Male and Female Idol Artists in Japan

Japanese record executives have raked in billions over the past thirty years thanks to their aggressive marketing campaigns and puppet master-like control over the young singers they bring under their influence. For decades, these producers will take young pop star hopefuls and groom them into a marketable commodity. Wannabes spend their teen years working as background dancers and back-up singers until they finally are given the opportunity for their personal debut. This hit cultivating technique employed by record producers is what spawned the idol movement in Japan: the intense hit-making young stars and starlets whose songs clogged the radio, played as backdrops to commercials, and appeared frequently on Japanese television as extras, commentators, or even actors. The idolatry personified through images of an ideal woman or man is most clearly seen in the twentieth century's most prominent idols: Matsuda Seiko on the woman's side, and for the men, the boy-band SMAP. Though neither has any exceptional musical talent, combined they have sold millions of records throughout Japan and the rest of Asia. The idol concept is not that of untouchable talents but rather down-to-earth, girl/guy-next-door types with whom their fans can both relate to and fawn over. Each was popular in different eras and with different sets of fans, and yet Matsuda Seiko and SMAP have covered common ground with their careers by the way in which the industry shaped them into the ideal idols their adoring public both yearned for and unabashedly spent money on.

Matsuda Seiko, the queen of idol-pop music from 1980 on, got her start not because she was particularly talented but because she was simply adorable. She holds the record to this day for consecutive singles to reach the top spot on the Japanese charts. She charmed audiences with her youthful glow, adorable chestnut eyes, and child-like appearance. Both her physical body, with her flat chest and prepubescent figure, and her juvenile clothing choices perpetuated her cute appeal. In a strangely Japanese way, this was her form of sex appeal and the appeal of many idols of this era. Rather than marrying and throwing in the towel around the age of twenty-one like the vast majority of female idol artists of the day, Matsuda continued with her career even after marriage, childbirth, divorce, and a slew of controversies that propelled her into the record books yet again for having the most negative tabloid articles written about her than any other individual in the public spotlight (politicians, royal family members, athletes, etc.) during the early 1990s. Despite veering from her early innocent idol image, Matsuda is still considered the epitome of the idol movement to this day.

On the male side of the idol fence lies SMAP, a five-member boy band created by Johnny's Jimusho, a production company (or boy band mill, depending on your perspective) created by the famed manager Johnny Kitagawa. Nakai Masahiro, Kimura Takuya, Inakagi Goro, Kusanagi Tsuyoshi, and Katori Shingo all started out as backup dancers before becoming the object of every Japanese teenage girl's affections when they made their debut as SMAP (an acronym for Sports and Music Assemble People). Though only teenagers when they came on the scene in the late 1980s, they soon rocketed to fame as overall entertainers. Their singing abilities were far from admirable, however; and even fans go as far as to admit that "Nakai's inability to sing is somewhat of a national joke today in Japan," (Darling-Wolf, 358). Jokes about their talent aside, the group's members are known as tarento (the Japanese pronunciation of the English word talent), or all-around entertainers, rather than musical artists thanks to their wide range of sub-par abilities in acting in television dramas or hosting celebrity talk shows. Nonetheless, they have made their way into the hearts and sexual fantasies of many a young girl in Japan.

Where these two massive forces of idol power compare is in the way by which the companies who so carefully crafted them have turned these average young people into stars. Infamous for its strict control over any artist signed to a major label, the Japanese record companies force idols to adhere to strict rules. They are told what to sing, what to do, and how to act in order to sell both a product and a personality. The idol personality is essential in creating a sensation. To quote Judith Ann Herd, "If the singer is above average in appearance, ability and charm - not too much to alienate or offend the audience, but just enough to give the illusion that 'you can also be a star if you try hard enough' - he or she can have a secure career simply by being a cute, nice, average teenager with no special talent," (Herd, 78). At the same time, they are also often marketed as sex objects. SMAP's Kimura Takuya and Katori Shingo both found popularity through their sex appeal and this was exemplified when concert videos were carefully crafted to periodically throw in shots of either man's crotch or a suggestive-yet-carefully-choreographed dance move.

This sexual appeal takes different forms for each artist. In the case of Matsuda Seiko, it is her kawaiiko-chan, or cutie-pie, image that male fans find alluring. During her decade of massive success, her demure appearance and persona was considered ideal. Innocent, passive, and in some ways pitiful was what the public wanted rather than an overly sexualized adult idol. Conversely, SMAP's members are seen not only as sexual in an adult sense but as the ideal boyfriend in contrast to the typical overworked salary man. They are portrayed as sensitive and often androgynous, even making periodic television appearances with young children and boys to show they are in touch with their feminine sides. Even their weekly SMAPxSMAP broadcast specials often feature the band cooking or engaging in contests to see which of them can be brought to tears first. Though many of their roles in dramas will reveal their more stereotypically masculine sides by having these men engage in acts of violence, off-screen their managers do everything they can to make sure their leading boys are squeaky clean both on and off the set as not to ruin their idol appeal. This amount of control over both the professional and private lives of idols is standard for the Japanese record industry and it is also where the careers of Matsuda Seiko and SMAP differ. Even Matsuda's managers were unable to control her less-than-typical behavior and keep her from public scrutiny. Those in charge of SMAP learned from such controversies involving idols like Matsuda and have kept a sharp eye on their boys. Inakagi Goro, for example, was banned by manager Johnny Kitagawa from all performances for six months after a run-in with the police resulting in arrest for endangering an officer who was trying to ticket him.

To this day, idols still thrive in the Japanese market. Both Matsuda Seiko and SMAP have successful careers that have continued long after most artists have either quit or slowly waned in popularity until they were completely forgotten. The techniques employed by the record industry to mold these artists into the money-making hit machines have gradually being phased out thanks to recent sweeping successes of genuinely talented singer-songwriters. Still, even this new breed of j-pop star will find their careers to be highly influenced by the record labels they have signed their lives and careers to and many of the techniques employed to create successful idols like Matsuda and SMAP will continue.

Works Cited

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Poole, Robert. What Does the Development of Independent Female Artists Mean for the Japanese Music Industry? Center for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University. 2005. 2 Apr. 2007 (http://theses.lub.lu.se/archive/2005/12/28/1135780974-26869-98/PooleMT.pdf).