2010s through anime.

Retirement

Idols are typically expected to change careers after aging out of the industry, with female idols typically changing careers at age 25 and male idols at ages 30–45. Idols who leave a group are often given a farewell concert known as . The term originated from the idol group Onyanko Club, as the group's youthful concept drew similarities to an after-school club, and the fact that Miharu Nakajima's final single before retirement was released around graduation season in Japan. Prior to the 1980s, the terms "retirement" and "disbandment" were used. "Graduation" saw usage again in the 1990s during the revival of idol groups when Tsunku, who produced the group Morning Musume, used the term as a euphemism regarding one of the members leaving the group. An idol having a "graduation" ceremony is seen more favorably than terminating a contract or voluntarily withdrawing, as the latter two terms are negatively connoted with scandals.

Sub-category markets

The diversity of Japan's idol industry has created several sub-category markets, each with a specific concept appealing to certain audiences.

* Alternative idols: Alternative idols, also known as alt-idols or anti-idols, is a term coined by English-speaking communities to describe idol singers that have an image concept and music different from what is considered mainstream, such as having darker images and alternative rock. The alternative idol scene was pioneered by Bis and Seiko Oomori and made popular by Bis' successor Bish.

* : AV (adult video) idols generally refer to pornographic actresses and models, with the industry first emerging in the 1980s.
* : Bandols are idol groups that play instruments and perform as bands. The term first emerged in the 2000s as a shortening of the phrase, , which was used to describe the marketing concept of the band Zone.
* : Gravure idols are models who pose in provocative swimsuit and lingerie photographs in magazines and photo books marketed towards men, similar to pin-up models. In the 1970s, Agnes Lum, whose rose to fame in Japan, is considered the first gravure idol despite the term not existing at the time. Other notable swimsuit models were , , and Fumie Hosokawa. After Akiko Hinagata became a rising star in 1995, the term "gravure idol" was coined to describe her. In the 2000s, there was a significant growth in the gravure idol industry, with many women of different body types modeling. This led to sub-category markets in the gravure idol industry to describe their aesthetic and body types, which included , , , , and . The gravure idol industry faced a decline in 2010 due to the popularity of AKB48, as some of their members also did gravure modeling; as a result, the demand for newer talents was reduced.

* : Since the 1970s, several voice actors of anime and video games also held successful singing careers in addition to voice acting. Early examples of voice actors who had an idol-like presence were '' Mobile Suit Gundam'' voice actors Toshio Furukawa and Toru Furuya in the 1970s, who gained a sizeable female following after forming their band, Slapstick. In the 1980s, idol singer Noriko Hidaka eventually became a voice actress after gaining recognition for playing lead in ''Touch''. Beginning in the 1990s, several voice actors held successful concurrent singing careers alongside of voice acting, such as Hekiru Shiina, Mariko Kouda, and Megumi Hayashibara. As the anime industry began producing more late-night series in the 2000s, the term "idol voice actor" was popularized when more voice actors with a cultivated fan following began appearing on television. While previous examples involved voice actors who incidentally drew in fans through their singing careers or former idol singers who turned to voice acting, Yui Horie, Yukari Tamura, and Nana Mizuki were intentionally produced and marketed as idol voice actors by their record labels. Around the time when the Idol Warring Period was occurring during the mid-to-late 2000s, there was a significant boom in idols voice acting in anime, with ''Oricon'' naming Aya Hirano and Koharu Kusumi as examples, as both of them were established actresses and singers in mainstream Japanese entertainment before entering voice acting. Hirano, in particular, was strongly marketed as an idol at the height of her voice acting career, from the late 2000s to the early 2010s. While character song tie-ins were already common in the film industry by then, some voice actors also began making crossover television, stage, and concert appearances as their characters as well, leading them to be closely associated with one another.
* : While Japan and South Korea agencies have created collaborative idol groups in the past, with Route 0 in 2002, during the third Korean wave in the mid-to-late 2010s, the term saw usage again to refer to collaborative idol groups promoting primarily in Japan, but with music, styling, marketing, and presentation produced in the K-pop industry. The earliest example is Iz*One in 2018, followed by JO1 in 2019 and NiziU in 2020.

* : Male idols contracted to Johnny & Associates are nicknamed "Johnny's idols" by the media and include groups such as SMAP and Arashi, who have led strong careers both individually and as a group. Since the company was founded in 1962 by Johnny Kitagawa, who is credited for pioneering the idol trainee system and popularizing the performance aspect of modern idols, the company has held a monopoly over the male idol industry in Japan, with Kitagawa pressuring the media to reduce coverage on male idols from other companies until his death in 2019. Johnny's idols also rarely get negative press such as scandals due to Kitagawa's influence on the media.
* : Junior idols are singers and gravure models who generally are 15 years old and younger. During the 1990s, a number of young girls were recruited to become idols, leading to what media named the , with the term "chidol" (a combination of the words "child" and "idol") coined by journalist Akio Nakamori in the magazine ''Weekly Spa!'' In the 2000s, "chidol" saw fewer usage, and it was eventually replaced by the term "junior idol" to legitimize them as part of the idol industry as well as removing the focus on their age. While the industry is still considered legal in Japan, it has been criticized for sexual exploitation of minors. Many junior idol distributors closed after possession of child pornography was outlawed in Japan in 2014.

* : Also written as and or shortened as , local idols primarily promote in rural areas in their specific communities, where accessibility to celebrities is limited. The emergence of local idols was traced back to the early 2000s with Perfume and Negicco. The "Idol Warring Period" in the 2010s led to an increase in the number of local idols, with the 2013 television drama '' Amachan'' inspiring an accelerated growth. Journalist Mamoru Onoda estimates there are approximately 2,000 local idols active as of 2021. Most of the local idol groups are independently managed, relying on popularity through word-of-mouth. Several local idol groups who have crossed into mainstream media in the 2010s are Rev. from DVL and Dorothy Little Happy, the former after a photo of then-member Kanna Hashimoto went viral on the Internet.
* : Net idols are Internet celebrities who emerged with the accessibility of the Internet in the 1990s, using self-made websites and blogs to discuss their daily lives. Net idols currently conduct the majority of their activities through video streaming websites and social media beginning in the 2000s.
* : Virtual idols are digital avatars representing a fictional character or persona. The first fictional idol gaining mainstream crossover Lynn Minmay from ''Macross'' in the 1980s. In 1997, Kyoko Date was created as the first virtual idol. In 2007, Crypton Future Media released Hatsune Miku as its latest addition to the Vocaloid software, who subsequently saw positive reception from amateur songwriters, with her character and music based on user-generated content. Virtual online streamer Kizuna AI, who first appeared in 2016, led to a boom of Virtual YouTubers who similarly conduct their activities through a digital avatar on YouTube and other streaming websites.

* : Underground idols are independently managed idols who perform at small venues. Tama Himeno and Kamen Joshi member Tomoka Igari, both underground idols, describe them as being different from mainstream idols (nicknamed ) in that underground idols are active through live performances rather than through exposure from mass media or CD releases through major record labels, thus making them more accessible to fans in comparison to mainstream idols. An example Igari used to describe close relationships that underground idols have with their fans is that underground idols will hold handshake events and take instant camera photos (known as ) with fans after every live performance.
** : idols are type of underground idol based in the Akihabara district of Tokyo, drawing influences from its culture. Music from idols are generally sold as self-published CDs at Comiket or promoted through Niconico. is a dedicated venue where they perform. While idols are niche, Haruko Momoi and Dempagumi.inc are cited as an examples of an idols crossing over to mainstream media. Dempagumi.inc's music producer, Maiko Fukushima, describes the music from idols as distinct from anime songs, with most composers being "amateurs" and its organic music culture facing a state of the Galapagos syndrome, as they had no direct creative input from J-pop or other music genres. However, Fukushima noted that songs from R-18 games were also key components of music. In 2007, Vocaloid greatly influenced the growth of music and idol culture. AKB48, one of Japan's most recognized idol groups nationwide, originated from Akihabara, but it is not considered an group.

History

1960–1980: Post-war era and idol beginnings

The popularity of young female singers can be traced back to Sayuri Yoshinaga in the 1960s, as well as the Takarazuka Revue and theater shows from the Meiji era. In 1962, Johnny Kitagawa founded Johnny & Associates and created the group Johnnys, which is retroactively considered the first idol group in Japan. He is also credited with pioneering the idol trainee system, where talents would be accepted in the agency at a young age and train not only in singing, but also dancing and acting, until they were ready for debut. However, the concept of an idol wasn't defined by mainstream Japanese media until in November 1964, when the 1963 French film ''Cherchez l'idole'' was released in Japan under the title . Many Japanese audiences took interest in Sylvie Vartan, whose song " La plus belle pour aller danser" from the film sold more than a million copies in Japan. Vartan was heralded for her youthful, adorable looks and musical talent, leading the Japanese entertainment industry to assign the word "idol" to singers who shared a similar aesthetic.

Television greatly impacted the popularity of the idol phenomenon, as beginning in the 1970s, many idols were recruited through audition programs. In addition, the availability of having home television sets gave audiences greater accessibility of seeing idols at any time compared to going to theaters. Momoe Yamaguchi, Junko Sakurada, Saori Minami, and Mari Amachi, some of the idols recruited through television, were some of the more popular figures of this era, along with groups such as Candies and Pink Lady. Saori Minami, who debuted in 1971, was noted by scholar Masayoshi Sakai to be the turning point of when teenage stars became popular in mainstream media. Music was produced by a shared climate of songwriters and art directors seeking a step towards a depoliticized youth culture. Idols grew in popularity over the 1970s, as they offered audiences escapism from political violence and radical student movements.

Idols at the time were seen as ephemeral because of how short-lived their careers were, and how they would disappear from the public after retirement. In public, idols took steps to play a distinct character and uphold an illusion of perfection, such as maintaining a virginal image. Other examples include being told not to use restrooms in public and answering interview questions about their favorite food with feminine-sounding answers such as "strawberries" and "shortcake."

1980–1990: Golden Age of Idols

The influence idols had on television led the 1980s to be known as the "Golden Age of Idols", in part due to Japan's economic bubble and growing commercial interest in them. Several figures who defined the Golden Age of Idols are Seiko Matsuda, Akina Nakamori, Kyōko Koizumi, and Onyanko Club. Television programs in which idols appeared often enjoyed high viewer ratings. Dentsu also created the "CM idol" business model, where idols were able to gain fame by singing and appearing in commercials.

Onyanko Club, in particular, shifted public perception of idols from professional stars to ordinary schoolgirls who would gain experience throughout their career. They were also the first group to introduce a "graduation system", where older members would eventually leave the group while newer inexperienced members would join, with the system being named such as the group drew similarities to a school club. Onyanko Club also led to idols becoming closely associated with television, as the visual component became important to the overall enjoyment of their music.

At the same time, male idols gained popularity, with acts from Johnny & Associates normalizing idols singing and dancing at the same time. However, fewer male idol acts from other companies achieved the same success as Johnny's idols due to the company's CEO, Johnny Kitagawa, controlling the media and pressuring certain programs not to invite male idols from competing agencies, as he would continue to until his death in 2019.

1990–2000: Idol Winter Period and Chidol Boom

Around 1985, idols soon became unpopular after the public became disillusioned with the idol system. By the 1990s, public interest in idols began to wane, as audiences lost interest in singing and audition programs, particularly due to a shift in attitudes caused by Japan's economic collapse. The media coined the term to describe the stagnation of the idol industry beginning in 1990.

More young people yielded aspirations to be defined as an artist instead of an idol. During this decline, public perception of idols again shifted from inexperienced amateurs to strong, independent women, in part due to a rehaul in Seiko Matsuda's public image. Namie Amuro, who gained fame as the lead singer of Super Monkey's, found popularity among young girls who emulated her appearance. At the same time, Speed also found a fan following. However, neither Amuro nor Speed referred to themselves under the idol label. Because of the lack of publicity over idols on television, many turned to the Internet.

Johnny & Associates observed the popularity of former Shibugakitai member Hirohide Yakumaru's success as an MC on variety shows, which prompted them to develop and market their current acts with distinct public personalities. Groups from the company began gaining more attention, drawing in fans from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and their marketing success led to many other idols doing the same.

In the mid-1990s, there was an increase in young idols in the elementary school age, which the media described as the "Chidol (child idol) Boom." The term "chidol" was coined by journalist Akio Nakamori in the magazine ''Weekly Spa!'' In the 2000s, "chidol" saw fewer usage, and it was eventually replaced by the term " junior idol" to legitimize them as part of the idol industry as well as removing the focus on their age.

2000–present: Media crossovers and Idol Warring Period

The 2000s saw the rise in popularity of idol groups again after Morning Musume's debut in 1997 and the formation of their musical collective, Hello! Project. Around the same time, there was an increase in gravure idols, who competed in magazine and photo book sales. In addition, anime voice actors, such as Yui Horie, Nana Mizuki, and Yukari Tamura, were also marketed as idols to promote both their activities and singing careers.

While idols briefly experienced another decline after 2002, AKB48 debuted in 2005 and later became known as nation's idol group. The public image of idols had diversified, with each idol group having a specific concept appealing to different audiences. To celebrate the diversity of idols, AKB48, Shoko Nakagawa, and Leah Dizon