Running head: KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 1

Kawaii Boys and Ikemen Girls:

Constructing and Consuming an Ideal in Japanese Popular Culture

Grace Pilgrim

University of Florida

KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 2

Table of Contents

Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………..3

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………4

The Construction of Gender…………………………………………………………………...6

Explication of the Concept of Gender…………………………………………………6

Gender in Japan………………………………………………………………………..8

Feminist Movements………………………………………………………………….12

Creating Pop Culture Icons…………………………………………………………………...22

AKB48………………………………………………………………………………..24

K-pop………………………………………………………………………………….30

Johnny & Associates………………………………………………………………….39

Takarazuka Revue…………………………………………………………………….42

Kabuki………………………………………………………………………………...47

Creating the Ideal in Johnny’s and Takarazuka……………………………………………….52

How the Companies and Idols Market Themselves…………………………………...53

How Fans Both Consume and Contribute to This Model……………………………..65

The Ideal and What He Means for Gender Expression………………………………………..70

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………..77

References……………………………………………………………………………………..79

KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 3

Abstract

This study explores the construction of a uniquely gendered Ideal by idols from Johnny &

Associates and actors from the Takarazuka Revue, as well as how fans both consume and contribute to this model. Previous studies have often focused on the gender play by and fan activities of either Johnny & Associates talents or Takarazuka Revue actors, but never has any research been executed on both entertainment bodies and their fans. Furthermore, this study considers the influence of feminist movements, female desires, and transcendent emptiness on the creation and consumption of the Ideal and the construction of fans’ personal fantasy narratives. This study attempts to draw common links between the construction of the Ideal in

Johnny & Associates and the Takarazuka Revue and the cultural environments that have provided for his proliferation, though it is limited by its lack of perspectives from entertainment insiders and thoughtful input from fans.

Keywords: Japan, gender, Johnny & Associates, Takarazuka Revue, idols

KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 4

Kawaii Boys and Ikemen Girls:

Constructing and Consuming an Ideal in Japanese Popular Culture

“Whether they are loved or disliked, widely admired or ridiculed, idols inform their viewers about appearances and personal qualities that are considered socially appropriate and trendy.” –Aoyagi Hiroshi (2005, p. 3)

Despite a strong societal consciousness of what constitutes a properly gendered member of society, the Japanese have often played with gender boundaries for popular consumption, most notably by women. If the Japanese have such strong ideas about femininity and masculinity, why then do men willingly crossdress for the delight of their hundreds of thousands of (mostly female) fans; why is that men who perform as women in one of the country’s oldest and most respected theater traditions are held up as an ideal for femininity; and why do the male players of one of the country’s most well-respected revue companies—that also happens to employ only women as actors—consistently have more fans (who are almost exclusively women) than the female players, and why does their gender play extend into other facets of their public lives?

The truth of the matter is that the Japanese fall prey to the very particular societal pressures that they put upon themselves. Most upper middle class Japanese women are expected to marry and subsequently quit their jobs, act essentially as sole caregivers for any children, and do most, if not all, of the housework. Though men traditionally do not have to carry the burden of any of those responsibilities, they are expected to be the sole breadwinners for their households, which means working countless hours six days per week. The demanding nature of these social pressures of what is “feminine” and “masculine,” and what it means to be a proper individual in Japanese society has unsurprisingly created reactionary movements, if you will, against what has been considered the socially acceptable norm in both explicit and implicit ways. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 5

These movements have triggered a change not only in how women behave and view themselves, but in how men act in society at large as well, reacting to changing feminine desires and ideologies. This has led to the creation of a new type of gendered expression that is not necessarily mostly feminine or mostly masculine that many Japanese women consider an ideal man, who is embodied in popular culture by both women and men. The Ideal has been carefully constructed in response to reactionary movements, both covert and overt, carried out by women.

The Ideal and his governing agencies market him to fit the desires of these women, and these women also shape his portrayal by continued consumption of successful models of the Ideal, and by rejecting those who do not live up their standards.

In this way, the Ideal provides an outlet for the safe expression of non-normative or otherwise socially looked down upon gender identities. This is not exclusive to, for example, gay women (thought it can certainly include them), but instead refers to the average Japanese woman who is bound by societal norms and feels that she cannot deviate from them through reactionary movements or progressive youth subcultures. Instead, she must turn to other avenues for freedom of gender expression, and so she looks to the Ideal, who embodies the qualities that the average

Japanese man (indeed, her husband) lacks, and accepts the Ideal as the model to which men should aspire to become. Masculinity is so intrinsically linked to marriage in Japanese society that if a man cannot find a wife, who could very well demand that he emulate in some form the

Ideal, he must change himself to fit closer to this ideal rather than forgoing female desires at all, as has been the norm. Therefore, the Ideal not only offers a safe space for women to have a kind of gendered freedom, but he also inspires, at least some capacities, a push toward social change.

In this study I consider all of the above points by laying out theories of gender and cultural identity, and applying them specifically to Japan. I also outline the histories of several KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 6 major entertainment bodies in Japanese popular culture, and consider two, Johnny & Associates and the Takarazuka Revue, in more detail. I examine the roles played by various implicit and explicit feminist movements in Japan from the Taisho Period to the more recent past in shaping the Ideal and changing the ideology of femininity, and finally, I address the question of why the

Ideal is important as a tool for women to use in place of overt participation in the aforementioned feminist and youth movements.

The Construction of Gender

Explication of the Concept of Gender

The notion that gender is something that is “done” rather than something inherent or even individually constructed has been the dominant mode of thought among sociologists for the past several decades. The concept of doing gender was first developed by West and Zimmerman in

1987 to explain that dichotomizing sex and gender simply as biological differences versus personal identity differences undermines the interactional work involved in presenting ourselves as properly functioning members of society.

In order to best represent a competent member of society, gender must be accomplished as an achieved status, and so an individual is constantly “doing gender” to successfully accomplish gender. West and Zimmerman argue, therefore, that “[r]ather than as a property of individuals, we conceive of gender as an emergent feature of social situations: both as an outcome of and a rationale for various social arrangements and as a means of legitimating one of the most fundamental divisions of society” (1987, p. 126). To understand better how gender functions as an achieved status and what role our ideas of sex play in legitimating this fundamental division of society, I explore further West and Zimmerman’s concepts of gender, KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 7 sex category, and sex, and how all three work together to provide societal parameters and goals for when we are doing gender.

West and Zimmerman reject the ideas of gender as a role and gender as a display because the interactional work involved with doing gender are too downplayed (1987, p. 126-7). They propose instead that we distinguish the sex/gender split as sex, sex category, and gender. Sex is determined through biological criteria such as genitalia or chromosomal typing, differences that have been socially delineated as marking an individual as either female or male. Sex category “is established and sustained by the socially required identificatory displays that proclaim one’s membership in one or the other category” (West & Zimmerman, 1987, p. 127). Generally, we assume an individual’s sex based on one’s sex category, but one’s sex category does not necessarily mean that one has met the corresponding sex criteria. Gender, on the other hand, is what individuals do to adhere to the “normative conceptions and attitudes and activities appropriate for one’s sex category” (West & Zimmerman, 1987, p. 127). Generally, then, we are identified as a particular sex at birth, socialized to understand, value, and display the relevant sex category, and in all aspects of interaction we “do” gender in an effort to “bolster claims to membership in a sex category” (West & Zimmerman, 1987, p. 127).

The main point to take away from this is that members of a society are constantly regulating their actions with regard to how their gendered displays may appear, and simultaneously evaluating how others are doing their genders. There is the drive within society to always do gender appropriately, and therefore maintain acceptance within a particular sex category. To do this requires an individual reconciliation of gender ideals and the creation of a personal gender identity. That being said, the doing of gender

“also renders the social arrangements based on sex category accountable as normal and natural, that is, legitimate ways KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 8

of organizing social life. Differences between women and men that are created by this process can then be portrayed as fundamental and enduring dispositions. In this light, the institutional arrangements of a society can be seen as responsive to the differences—the social order being merely an accommodation to the natural order” (West & Zimmerman, 1987, p. 146).

This is important to note because gender is frequently used to validate one’s claims to a particular sex category, which renders misalignment and ambiguity undesirable. However, in the case of Japan, there is gender play despite an individual’s continued claims to a particular sex category. How, then, is gender being used in Japan, and in what ways does the Japanese doing of gender bolster and negate a Japanese individual’s personal claims to a sex category? I will consider these questions as I consider Japanese ideas of femininity and masculinity.

Gender in Japan

As with most societies in the world, the way that Japan conceives of gender, sex category, and sex is as a binary—female and male. The Japanese follow the model laid out by West &

Zimmerman: An individual is born as either female or male, and that person constantly performs gender throughout her life in order to affirm her belonging to her sex category, which should align with her biological sex. Furthermore, appropriate accomplishment of women into the female category and men into the male category of the dichotomy also requires compulsory heterosexuality, particularly for Japan, which values its women for their reproductive and childrearing capabilities, and men for their ability to find a suitable wife and provide for his family.

Japan generally evaluates members of its society in similar manners to the West: through biological criteria such as genitalia and tenor of voice; style of dress; length of hair; and other various social cues that members of a society use to do their genders to reaffirm their positions in KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 9 particular sex categories. However, the Japanese do have some defining aspects that characterize their ideas of femininity and masculinity that are not considered quite so strongly in the West: marriage, childbearing, and work. Marriage is the culminating event from which children can be conceived and men can provide for their families through work. Indeed, the Japanese concept of ikigai, which can be translated as “one’s purpose in life” or “one’s reason for living,” is linked closely to Japanese constructs of femininity and masculinity. Japanese society is structured in such a way that the ikigai for women tends to be (that is, appropriately should be) their children, and the ikigai for men tends to be their work. Unlike as children, when they could pursue any number of hobbies that could grow into an ikigai, the constraints of what is acceptable for proper members of Japanese adult society restrict their ikigai to children and the workplace.

To understand ikigai and its construction, I will describe the theory of the creation of the self that Gordon Matthews puts forth in his 1996 article about ikigai in Japanese society:

There are “three levels at which selves are culturally shaped. The deepest level is the taken-for-granted level; at this level, exemplified by language…selves are shaped beyond their comprehension. […] Selves of a given society create that society, and society creates selves through social processes that selves are at most only dimly aware of…The second, middle level of the cultural shaping of self is what [he] call[s] the shikata ga nai level. Shikata ga nai is a Japanese phrase meaning “it can’t be helped” […] This is the level of social practice and cultural norms and expectations at which selves have considerable awareness of, although little control over, how they are shaped. The third, most shallow level of cultural shaping is what [he] call[s] the cultural supermarket: this is the level at which selves actively use culture to shape and justify their sense of themselves” (p. 723).

This idea seems to recall the Freudian concepts of the id, ego, and super-ego that govern the workings of the mind, though it refers not to debunked Freudian theories about subconscious KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 10 functions, but to the intra- and interpersonal work involved in social interaction and the construction of a personal identity, of which gender plays a large role.

I agree with Matthews to the extent that there is an inherent taken-for-granted level of identity, from which individual personality traits arise, and that there is a shikata ga nai level at which individuals consciously interpret the social environment of the cultural supermarket (the third level) around them, and either accept, reconcile, or reject society’s dictations of how an individual should act. However, I disagree with Matthews’s notion that language is the embodiment of our unconscious, taken-for-granted selves. This idea presumes linguistic determinism, “which holds that the language we speak determines how we perceive and think about the world,” or at the very least linguistic relativism, which states that “different languages encode different categories and that speakers of different languages therefore think about the world in different ways” (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2007, p. 26). This also seems to imply that language is static. Although we are certainly born with a predisposition for language, the idea that language determines or shapes how we perceive the world is fallacious. How can infants who have yet to acquire language perceive the world without language; how can non- native speakers of a language learn that language; how is translation possible; indeed, how can speakers of multiple languages reconcile the multiple world views afforded to them by their linguistic capabilities? Furthermore, linguistic determinism and relativism do not account for language change. Do our world views change with the language, and if so, are we suddenly incapable of communication with generations who do not speak in exactly the same way?

Certainly, linguistic competence is paramount to proper adjustment to a particular society, and it is also often a large part of personal identity because it demonstrates membership to a particular group. For the Japanese, whose language is spoken almost exclusively by ethnically KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 11

Japanese individuals, the Japanese language most definitely functions as a uniting factor for their society, and subsequently plays a large role in a Japanese individual’s sense of self as a member of that society.

In any case, the taken-for-granted, shikata ga nai, and cultural supermarket levels of identity are also applicable to the Japanese construct of gender. The taken-for-granted level is similar to the sex classification, which is based on biological criteria that cannot be changed

(though, of course, now sex reassignment surgeries can be performed). Based then on the taken- for-granted biological criteria, we are assigned appropriate sex categories that “can’t be helped” because we have the appropriate biological indicators of a certain sex. Finally, the cultural supermarket represents the greater sphere of social interaction, from which we draw our cues concerning how to act as both a functioning member of society (the self) and as a properly gendered individual. As Matthews demonstrates in his discussion of how ikigai is tied closely to how the Japanese construct their senses of self, I would go a step further to argue that ikigai also plays an important role in the construction of gender, which in turn is a significant factor in the

Japanese sense of self.

Through a large number of interviews, Matthews has gathered data on how a variety of people feel about their ikigai, and what their ikigai is. One man says, “My ikigai is my work. . . .

I can’t separate myself from the bank—I am what I am because of it, it is what it is because of me,” and one woman says, “Since I got married, my family has been my ikigai. Being for my family is being for myself and being for myself is being for my family” (Matthews, 1996, p. 729).

These answers reflect the dominant idea in Japanese society that women live for their families— which is thus the epitome of their femininity—and that men live for work—which is therefore the culminating aspect of their masculinity. Despite this, Matthews also interviewed people who KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 12 felt dissatisfied with their lives, wished their ikigai were something different, or realized that their ikigai may not necessarily be something they want, but they cannot help the fact that is. For example, a woman whose ikigai is her family, along with which goes the notion that she must push her son to study, says, “Japan is a society based on school credentials. Maybe that’s bad, but that’s the trend of Japanese society, and we have to flow with it” (Matthews, 1996, p. 725).

Another man says, “I guess I don’t like my work, but . . . since you have to work anyway, you might as well work hard” (Matthews, 1996, p. 726). Both the woman and the man do not necessarily wish to focus their energies on their children and work, but realize that to be appropriately functioning members of society, there is no other way to live.

As we can see, an individual’s sense of self and gendered identity are closely linked in

Japan, with femininity being tied to marriage and childrearing, and masculinity being tied to marriage and success in the workplace. Many Japanese people feel that their ikigai, their reasons for living, are their families and lines of work, reaffirming the huge weight that Japanese society places upon marriage, family, and work as being representative of both proper members of

Japanese society and properly gendered individuals. That being said, these societal pressures have caused some backlash from the Japanese public in both overt feminist movements and more covert methods of subversion of the status quo.

Feminist Movements

Feminism in Japan is relatively new, and its movements have generally been quite different from comparable feminist movements in the West. Japanese movements have been less concerned with rather vocal calls for equality in work and other aspects of life, but rather with the expression of personal womanhood and selfhood. The Meiji government wanted to modernize and unify Japan, and through its Civil Code of 1868 sought to do this in part by KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 13 controlling women and promoting the ideal of the woman as the Good Wife, Wise Mother

(ryōsai kenbo), whose duty was to keep a clean house and cater to her husband’s whims, bear children, and raise them into proper Japanese citizens. In this relegation of the Japanese woman to a simple reproductive tool and neglecting to see her as an independent body under the patrilineal ie system,1 her sense of self and personal identity becomes lost. For the Japanese woman in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the cultural supermarket from which she could inform her accomplishments of gender and other social criteria was essentially non- existent, which meant she could not develop with any sort of depth her taken-for-granted sense of self, and was instead bogged down by the shikata ga nai aspect of her life as a properly gendered woman.

Traditional womanliness in Japan is predicated on subordination, aligning with the Meiji

Civil Code, and is described as thus by Aoyagi Hiroshi (2005):

“Womanliness in the traditional sense is achieved through enacting a feminine kata (form). It is to stylize oneself in a womanly fashion, which involves a distinct speech style, body posture, and attitude. The feminine speech style involves speaking in onna-kotoba (women’s language), which differs from men’s language in vocabulary, intonation, and the use of “gentle-sounding” particles at the end of an utterance. Bodily postures and carriages include scurrying about in a head-down position, feet shuffling in small skittish steps, and sitting with tightly closed legs. Women are prepared to accommodate themselves to the needs and interests of others, and they are ready to subordinate themselves to their superiors, especially those who are elder men. Starting from birth, girls are treated differently from boys: they are nurtured to be gentle, quiet, meek, accommodating, and self-sacrificing. [Womanliness] consists of physical manipulation, sexual disposition, and

1 A system in which the members of a household adhere to and assume the family name of the head of the house, who is usually male. The household and head of house title is usually passed to the eldest son. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 14

communication limitation as well as attitudinal compliance” (p. 91).

Clearly, there is much subservience encoded in the Japanese performance of femininity. Their relegation to the outskirts of the public intellectual domain and politics in general in favor of keeping them in the house to complete housework and raise children in line with the patriarchy’s ideal of femininity embodied by Good Wife, Wise Mother no doubt contributed to high dissatisfaction with one’s personal identity, which was less personally constructed than publicly prescribed.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Japanese women’s feminist movements did not push for equal rights and opportunities, but stressed the importance of female perspectives and the freedom to express a wider range of femininities and a woman’s sexuality. The first modern feminist movement in Japan was the Bluestocking Society (Seitōsha), named for the British

Bluestocking feminists who preceded them (Matsui, 1990, p. 436). The women of the

Bluestocking Society were generally from the upper middle class, and published their critiques of their highly patriarchal contemporary society in a self-published magazine called Seitō

(Bluestocking). The focus of the magazine was on “the development of individual women’s literary and intellectual talents” (Matsui, 1990, p. 436), so the women engaged in heated debates about a wide variety of topics, the most scandalous of which were those dealing with sexuality such as pre- and extramarital affairs, abortion, and prostitution (Matsui, 1990, p. 436), which the media reported on to deplore the destruction of Japanese morality.

Although the Bluestocking movement was short-lived and restricted to young women of a certain class, it is generally acknowledged as the birth of modern feminism in Japan, and indeed other feminist movements that followed based their ideologies after those discussed by KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 15 the members of the Bluestocking Society between 1911 and the last publication of its magazine in 1916.

The next major feminist movement did not emerge until the 1970s with the more radical women’s lib (uuman ribu), from “women’s liberation.” This movement grew from the counterculture environment of the 1960s and 70s in Japan, though women were often left out of leadership areas of other radical movements—despite being active contributors—because the men “thought of [them] as housekeepers or sex objects” (Matsui, 1990, p. 437) rather than worthwhile contributors to whichever particular cause. The radical women’s lib minority grew out of already marginalized activists, and women’s lib groups began appearing in major urban centers, though they never formed a cohesive national body (Matsui, 1990, p. 438). Women’s lib feminists opened lib centers, such as major feminist Tanaka Mitsu’s group’s center in Shinjuku,

Tokyo, which “functioned as a core of the movement, disseminating information on contraceptive technology, providing shelter for rape victims and battered women, and offering counseling services for women seeking abortion or divorce” (Matsui, 1990, p. 438).

Although women’s lib groups organized campaigns against discriminatory laws and practices during its heyday in the early to late 1970s, it is most notable for its promotion of female thought, female selfhood, and female sexuality. At a time at which women were seemingly valued only for reproductive abilities, women’s lib, however radical, offered a safe space for women to explore their sexualities and genders in ways they had not been allowed in their strict patriarchal society. Thus, the movement was not necessarily about equality or freeing the oppressed, per se, but “a movement for women’s self-expression, self-affirmation, self- realization, self-determination, and self-emancipation” (Matsui, 1990, p. 435). Even without being too vocal or organized into a national unit, however, simply calling for the “assertion of KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 16 women’s perspective(s) almost always consists in questioning the status quo” (Khor, 1999, p.

646) of obligatory patriarchy and heterosexuality. Indeed, as women were given more resources about female sexuality, this allowed Japanese feminists for the first time to “[raise] the question of women’s sexuality as a core of their oppression” (Matsui, 1990, p. 438), i.e., the sexuality based on the Meiji Civil Code idea of the Good Wife, Wise Mother who is a vehicle for childbirth and childrearing. Realizing this meant that a woman’s “right to control [her] own

[body] was now a prerequisite for [her] self-determination” (Matsui, 1990, p. 438), giving her new freedoms to express herself sexually, personally, and, subsequently, new freedoms to play with her gendered expression.

Feminism and women’s lib slowed down considerably in the late 1970s, and there has not been a major, widespread, and unified movement of its kind since. This does not mean, however, that women are not undermining the status quo in other ways without necessarily identifying themselves outwardly as feminists, or aligning with a particular movement. Indeed, after the

1970s when the feminist movement was centered on middle class university- and middle-aged women, a shift began toward youth culture as the focal point for change and subversion of the patriarchal status quo. The 1990s saw the rise of the gyaru (meaning “gal” or “girl”) and related subcultures, who caused a media frenzy surrounding their decidedly unfeminine behaviors and rejection of the young woman’s forced molding into the Good Wife, Wise Mother ideal that continued to exist even up to that point in some capacity, and continues to linger to some extent even in the present day.

In Laura Miller’s 2006 book about contemporary Japanese beauty aesthetics, she looks at how women use the beauty industry to redefine Japanese femininity and subvert the status quo, and she also considers gyaru subculture and how that has contributed to this restructuring and KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 17 rejection of patriarchal values. I agree with much of her analysis of the beauty industry and its effects on the contemporary Japanese construct of femininity and the resultant effects on masculinity, so I will frame my discussion of the gyaru subculture around her arguments. That being said, I would like to state that I consider the rise of the gyaru youth subculture in Japan a covert feminist movement. Though most if not all of the women who engaged in gyaru and related subcultures in the 1990s would probably not self-identify as feminists, their behaviors and styles challenged outright the patriarchal institutions in place and changed many aspects of how the Japanese have traditionally done gender, promoted in large part, ironically, by the media that reported widely on them.

Also, before discussing the gyaru subculture any further, it is necessary to construct a definition for syncretization, as Miller calls it. Other scholars have called it duality, hybridity, or creolization, but I will go with Miller’s word, syncretization, which she defines as “a process of cultural interpenetration, an intermingling of two or more discrete traditions or cultures to form a unique outcome” (2006, p. 5). I would take this definition a step further to apply it to gender performance, which is to say that the mixing of various styles, traditions, and cultures can not only reconstruct current models of femininity and masculinity, but that the blending of different ideas of femininity and masculinity is also a type of syncretization in that it creates a whole new type of gendered expression that is neither uniquely feminine nor uniquely masculine.

With that in mind, Miller argues that the beauty industry is a worthwhile area of study not only for its value as a site of the interaction of many different cultural practices, behaviors, styles, and traditions; and not only for its huge value as an economic industry; but also for “its position at the center of many contemporary concerns, particularly ideas about gendered identity and its relationships to new forms of consumer capitalism” because “[a]spects of the beauty industry KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 18 point to recent changes in social attitudes and thinking” (Miller, 2006, p. 3). Certainly, the gyaru phenomenon epitomizes this notion as it significantly affected Japanese ideas about gendered identities, and indicated to Japan new kinds of consumerism and the great power that comes with it.

Gyaru, however, were not the first women to use fashion and beauty to go against normative gender representations. The 1920s in Japan saw the emergence of the moga (from modan gaaru, meaning “modern girl”), young women who “began to wear short skirts, cut

[their] hair and seek social and sexual freedom” (Stickland, 2008, p. 11), not unlike the Flappers of the 1920s in the United States. They were “a challenge to Japanese society because [they] sought autonomy and economic self-sufficiency, thus signifying a transition in state policy toward women’s positions within the family system” (Miller, 2004, p. 226), which reflects nearly exactly how gyaru have also challenged traditional views of what constitutes an appropriately gendered woman. Indeed, as Miller says: “Each time they appear, these new types incrementally destabilize and modify normative gender ideologies” (2006, p. 226). Just like the moga decades before them, gyaru too have managed to effect change in various ways during the 1990s.

As mentioned previously, the traditional view of womanliness has pervaded the Japanese societal consciousness ever since the institution of the Meiji Civil Code of 1868, which declared that women were to be good wives and wise mothers, and whose main function was to provide the state with new members of the population. Although the notion that women function as vessels for a new populace for the Japanese nation died out, the idea of women as the Good Wife,

Wise Mother ideal persisted in that it embodied femininity. Despite feminist movements, both intellectual and organized and informal and based on styles and behavior, this idea continued to persist, and remains a part of Japanese conceptions of femininity in some forms even into the KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 19 present day. Even during the 1970s when women’s lib was at its peak, the “media was flooded with images of childish-looking women who visually coded the desired traits of docility, naïveté, and powerlessness” (Miller, 2006, p. 75), which only reinforced the stereotypical views of women as submissive and sexually passive despite feminists’ work to prove otherwise.

The gyaru and related youth sub-cultures grew out of dissatisfaction with the status quo, rejecting the patriarchal view that women should be relegated to the outskirts of social interaction as only wives and mothers. They borrowed from and reworked aspects of styles and behaviors from other cultures to create uniquely new trends and fashions, which gave young women more than simply the cute aesthetic from which to choose, allowing more freedom to express femininity and simultaneously rejecting the childish, cutesy, sexually passive image that men seemed to so greatly desire. Indeed, for much of the postwar period the female aesthetic in magazines presented Japanese women generally as nonthreatening housewives or innocent young women, and images of sexiness (and therefore personal power) were “deflected onto foreign models and actresses” (Miller, 2006, p. 24). Popular singers of the time, such as Matsuda

Seiko, embodied the desired qualities of innocence and cuteness, and by consequence, sexual passivity.

The gyaru style first appeared in the early 1990s when some high school girls began to bleach their hair, wear very distinct makeup, shorten their uniform skirts, and wear their knee- length socks loosely around their ankles (Miller, 2004, p. 228). This style eventually evolved into the ganguro style. Ganguro literally means “black face” but does not have the same meaning as blackface in the United States, nor is it merely a reproduction of Black culture in the United

States. Girls who emulate the ganguro style are generally even tanner than regular gyaru, and KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 20 they are characterized by thick white eye and lip makeup that earned them the derogatory name yamanba, which in Japanese means “mountain witch.”

Other styles that challenged the gender norms of the time also appeared, including the B-

Girl style, which did emulate Black culture, and surfer girls, who “adopt[ed] chintzy accoutrements such as aloha-print fabrics, koa-seed necklaces, and plastic leis” (Miller, 2006, p.

229). Also, there were kogyaru (most likely a clipped form of kōkōsei gyaru, meaning “high school gyaru”) who seem to align most closely with the overarching gyaru aesthetic, as well as young women who copied styles brought to the forefront of fashion by 1990s pop icon Amuro

Namie. Known as amuraa (a combination of Amuro’s last name and the English suffix “-er” to create “Amurers”), young women began trying to achieve her look by dying their hair, wearing her tall platform boots, and attempting to slim down their faces, as well as copying her sassy attitude (Miller, 2006, p. 28). The copying of Amuro’s sexy and strong style and performances gave women a “sense of power” (Miller, 2006, p. 28), and when Aoyagi Hiroshi asked trainees from Amuro’s talent agency—at the height of her popularity—how they felt about emulating her sexual performances, they “generally considered it fun, liberating, and empowering” (2005, p.

119).

Gyaru, though relatively few in number, helped to completely restructure femininity in

Japan through their shocking ways of dress, behavior, and speech. This redefinition has allowed for women to express femininity and personal self-hood in new ways, and opened the door for an incredibly wide range of beauty practices to emerge, which women can use to manipulate themselves and their femininity. The beauty industry is not simply manipulating its consumers, and fashion is not pursued simply for the sake of fashion. As Laura Miller states:

“These new technologies of beauty provide a space for jettisoning expected behavior and gendered norms. The KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 21

images I see involved representations of women not as social beings, such as mothers, wives, and daughters, but as people with intentionally formed and decorated surfaces. These surfaces express forbidden content: an impertinent panache, independence, adult sexuality, and self-confidence. The social, political, and economic changes in post-bubble Japan have allowed many young women to challenge or play with mainstream models of desirable femininity” (2006, p. 38).

In other words, being able to reconstruct themselves and rework standard ideals of femininity as epitomized by the Good Wife, Wise Mother means that Japanese women are doing gender in new ways. Being able to both accomplish their desired genders while changing the contemporary femininity construct affords them great power and control over their bodies and genders, which has not always been the case for them.

This change in beauty ideology and performance of femininity by Japanese women has also affected men and masculinity. Gyaru and other women who reject the status quo also reject the sexist desires and needs of Japanese men, namely the salaryman (sarariiman) aesthetic.

Salarymen are working men in Japanese society, and they embody Japanese masculinity in the sense that their ikigai is tied completely to their work, which was attractive in the postwar period of rapid rebuilding. Women’s rejection of the salaryman, who is devoted only to his work and is not necessarily attractive, for younger, fresher, more androgynous icons such as Kimura Takuya has also changed how masculinity is constructed in Japan. Young men, for whom marriage marks entrance into adulthood and is the culmination of masculinity, cannot find wives as easily, and so they must modify themselves to attract wives who will not be as readily swayed into marriage as they have been previously. This has led to a steady rise in male beauty work— informed by both a youth rejection of oyaji (old/middle-aged man) aesthetics and female desire

(Miller, 2006, p. 127). However, though Japanese men are taking female desire into account KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 22 when doing their masculinities in new ways by including beauty work, this change has done little for gender equality in Japan. Although new beauty practices for women and men push the grains of patriarchy, men still expect subservience from women. As Miller puts it: “A young man may get a heterosexual date and show how unique he is with his dyed hair and plucked eyebrows, but he will still expect the women in his life to fulfill traditional and subservient gender roles” (2006, p. 157).

As we can see, there has been a variety of feminist movements, both explicit and implicit, since the early twentieth century. From Bluestocking to women’s lib to gyaru, women in Japan have done a variety of interesting things with fashion, behavior, and style to continuously recreate traditional ideals of Japanese femininity. These movements have also affected the ways in which men do their genders, which demonstrates the power that women and youth cultures have despite a lack of tangible progress toward gender equality in the social sphere. Nevertheless these movements have had a large impact in shaping the cultural framework for major changes in how popular culture is consumed and produced by mainly women, which in turn affects the ideologies and doing of gender by the populace as a whole.

Creating Pop Culture Icons

In this study, I consider specifically how a gendered ideal is created in the all-female theatre troupe, the Takarazuka Revue (Takarazuka Kagekidan), and in the male idol talent agency, Johnny & Associates (Jyaniizu Jimusho, hereafter Johnny’s). I also briefly examine the construction of gender and an ideal in other aspects of popular culture in Japan, such as with the recent AKB48 phenomenon, the artists coming to Japan through the Korean Wave, and the traditional Japanese theater. Many of the general insights I offer come from my tenure as a KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 23 longtime fan and consumer of j- and k-pop, and from my interactions with the fan communities of these entertainment bodies.

Before beginning, I would like to mention that I consider all of the following entertainment talents idols. Although only Johnny’s idols, AKB48, and k-pop idols are considered idols in both name and popular function, to me Takarazuka and kabuki actors are also idols based on how they market themselves and how the public consumes them. Takarazuka especially continues to be consumed by fans who are similar in both type and practice to fans of male Japanese and Korean idols, and in practice to fans of female idols. Kabuki, because of its age and status as a traditional art form, is not so similar nowadays, but in its heyday during the

Tokugawa period, it was an art form for the lower classes and certainly an early form of mass culture, much like the idols of today. Kabuki was consumed in ways not unlike idols are currently during its formative years, so I would describe kabuki actors as being idols even though they and their fans would probably resent being referred to as such. Takarazuka actors, too, more fully resemble contemporary idols and fan practices, but it would not surprise me if fans— especially international fans—were upset by the suggestion that their favorite actors are similar to Johnny’s talents or the women from AKB48.

Given this assumption, in this section I outline the histories and other relevant information of the aforementioned aspects of Japanese popular culture, though I will discuss the creation of a gendered ideal in Takarazuka and Johnny’s, as well as how fan activities contribute to those models, in the following section. I also discuss briefly how an ideal is created in the

Japanese traditional theater with a specific focus on kabuki, the 48 family, and in the Korean pop acts coming to Japan, as well as a short sketch of their histories. Although these three entertainment bodies are not the focus of the discussion of this study, it is important to KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 24 nevertheless understand their roles in Japanese popular culture and how they add to the Japanese model of creating an ideal.

AKB48

Although other influential female idol groups have emerged before them, such as

Onyanko Club in the 1980s and Morning Musume (Mooningu Musume.) in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I have chosen to focus on AKB48 and its sister groups as representative of Japanese female idol groups and the market they target. Although I am familiar generally with the 48 family, I asked a personal friend and longtime AKB48 fan, Claudia Ladogana, for her insights.

Other general insights and analyses are my own.

The 48 franchise is the brainchild of Akimoto Yasushi, an influential lyricist and television and music producer. He has written lyrics for various popular singers, almost all of the lyrics for AKB48’s songs, and, most notably, the lyrics for “Kawa no nagare no yō ni,” which was the last single cultural icon Misora Hibari sang in her lifetime. He decided to create an idol group with a concept different from regular idols: Idols one can meet (ai ni ikeru aidoru) through daily shows at the group’s own theatre, something unusual considering most idols can be only seen at infrequent concerts, on television, and in magazines. Even now that AKB48 has become one of the best-selling musical acts in the world, grossing more than $200 million in sales in

2011 (AFP-JIJI, 2012), they still hold daily theatre shows—though the tickets are now much harder to obtain.

As a marketing strategy for idols, this is certainly a highly successful and effective method. Akimoto also systematized handshake events (akushukai), which, as events, are nothing new, but Akimoto included tickets for a handshake event with every single released rather than sporadically, as has been the case with most idol groups who have done handshake events. With KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 25 an average of about four singles per year, there are four additional opportunities to meet one’s favorite idol in person aside from the daily theatre shows.

The theatre shows feature a fixed setlist of songs for each team for a few months, though at first all the teams except Team A have started with an osagari kōen (“leftovers performance,” meaning a performance comprised of songs that are not original songs by the team performing), and some sister group teams have yet to have an original show (Ladogana, 2013). Theatre shows tend to follow this basic pattern: four team songs; an MC with a jikoshōkai (self-introduction) by each member where she introduces herself with a personal catchphrase and speaks briefly about the theme of the day, which is set by the team captain; five unit songs, which are performed by anywhere from one to five members, allowing better focus on each member than in a group song; another MC segment; and four team songs with the last always being a “thank you” type of slower song, though if there is an encore, three additional team songs are performed (Ladogana,

2013). Though the theatre shows are not the main focus of the unit now that AKB48 has such an overwhelming presence in the mainstream media, the shows are still considered an important aspect of member activities that the members themselves cherish as a place to learn how to become better performers (Ladogana, 2013).

The name “AKB48” comes from Akihabara, the area in Tokyo in which the group is based (the theatre is there), which is also known for being a major shopping area for electronic and otaku goods. The word “otaku” abroad generally refers to someone who likes anime and manga, but in Japan it refers to anyone with any kind of obsessive interest in something—from trains to anime to idols, though idol otaku often refer to themselves as wota (pronounced “ota”).

No doubt a result of the area’s reputation as being a hub for anime otaku and wota, Akimoto headquartered his new group there and fashioned their name from the first letter of each mora in KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 26 its shortened form: Akiba, which the area is popularly called. The “48” in the group’s name does not refer to the number of members, as is popularly believed, but actually came from an executive involved with the group’s production, Shiba Kōtarō, whose family name is similar to the Japanese words for “four” and “eight” (Ladogana, 2013). With that in mind, the theatre shows and the group’s concept were designed for sixteen members for three teams of sixteen

(Ladogana, 2013), and if a member graduated or a position was left open, then a fitting kenkyūsei

(trainee) would take her place. However, the teams are almost never comprised of exactly sixteen members, and there are currently at least twenty members in each team in AKB48.

The three teams—Team A, Team K, and Team B—were fleshed out with each succeeding generation of members, who must pass an audition to make it into the group. The first generation (ikkisei, also called orimen by fans, from orijinaru menbaa, meaning “original members”) were the original members of AKB48 and made up Team A, with twenty members.

The second and third generations (nikisei, sankisei) eventually became Teams K and B. Hopefuls who joined the 48 franchise after the creations of Teams K and B, including women who join now, are kenkyūsei. There was also a short-lived fourth team, Team 4, that was created to promote kenkyūsei to full members (seiki menbaa) because there were so many qualified kenkyūsei but no one in AKB48 was graduating (Ladogana, 2013), though that team has since disbanded.

Though each team does not have a particular concept or skill, such as Team A being the singers or Team B being the dancers, they have instead developed images created by the personalities of the members—Team A as the group’s core, the pioneers; Team K as the energetic team with strong bonds between members; and Team B as the cute little sister team

(Ladogana, 2013). However, in 2009 came the first shuffling of the teams (sokaku), of which KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 27 fans and members alike had no prior knowledge. In Claudia’s words, the shuffling “had an unprecedented impact on AKB48 and their audience, even more than elections” and that “[a]ll the bonds within the members, the well-established hierarchy within the team, the whole balance seemed to crumble and disappear” (2013). With this shuffling came the introduction of team captains, who “are the spokespeople for the group, lead practice, guide the other members, [and] have a say in the decision of concert setlists” (Ladogana, 2013), which makes the captains similar to the leaders of other idol groups but with actual responsibility for the other members and their parent company. Although the new teams were able to work through the changes, in

2012 the teams were shuffled again (and Team 4 was disbanded) and some members were even sent to sister groups abroad.

Akimoto has expanded his franchise nationwide, starting with AKB48’s first sister group,

SKE48 (named for and based in Sakae, Nagoya) in 2008, followed by NMB48 (named for and based in Nanba (sometimes stylized as “Namba”) in Osaka) in 2011, and HKT (named for and based in Hakata, Fukuoka) in 2012. Another group, SDN48 (“Saturday Night 48”) was created in

2009 with an adult idol concept, but the group disbanded in 2012. Two groups have been started abroad: JKT48 in 2011, based in Jakarta, Indonesia, and SNH48 in 2012, based in Shanghai,

China. Though JKT48 and SNH48 are part of the 48 family and have members from AKB48 in them, local companies bought the rights to use the 48 franchise concept from AKS, AKB48’s talent agency, to found their groups (Ladogana, 2013), which demonstrates AKB48’s mega- success as both a concept and an entertainment body throughout Asia.

AKB48 singles are usually classic idol songs that are bright and cheerful, and they have followed the same general pattern since 2009: a sakura song, a summer song that includes ballots for elections, the election lineup single, a cool song, and since 2010 the janken single has KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 28 followed the cool song (Ladogana, 2013). General elections (sōsenkyo) were implemented in

2009. Included with the first press versions of the single were ballots that fans could send in to vote for their favorite members to decide which members would make senbatsu2 and sing the A- and B-sides of the next single. In 2010 janken (rock-paper-scissors) tournaments were introduced, in which members of AKB48 and their sister groups play janken against each other to determine senbatsu, with the members of the sister groups (again, excluding SDN48 when it existed as well as the groups based abroad) holding their own janken tournaments and sending the winner to

AKB48’s tournament. For the other singles, AKB48’s management decides senbatsu, but members are pulled from AKB48 and its sister groups. With the introduction of these sister groups, AKB48 as an idol group became more like a container for the original AKB48 members as well as the members of its sister groups, excluding the groups based abroad and SDN48 when it still existed.

Female idols in general are presented as cute, innocent, and sexually passive, designed to appeal in both sound and image to a primarily male niche market that can consume their products and view them as surrogate girlfriends who are much less threatening than women they might encounter in their actual lives. That is, female idols are often consumed as both “objects to be viewed and as objects to be desired,” and are assumed by fans to be “less resistant (therefore more accommodating) to [their] libidinous demands” (Aoyagi, 2005, p. 77). AKB48 and its sister groups are no exception, though there are members who do not have typical idol personalities. Indeed, with such a large number of members in the 48 franchise, a fan would be hard-pressed to find an idol that is not appealing to her or him. Fans of members of the 48 family

2 Meaning “selection” but referring to the lineup of who sings the song, generally with regard to who sings the A-side. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 29 and other idol groups invest large amounts of time and money into their idols of choice, but

Akimoto has revolutionized the game with his marketing strategies.

Systematizing handshake events and having daily theatre shows no doubt contributes to

AKB48’s success and fan devotion, but the real draw is through what Claudia calls the

“dadamore system” (Ladogana, 2013). Dadamore is Japanese for “letting it all leak out,” and refers in this case to the fact that AKB48’s management makes the group’s content accessible— theater shows are up for legal download, events are streamed online or viewable in cinemas for those who are unable to attend, and all concerts and television programs are released on DVD

(Ladogana, 2013). Furthermore, management makes sure to include off-shot footage, and does not have tight control over the members’ use of social media platforms such as Twitter and

Ameba blogs, and they have released documentaries every year since 2011 (Ladogana, 2013).

The members’ “desperation, tears, frustration, smiles, effort, hard work, exhaustion” (Ladogana,

2013)—all of it is available for the fan to consume. Seeing all of the behind-the-scenes work, happiness, and frustrations of a fan’s oshimen (short for ichioshi menbaa, meaning “the member you recommend” and referring to the fan’s personal favorite) makes the fan’s bond to her or his oshimen that much stronger. As Claudia says, “You see your oshimen cry and think…‘next year

I’m going to make her cry for joy!’” (2013).

Akimoto’s ingenious model has created not only the usual group of perfect idols who appeal to male wota, but designed and marketed them in such a way that they are comprised of varied personalities who are accessible and much more real than the average idol. Akimoto has therefore created idols who have become much more than simply “surrogate girlfriends,” but sculpted real women for fans to latch onto and support. Through this expert marketing Akimoto KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 30 has allowed AKB48 to evolve from a group of twenty girls into a group of incredibly popular and widely recognized kokumin aidoru (national idols).

K-pop

Similar to “j-pop,” meaning “Japanese pop” and referring to Japanese pop music, there is also “k-pop,” meaning “Korean pop,” which refers to pop music based in South Korea. Ever since the early 2000s, k-pop has been steadily gaining popularity and influence throughout Asia, and even more recently, it has been making waves internationally in a global market dominated by Western acts. The spread of Korean popular culture throughout Asia and now the rest of the world is called hallyu. Meaning “Korean Wave,” it is a term coined by a Chinese newspaper in

1998 to describe the increasing consumption of Korean dramas and music in Asia.

Although pop music existed in Korea before the spread of Kimura Takuya, his dramas, and other facets of Japanese popular culture throughout Asia, it was after meeting and reacting to this new Japanese pop culture model that k-pop as we understand it today was created. The first ripple of change in mainstream Korean music came from the dance group Seo Taiji & Boys, whose breakout single “Nan Arayo” (“I Know”) in 1992 was a dance number that Korea had never heard before in its mainstream music, and was so wildly popular that its record high of seventeen weekly number ones on the music charts was not beaten until fifteen years later. Until the group’s disbandment in 1996, they continued to release non-traditional, controversial music that set the stage for the production of a new style of Korean popular music.

Although Seo Taiji & Boys set the domestic framework for change in mainstream Korean entertainment, the company generally credited with the creation of the current Korean idol model, as well as the spread of hallyu throughout Asia and the world, is SM Entertainment (SME). The company was founded in 1989 by Lee Sooman, who was influenced by an entertainment KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 31 upheaval while studying in the United States, and undoubtedly similarly influenced by the popularity of the Japanese acts of the time as well. SME became the pioneer of idol culture and a dominating force on the Korean mainstream scene with the debut of H.O.T in 1996, the group generally considered the original Korean idol group and the face of the first wave or first generation of Korean idol groups, alongside other male acts such as Shinhwa, g.o.d, Turbo, and

Sechs Kies, and iconic female groups of the era such as Fin.K.L, S.E.S, and Baby Vox. Though these groups and many more were incredibly popular, most of them lasted only about five years before disbanding, and the members of these groups went on to have solo careers as singers, actors, or general entertainers.

Though incredibly influential domestically, and though some members have achieved commercial success since their groups’ disbandments outside of Korea, none of the aforementioned groups are necessarily hallyu stars. As mentioned previously, Lee Sooman and

SME are generally credited with pioneering hallyu throughout Asia and more recently the rest of the world, and this can be attributed most generally to the company’s success domestically and abroad with solo singer Kwon BoA and male idol group Dong Bang Shin Ki, commonly known by the acronym “DBSK.” BoA helped spread hallyu to Japan in the early 2000s, right around the time that the Korean drama Winter Sonata and its lead actor, Bae Yongjoon, were also wildly popular in Japan. BoA’s successes at the time were so great that she is often considered one of the top Japanese female solo artists of her time, alongside domestic acts like Koda Kumi,

Hamasaki Ayumi, and Utada Hikaru.

BoA debuted in Korea at the end of 2000 at the age of thirteen, and debuted in Japan a year later. It was not until she released her first Japanese album in 2002, however, that she began to reach high levels of success, which culminated in the release of her 2003 album, Valenti, an KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 32

RIAJ-certified million seller. Although she continued to achieve commercial success in Korea,

Japan, and the rest of Asia for the next few years, her sales have begun to decline recently. It has been suggested that her image as “Baby BoA,” a result of her youth at debut and for most of her career as a recording artist, has disappeared as she has aged. Indeed, her musical sound has evolved from powerpop, dance numbers, and ballads to a more mature and sexy image, which, though well-received in Korea and in other parts of Asia, is not well received by the legions of, generally male, female idol wota. Female idol groups tend to have a majority of male fans, and only once they have been recognized popularly do they gain female fans and the appreciation of the general public.

Solo artists like BoA, on the other hand, can achieve mainstream recognition from vocal talent alone, such as Utada Hikaru and Ayaka, but they tend to have large numbers female fans.

Although they also have large numbers of male fans, the mega-popular mainstream solo artists like Hamasaki Ayumi and Koda Kumi are admired by young women for their trendiness, edginess, and power. BoA, however, was at her prime in Japan when her selling point was still her youth and innocence, a trait that would be more appealing to the male wota who would normally be fans of non-threatening idol groups. Once she started to mature as an artist and provide a more grown up image, her popularity in Japan began to decrease as well. Aside from the loss of her “Baby BoA” image, it is possible that the rise of other domestic artists at the same time and the decline of the first hallyu wave in Japan have contributed to her recent slide in popularity. Nevertheless, she is a powerful Korean cultural icon who paved the way for other hallyu artists to break into the Japanese market.

No doubt encouraged by Japan’s positive reaction to BoA, SME sent its hugely popular male idol group, DBSK, to Japan as well. For the first two years of their expansion in the KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 33

Japanese market, DBSK was met with mediocre sales and response, but in 2008 they had their first number one single on the Oricon Daily Chart—the first foreign male group to achieve this feat—and every single they have released in Japan since April of 2008 has sold at least 100,000 copies and almost always debuted first on the Oricon Daily Chart. They sold so well in Japan that year and proved to be influential enough that they were invited to the annual year-end music show, Kōhaku Utagassen. This prestigious show is invitation-only, so only the most successful artists are invited, and being invited to the show is considered a great honor in performers’ careers. Furthermore, DBSK was the first Korean group to be invited on the show.

Although the emphasis on performance and the evolution of the k-pop sound toward a more mainstream Western trend (though still distinctly k-pop) has garnered increased attention and popularity not only in Korea and the rest of Asia but globally as well, the opposite is true of

Japan; aside from the popularity of BoA and Bae Yongjoon in the early 2000s, DBSK around

2008 and into the present, and a brief resurgence of hallyu in 2011 with the rise of KARA and

Girls Generation (Sonyeo Shidae in Korean and Shōjo Jidai in Japan), hallyu has been on a decline in Japan. Indeed, DBSK and BoA are not necessarily considered foreign, and are more or less accepted by the Japanese general public as being Japanified—that is, not k-pop acts riding hallyu into Japan, but rather as foreign j-pop artists. Though both acts and others have had success in Japan and helped to either bring or strengthen hallyu’s influence to Japan, most

Korean entertainers who have come to Japan since have not come close to having the fanbases that BoA and DBSK have and have had.

The reasons for this are partially due to the fact that Japan and Korea have a rather tenuous relationship dating back centuries and amplified more recently by Japan’s colonization of Korea in the early twentieth century, and the actions of the Japanese army during its KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 34 imperialistic efforts around the time of the Second World War, most notably its use of comfort women and, from the perspective of Korea and other Asian countries, the Japanese government’s consistent denial and improper treatment of the subject entirely. Although only a small portion of anti-k-pop individuals in Japan are against hallyu for ethnocentric, anti-Korea sentiments, their opinions have had a widespread negative effect on hallyu in Japan. Reacting to the sudden popularity of KARA and Girls Generation in 2011, as well as the past few years of an influx of

Korean groups hoping to make it big in Japan like predecessors BoA and DBSK, there were a handful of anti-k-pop and anti-Korea protests that culminated eventually in NHK’s k-pop ban on the 2012 Kōhaku Utagassen.

Despite the rise of hallyu popularity, influence, and exposure across Asia and, more recently, the world, hallyu’s record in Japan has been spotty at best, and this cannot be entirely attributed to anti-Korea sentiment. I would argue that hallyu’s lack of widespread success in

Japan is due mostly to poor marketing, in several senses of the concept. As of 2010, Japan has surpassed the United States to have the largest music industry in the world (RIAJ Yearbook,

2012, p. 24), so breaking into the mainstream from its various niche markets takes great dedication and effort. Both BoA and DBSK have spent considerable time away from their domestic market in Korea to focus on their expansions into Japan by releasing original songs in

Japanese, touring, and improving their language skills. Unlike Japan, where fans will actually buy an artist’s CDs in great numbers, Korea has a rampant piracy problem and notoriously low physical sales of its music; as a result of the financial successes of BoA and DBSK, ever since

2009 idol groups have gone to Japan in hopes of creating the next big hit, but do not spend much time in the country or effort on their music, releasing remakes of hit Korean singles that may not KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 35 even be entirely in Japanese. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of these groups are met with mediocre sales and a lackluster response to their efforts.

Aside from poor business decisions, the hallyu idols themselves are not necessarily appealing to a mainstream Japanese audience—or the target audience of existing idol fans in

Japan. Prior to 2009 there were not many idol groups debuting in Korea, and most idol groups from companies that were not one of the Big 3 (SME, JYP Entertainment, and YG Entertainment) were not instantly popular and had to work twice as hard to gain recognition from the general public. Further, most male idols of this era and previously were kkot minam,3 commonly known internationally as “flower boys” because they are beautiful and effeminate. Though this type of character originated in Japan and is still the preferred type of male idol, the idol market in Korea has become much more fickle and fast-paced, which has caused different types of styles of idols to emerge. Idol group 2PM, under JYPE, pioneered the “beastly idol” (jimseung aidol) type, which is known not only for its members “chocolate abs” (six-packs) and powerful, manly performances, but also the so-called “destruction of the [members’] images” (imijireul ppagwihaneun). Prior to 2PM, idol groups generally had very carefully crafted images of innocence and perfection, creating, quite literally, an idol for fans to consume and enjoy.

However, perhaps in an attempt to do something different, the members of 2PM did everything that they were not supposed to do as idols and “threw away their image” (imijireul beoseodeonjineun) of being perfect idols, which propelled them into becoming one of Korea’s top idol groups.

Nowadays, most male groups debuting in Korea exhibit a mix of the kkot minam and beastly idol images, with some groups perhaps looking like kkot minam but acting wild on

3 Meaning “beautiful boys,” quite similar to the Japanese binan or bishōnen, meaning “beautiful/pretty boys”). KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 36 variety programs, or giving powerful performances and having perfectly chiseled bodies, but still retaining a very carefully sculpted character on variety programs. In the fast-paced world of k- pop, the demands on idols to be perfect, youthful, powerful, fresh, innocent, wild, and bursting at the seams with talent have led companies, from within the Big 3 and outside it, to churn out female and male idol groups at an alarming rate, which has oversaturated the market with idols who have trained for years to embody the aforementioned qualities. This leads to no shortage of talent and ideal types, but most groups today outside the Big 3 do not enjoy mainstream success.

Nevertheless, almost all Korean idols are produced in the formula that recalls DBSK: each member of any group has a specific character or position within the group, while still maintaining a perfect idol image for herself or himself. In Korea, DBSK was one of the first idol groups to promote individual characters as selling points—the leader, the dancer, the magnae

(youngest), the visual,4 the rapper, and the main vocal. Generally, the leader is the oldest member of a group, and she or he tends to take care of the group, take charge in interviews, and generally act as the person around which the group rallies. The visuals and rappers are often enigmatic, cool, and sexy, whereas the magnae is often cute, innocent, and pure. Although the individual position of a member of a group may change as the group gains a stronger fanbase, usually groups begin with clearly defined roles (leader/magnae/vocalist/dancer/rapper), and with these roles come certain expected personality traits and qualities, as mentioned previously. This gives both the idol and the fans a character—an ideal—onto which they can latch, mold, and support.

Although this is both the norm and a survival tactic for idol groups in the cutthroat

Korean market, the Japanese idol market is monopolized by only a few major groups and companies, most notably by Johnny’s for male idols, so there is not as great of a need for

4 Refers to a member that may not be good at singing or dancing, but is the most attractive member, and is usually the center. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 37 constant change, which means that binan is still the norm. There is not much of a place for beastly idols in Japan, so most of the hallyu groups who look like beastly idols or sound too strong do not go over well in Japan. Furthermore, because Japan already has popular idol groups from Johnny’s who are binan and may have “bad boy” (yancha) or kakkoii (cool/handsome) personalities that could be considered the less intense Japanese version of the beastly idol, there is no need for the excess beastly idols of Korea.

While Japanese idol groups often have leader characters who function similarly to their

Korean counterparts, as well as center members who act as the faces of their groups, things like rappers, dancers, and magnae do not exist in the Japanese model. Neither do chiseled bodies, nor the casting off of the perfect image. Japanese idols are constantly making fools of themselves or playing games on variety programs, and the reticent visual members of hallyu groups do not provide quality entertainment—never mind that their language skills may not be developed enough to keep up with comedians or talk show hosts. Many hallyu groups in Japan retain the k- pop model that earned them domestic and international success elsewhere, rather than attempting to conform to the j-pop model that has done so well for DBSK and BoA.

This, of course, is with regard mostly to male idols. Female hallyu artists have made even less of an impact on the Japanese market, and that can be attributed to stylistic components of their marketing abroad. Although powerful and sexy groups like SISTAR and 2NE1 have done well domestically and abroad, for a female group in Japan, this makes them too threatening for the male wota fans, who prefer the cutesy, childlike images of groups like Momoiro Clover Z

(Momoiro Kuroobaa Zetto) and AKB48. KARA and Girls Generation—who is from SME— gained some mainstream recognition with million-certified albums, but their success dwindled quickly. Both groups have members who are mostly pure, innocent, and cute, just like the KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 38 domestic Japanese groups, so their images appeal to male wota. That being said, many of Girls

Generation’s fans were initially female, which I would argue is because they have sexier, freer performances as well as cutesy concepts. Girls Generation’s songs like “Gee” and “Oh!” are both bubblegum pop, whereas songs like “Run Devil Run” are edgier for a female idol group. Just like

Amuro Namie, for example, who inspired girls in the 90s to go against the grain with their fashion and gender expression, Girls Generation’s catchy dance songs and other risky singles can invite the same freedom.

Nevertheless, their edgier songs are different from AKB48’s “cool songs” in that

AKB48’s cool songs, like “UZA,” are cool and edgy, like “Run Devil Run,” but are markedly less sexy and mature concepts. The women in Girls Generation wear skintight clothing, high heels, and perform in a modern studio, whereas the women in AKB48, some of whom are exposing their midriffs like in Girls Generation, are wearing heavier, tattered clothing with zombie-like makeup to fit their concept. In Girls Generation’s “THE BOYS,” another departure from their usual bubblegum pop image, the members are seen again in skintight clothing that expertly reveals their famous long and thin legs or their midriffs, they are again wearing stiletto heels, and parts of the choreography have them dropping to the floor, flinging sand into the air, and giving the camera sultry looks. They undoubtedly appear as confident, cool, and sexy.

AKB48’s “BEGINNER,” in contrast, is another cool song and is therefore also a departure from their own usually bright concepts, but their music video is punctuated with off- shots of the members practicing the choreography and joking around, adding a fun flair to a darker concept. Also, although all the members are wearing short skirts, high-heeled boots, and loose-fitted see-through tops, which are no doubt meant to sexualize the members, the choreography does not have them strutting, dropping to the floor, or any other particularly KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 39 suggestive movements. Although the overall image presented by AKB48 in both “UZA” and

“BEGINNER” is indeed cool, they lack the adult maturity and sexiness in Girls Generation’s comparable music videos, which keeps the AKB48 members nonthreatening to the wota and makes Girls Generation more appealing to female audiences in Japan for their apparent confidence in their sexualities. In any case, both Girls Generation and KARA have failed to impact the market beyond their sales and influence in 2011—KARA because of scandals and choosing to promote in Korea, and Girls Generation because of constant Korean promotions and continuing to retain a more k-pop than j-pop sound.

Although Korean idols began by following the model laid out by Japanese idols of the

1980s and 90s, k-pop artists have evolved into their own sound, market, and idol model, which has grown in popularity and influence around the world. The spread of hallyu has been quick and absolute in most areas of Asia, and has been growing steadily in the West as well, but it has not been met with much success in Japan. Though a few groups have managed to break into the mainstream Japanese market, compared to the popularity of hallyu across Asia and the number of groups who attempt to debut in Japan, the lack of success stories is astounding. These small gains can be owed to poor marketing of their idols by Korean management companies, and an already established idol market in Japan that does not leave much room for foreign artists.

Despite this, k-pop in Japan is an important niche market, and as it follows the foundation laid by

Japanese idols, the construction of ideal women and men in k-pop is as important as it is in

Japanese popular culture. It is essential to understand how the two fit together.

Johnny & Associates

Johnny’s was founded in 1962 by Kitagawa “Johnny” Hiromu and his sister, Mary, allegedly after he and the baseball team of young men he coached saw a production of West Side KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 40

Story and Johnny believed that his team could do it better. He chose four members of the team,

Aoi Teruhiko, Iino Osami, Maie Hiromi, and Nakatani Ryo, to be in his new singing group— named Jyaniizu,5 which was active between 1962 and 1967. The next group to debut, and the first to last longer than only a few years and make some ripples in Japanese popular culture, was

Four Leaves (Foo Riibusu), which was formed in 1967 and debuted in 1968. Before disbanding in 1978, some Four Leaves members began appearing in dramas, and with them started the tradition of the popular juniors’ debuting. Before becoming debuted artists, young boys would join Johnny’s and become members of Johnny’s Juniors, who generally start by backdancing for debuted acts, though nowadays they also perform on shows and hold concerts. The first group of

Johnny’s Juniors was created in 1965, and the most popular juniors who backdanced for Four

Leaves eventually went on to have CD debuts, a tradition that is continued today.

Johnny’s talents began to rise to prominence in the 1970s with Four Leaves’s increasing popularity, the debut of Go Hiromi in 1972, and the debut of Johnny’s Junior Special

(JOHNNY’S Junia Supesharu) in 1975 with the single “Berusaiyu no Bara” (“Rose of

Versailles”). Although JJS is most notable as the first group to debut as a result of their popularity as juniors during the first rise of Johnny’s, it is also interesting to note that their debut single has the same name as the manga Rose of Versailles (Berusaiyu no Bara), first published in

1972, which is commonly regarded as the manga that put the boys love (BL) genre on the map.

This is noteworthy because Johnny’s idols are often popular with the same fans who consume

BL media, and even create their own BL manga—dōjinshi (fan-made magazine)—featuring their favorite idols.

5 This name no doubt stands for “Johnny’s,” referring to the fact that they are his boys or his group. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 41

Johnny’s continued to increase its influence and popularity throughout the 1980s, producing popular talents such as Tanokin Trio, which featured solo artist Kondo Masahiko, who remains as a Johnny’s recording artist to this day, Shōnentai, and Hikaru Genji. Although these groups and thirty years of experience gave Johnny’s its great power and success in Japanese popular culture, it was not until the 1990s with the rise of SMAP that its position was secured.

SMAP, which stands for “Sports Music Assemble People,” was formed as a junior unit with six members in 1988, and had its CD debut in 1991. SMAP’s debut single was the first of its kind in

Johnny’s history to not reach first on the Oricon Daily Charts, an early concert of theirs did not sell out, and the members have commented on how Johnny’s management criticized them for their lack of sales early on in their careers.

Despite rumors of the group’s disbandment floating around in the early 1990s, Nakai

Masahiro, the group’s leader, is notorious for approaching Johnny and requesting that the president give the group the chance to raise its popularity by showcasing the members’ talents and comedy skills on variety television. Johnny agreed, and a television show SMAP had previously participated on was changed up and became the show Ai Rabu SMAP,6 which ran from October, 1991 until March, 1996. Their second main variety show, SMAPXSMAP, began in

April, 1996 and is still ongoing. Since its inception, it has been one of the most successful and popular variety programs on Japanese television with consistently high viewership ratings.

Furthermore, member Kimura Takuya has also greatly spread the influence of SMAP and

Johnny’s through his hugely popular dramas. His acting efforts and the SMAP members’ various television appearances have helped vault them to the top of Japanese cultural influence, and cemented Johnny’s power over the domestic mainstream entertainment. Also, the groups that

6 The show’s name literally means “love love SMAP,” but it is a pun because the word ai is pronounced the same as the English word “I,” so the show’s title sounds like “I love SMAP.” KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 42 have come after SMAP follow the SMAP model of marketing to create an idol group that is not simply a singing and dancing group, but also a group of all-around entertainers—tarento (talent) in Japanese. Although SMAP’s popularity has somewhat subsided and allowed for newer

Johnny’s talents such as Arashi and Kis-My-Ft2,7 they are still incredibly powerful cultural icons in Japan.

The Takarazuka Revue

The Takarazuka Revue was conceived of in 1913 and opened in April, 1914 by the owner of the Hankyu Railway Company, Kobayashi Ichizō. He had opened a spa with an indoor swimming pool in 1911 that had dismal patronage, so following an earlier example set by the

Mitsukoshi Dry Goods Store (now Department Store) that had recruited young boys to perform to attract customers, Kobayashi gathered together a small group of girls, trained them briefly in singing and dancing, and debuted them in April, 1914 to entice customers to the city of

Takarazuka (Robertson, 1998, p. 4). Now that the Revue is ninety-nine years old, it has evolved, experienced both dry spells and times of great success, and outlasted all of its competitors to become the most well-known and respected all-female revue-style theater in Japan.

The Takarazuka Music School (Takarazuka Ongaku Gakkō) was initially founded in

1919, and to the present day any woman who wishes to perform with the Revue must pass the entrance exams (juken) to the school, and then complete its rigorous two-year training program.

During their time at the school they are taught singing, dancing, Japanese dance, drama, and other subjects, as well as how to perfect the specialized gendered performances of the otokoyaku

(male-role players) and musumeyaku (literally “daughter-role players,” but refers to the players

7 “Arashi” means “storm,” and the group debuted with the tagline that they would “create a storm throughout the world” (sekaijū ni arashi wo makiokosu). “Kis-My-Ft2” is pronounced “kiss my foot two,” with the letters and number standing for the initials of the members’ last names. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 43 of female roles8). Though originally the Revue accepted much younger girls, today the Revue accepts applicants between the ages of fifteen and eighteen (that is, middle school graduates through high school graduates). The Revue also attempted to introduce boys to its lineup two different times: once in 1920, and again in late 1945-early 1946. Their addition to the Revue was met with fierce opposition from contemporary performers, their parents, and even many fans who were “revolted” at the thought of men sharing the stage with the girls (Stickland, 2008, p.

29).

First year students at the TMS are called yokasei (preparatory course students), and second year students are called honkasei (regular course students). The school is notorious for its cleaning regimen, which has the first year students scrupulously cleaning the entire school facility under the watchful eyes of their seniors. Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams’s 1994 film,

Dream Girls, depicts the cleaning routines and general subservient behaviors of the first years to their upperclassmen, and Leonie R. Stickland describes the cleaning as such:

“In her first semester, each junior is given hands-on instruction by her seniors in the labour intensive methods used to clean the particular area she is assigned for the entire year, then is left to herself to perfect the prescribed ‘choreography’ of each task […] Floors must be swept and mopped, then gummed tape is used to remove every last particle of dust. Windows are polished inside and out, their invisibility apparently luring many a bird to its death, and grime is swept from window-frames with paintbrushes. Cotton buds clean every surface and cranny of piano keys and the consoles of sound-mixing equipment; and toilets are rendered spotless…The results are inspected by second- years, who may order the cleaning to be done all over again if they are dissatisfied or churlish. Vacuum cleaners and other potentially labour-saving devices are not used, ostensibly because they are not sufficiently ‘character- building’” (2008, p. 104).

8 Alternatively, onnayaku (女役), which literally means “female-role player,” may be used to refer to more seasoned actors or as a term of greater equality for the performers. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 44

The strict hierarchy within Takarazuka is kept even beyond a member’s time at the school, with each member showing great deference and respect to those who entered the company before her, having equal status with those who joined with her (dōki), and having the responsibility to look after, instruct, and discipline those who join after her, regardless of the members’ actual ages.

After performing in the annual bunkasai (culture festival), the graduating class of honkasei then perform in their hatsubutai (first stage performance), doing the line dance

(alternatively called “rocket (roketto) dance”) during the April and May runs of a show put on by one of the troupes at the Takarazuka Grand Theater (Takarazuka Daigekijō) and the Tokyo

Takarazuka Grand Theater (Tōkyō Takarazuka Daigekijō). At this point they have become kenkyūka ichinensei (“first year post-graduates,” often abbreviated to ken-1), as well as full- fledged Takarasiennes (Takarajennu, adapted from “Parisienne”). After the entire graduating class performs together, they are then divided into smaller groups and given minor roles in the upcoming Grand Theater performances of the other troupes, and in the spring of the next year they are assigned to troupes of their own.

The Revue currently has five troupes and a special course: Flower Troupe (Hanagumi),

Moon Troupe (Tsukigumi), Snow Troupe (Yukigumi), Star Troupe (Hoshigumi), Cosmos Troupe

(Soragumi), and the Superior Members (Senka, literally “special course”). The Revue did not start with different troupes, but as it began to grow in popularity, more girls joined the Revue so

Kobayashi divided them into troupes to “enable simultaneous performances at different venues”

(Stickland, 2008, p. 24), starting with the creation of the Flower and Moon Troupes in 1921.

Snow Troupe was formed in 1923, and Star Troupe was finally added in 1933. The Revue had four troupes until its third wave in the 1990s, at which point Cosmos Troupe was established in KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 45

1998 to accommodate even more members of the Revue as Takarasiennes stayed on longer than in the past, and large classes of new recruits continued to graduate each year.

Within each troupe there is a certain hierarchy, including the aforementioned hierarchy between dōki, their upperclassmen (jōkyūsei), and their underclassmen (kakyūsei), but with special exceptions. There is a kumichō and a fukukumichō in each troupe who are the oldest and second-oldest (in terms of hatsubutai date) within the troupe, who predictably sit at the top of the troupe hierarchy. There is also, however, an otokoyaku top star (toppu sutaa), and her partner, the top musumeyaku (toppu musumeyaku), who are together referred to as the “top combi”

(toppu konbi), from “top combination,” or as a “golden combi” (gooruden konbi) if they are particularly popular or have excellent chemistry. The top combi gets the lead roles for every show in which they participate, and the otokoyaku top star tends to be the most popular member of her troupe, as well as the central focus for all shows, revues, and other productions, such as in magazine interviews or television programs. Following the top combi in the hierarchy is the nibante (second-place player), and then the sanbante (third-place player). Nibante and sanbante are always otokoyaku. Traditionally, the nibante is promoted to top stardom, though this is not always the case (she may retire before becoming top star), and it is not always with the same troupe (the star may act as nibante for more than one troupe, or get transferred to a new troupe to become what is popularly called a “parachute top”). Sanbante also may retire or get switched to new troupes before becoming nibante, and they may switch to new troupes and lose their sanbante status. Furthermore, all five troupes will have a top star (occasionally there have been periods of time where a top otokoyaku does not have a top musumeyaku partner), and generally there will always be a top combi, but the presence of a nibante or sanbante is not guaranteed. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 46

Every year, each troupe performs two shows at the Takarazuka and Tokyo Grand

Theaters, and in between Grand Theater performances, they split into smaller groups and perform at smaller theaters, go on national tours, or even perform abroad, with the first performance being in 1938 in Europe, and most recently Taiwan in 2013. The roles for each actor are listed on the Revue’s official website, and in the case of the presence of a nibante and/or sanbante, their names appear in a special table above the other members’ roles and names with the top combi. That is, for Star Troupe’s 2012-2013 performance of Takarazuka

Japonisme~Johakyū~/Meguriai wa Futatabi 2nd~Star Bride~/Étoile de TAKARAZUKA, the roles were listed with top star Yuzuki Reon first, top musumeyaku Yumesaki Nene second, nibante

Kurenai Yuzuru third, sanbante Makaze Suzuho fourth, and the rest of the cast was listed in a separate table, beginning with a supporting member from the Superior Members, then the kumichō, and the rest of the supporting cast was listed in order from the earliest joining date to the most recent. However, for Cosmos Troupe’s 2013 performance of The Count of Monte

Cristo/Amour de 99!!-99nen no Ai-, only top star Ōki Kaname and top musumeyaku Misaki Rion are separated from the rest of the cast, who are listed in another table and ordered based on the year they joined. Nevertheless, fans enjoy speculating about who might become the official nibante and sanbante based on the order in which the stars descend the Grand Staircase

(Ōkaidan)—as the performers descend with the newest members first and oldest members last, with the top musumeyaku and top otokoyaku at the very end, and how much time the stars spend on stage.

Although the Revue’s popularity has dwindled somewhat since its last wave in the 1990s, it is still a highly respected institution that draws thousands of hopeful applicants every year, despite the slim chances of rising to stardom, and does still have the capacity to completely sell KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 47 out shows in Tokyo, as well as on special occasions such as shonichi (the first day of a performance) and senshūraku (the last day of a performance). Due to the Revue’s long history, it is still a well-respected and influential entertainment body in Japanese culture.

Kabuki

Japan has a long tradition of gender play in the theater, and I am choosing to focus on kabuki as representative of sculpting an ideal gender construct in popular culture because of its popularity as an entertainment form, and because of its cultural impact on other aspects of

Japanese popular culture, such as the Takarazuka Revue. Kabuki has its roots in performances by

Izumo no Okuni and her troupe, which consisted primarily of women, in 1603 (Leupp, 1995, p.

90). From about 1612, Okuni’s kabuki, commonly referred to as “women’s kabuki,” was rivaled by wakashū (youths) kabuki, performed primarily by young men and boys who played both female and male roles (Leupp, 1995, p. 90). Eventually women’s kabuki was banned five different times between 1629 and 1646 (Leupp, 1995, p. 90).

With the banning of women from the kabuki stage came the rise of the onnagata (literally

“the shape of the woman,” referring to those young men who perform female roles), who were admired by women and, most notably, other men. Though male homosexuality had a variety of names during the Tokugawa period, the most common was nanshoku. The word is written with the characters for “male” and “color,” with the character for “color” having sexual connotations, further evidenced by words such as iroppoi, meaning “sexy” and “erotic,” and iroke, which means “sensuality.” There is also a comparable joshoku, which refers to the enjoyment of women for sexual pleasure. The tradition of nanshoku began its decline with the collapse of feudalism and contact with the West. Much of the nanshoku tradition is “rooted in…the lord-retainer bond,” depicting the highly structured hierarchy within male-male homosexual relationships that the KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 48

Japanese believed should “occur only between an ‘older brother’ and a ‘younger brother’”

(Leupp, 1995, p. 203). With the collapse of feudalism during the Meiji Restoration, the feudal

“values and institutions were for the most part either weakened or eradicated” (Leupp, 1995, p.

203), which led to the weakening of the values upon which nanshoku is predicated. The Meiji

Restoration also attempted to modernize, and, to a certain extent, westernize Japan as much as possible to prove to the West that Japan was on the same level and deserving of respect. This emulation of the West included its feelings toward same sex relationships, and gradually the idea of nanshoku was replaced with dōseiai (same sex love), or alternatively the loanwords gei (gay), homo, and homosekushuaru (homosexual), and the idea of same sex desires came to be viewed not as a different “way,” but as something unnatural that should be “tactfully conceal[ed]”

(Leupp, 1995, p. 203) from the general public.

In any case, in Tokugawa Japan, when the kabuki theater flourished, is when the

Japanese conceived of sexual desires differently, and when the gendered performances of the onnagata were being perfected, so I will focus my discussion of the kabuki theatre around that era and the specific performative actions of the onnagata. Onnagata were the draw for kabuki enthusiasts, their stylized performances both highly intriguing and sexually invigorating for consumers. The theatre’s “tremendous popularity…was rooted in the sexual fascination produced by its actors, particularly by onnagata” (Leupp, 1995, p. 129), who were “valued for their gender ambiguity” (Leupp, 1995, p. 177).

The onnagata and other individuals of the period who professionally recreated gender for the enjoyment of others, such as prostitutes, put in quite a large amount of effort in order to accomplish their gender goals. Again, because gender is something that we do and not something that we are, individuals who were socialized as one gender while growing up have to work extra KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 49 hard to beat their own habits and the assumptions of others so they can appropriately accomplish the gender for which they are aiming, and so that others in society will assign them to the aligning sex category. As Katherine Mezur states: “Star onnagata created their gender roles through stylization techniques, which they evolved through the articulation of their bodies, voices, and techniques” (2005, p. 2). Furthermore, the “onnagata intends to mold his flesh, muscle, and bone through specific physical acts to approach the ‘ideal’” (Mezur, 2005, p. 246).

Many of the physical attributes of biological maleness, such as deeper voices, must be adapted and trained so that the onnagata can accomplish his intended gender.

Onnagata, male prostitutes trained to emulate women, and female prostitutes trained to emulate men were all popular in Tokugawa Japan for their androgyny. For nanshokuzuki (those who love men), the fact that the onnagata so skillfully replicate women and yet are still known to be biologically male meant that he was similar to a woman, in that he could bring out the best qualities of women, but also still retain his maleness by portraying the woman in ways that normal women could not behave, and of course by the presence of his male genitalia. That is, the onnagata “expressed things women might not commonly feel but that men (and women) in the kabuki audience might want to hear. The result was a titillating blend of female sentiment and male assertiveness” (Leupp, 1995, p. 177). The combination was appealing to joshoku because the women the onnagata were representing had qualities normal women did not (the assertiveness), and to nanshoku because the onnagata were still biological males who portrayed a softer, more ambiguous sensuality (the female sentiment).

This duality of gender quite aptly depicts the fluidity of gender expression across the continuum with feminine and the embodiment of Woman on one end, and masculinity and the embodiment of Man on the other. In portraying Woman on the stage, onnagata look to create an KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 50 ideal image of Woman that biological women who identify as female can only hope to aspire to be, especially because women could not behave or express many of the things that onnagata could. Although the image the onnagata construct is known to be Woman, the fact that they incorporate behaviors typically associated with Man into their depictions is a key point because in creating Woman, she is not exclusively feminine; she is both feminine and masculine, which seems to be regarded paradoxically as the ideal image of Woman. Indeed, onnagata typify the same safe, androgynous, idealized “middle” between femininity and masculinity that Takarazuka otokoyaku and Johnny’s idols also embody. As Mezur states, “[o]n the kabuki stage, I do not see

“women” at all. I see onnagata” (2005, p. 240). Although onnagata and Johnny’s idols are known to be biologically male, and even in the case of the male idols, their gendered expressions are interpreted as being, for the most part, masculine, and the otokoyaku in Takarazuka are known to be female with off-stage gendered expressions that are still understood as feminine, I would argue that all three groups of individuals are actually displaying a particular kind of gender that is neither “mostly feminine” nor “mostly masculine,” which would be the popular belief by their fans, but as individuals who have woven a new type of gendered expression in between the extremes of femininity and masculinity.

Mezur also states that she “could no longer read the onnagata as a fiction of Woman, but, rather, as a fiction of female-likeness with its own variable and transformative gender acts based on an adolescent boy body” (2005, p. 250). I do not necessarily agree with this assertion.

Although it is true that the wakashū aesthetic was rampantly popular in Tokugawa Japan in large part for the sexual ambiguity and alluring youth of the young boys, I do not believe that Woman can be disengaged from “female-likeness.” Though onnagata and other ambiguously gendered performers and individuals do not neatly fit into the binary categories of feminine and masculine, KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 51 this does not negate the fact that they exhibit both feminine and masculine traits, and are consumed as images of idealized femininity. Their “female-likeness” cannot be removed from the fact that they are representing Woman, who is the embodiment of femininity. For example, if two individuals whose sex, sex category, and gender all align as female, and others interpret their doing of gender as being female, but one woman is close to the extreme end of femininity and therefore perhaps closer to Woman than the other, the woman with more socially masculine traits is still both self- and other-identified as being a woman. The ideal Woman and someone who embodies a “female-likeness” are both still asserting a primarily feminine aesthetic, whether or not the biological body of the individual matches social criteria for womanhood.

Although onnagata may be biological men whose sex and sex category are understood as being appropriately male, their gendered performance of Woman cannot be downplayed to

“female-likeness” because they are biologically male and generally adolescent male youths.

Furthermore, as I have mentioned previously, I would categorize onnagata, Johnny’s idols, and

Takarazuka otokoyaku as being part of a socially unrecognized and socially unofficial gender category that is neither uniquely interpreted as feminine nor masculine, and is instead a category that draws equally from both to create an androgynous and syncretic ideal, so Mezur’s conclusion that the onnagata has “its own variable and transformative gender acts” (2005, p.

250) is certainly valid, but seems to miss the point that the doing of gender by any individual is variable and transformative, changing not only from individual to individual, but also cross- culturally and across time, which is why sex, sex category, and gender may not necessarily all align. In this way, many of the aspects of the onnagata’s gender construction and interpretation are quite similar to those of Takarazuka otokoyaku and Johnny’s idols, which I consider in more detail in the following section. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 52

Creating the Ideal in Johnny’s and Takarazuka

Now that I have outlined theories of gender, selfhood, and syncretization, as well as provided background information on several major entertainment bodies in Japan, I would like to consider specifically the Takarazuka Revue and Johnny’s idols as sites of the construction of the

Ideal. As I have mentioned previously, I consider both Revue actors and Johnny’s talents to be idols for their similar styles of marketing and actions, as well as similar fanbases. This is a key point because idols in Japanese entertainment not only inform the general public about what is trendy, but also about how to behave appropriately as a proper member of Japanese society. In the Creating Pop Culture Icons section I described the histories and gender constructs of several entertainment bodies in an attempt to outline their places in Japanese popular culture and their effects on gender in Japan.

K-pop artists, borrowing from the Japanese model in the 1990s, have successfully created a wide variety of idols with a similarly wide range of talents and personalities, allowing for the industry to grow from a comparatively small section of the domestic market into a hugely influential global phenomenon. The various idol personalities with their carefully constructed images act as ideal types for women and men, as well as individuals who are actually idolized and looked up to by fans as something to aspire to be. Although k-pop has had its ups and downs in Japan, it is still an important niche market in Japanese mainstream culture. AKB48 has completely taken over the Japanese music scene with its effective marketing techniques, having multiple million-selling singles and appearing all over Japanese television. Like k-pop artists and the different kinds of images they offer, the huge number of women in AKB48 and its sister groups gives fans the opportunity to find oshimen that appeal to them and devote all their time and energy to that particular idol. Despite the fact that AKB48 has become kokumin aidoru, KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 53 earning the admiration of the general public and other women, it is their core fanbase, made up mainly of men, who consider their idols to be ideal women. Similarly, kabuki onnagata are considered to be depictions of Woman, or the ideal woman, and women of Tokugawa Japan were encouraged to emulate the onnagata. Their highly stylized performances that incorporated specific elements of femininity and masculinity created a very desirable ambiguous figure, adored by both women and men.

The talents and actors of Johnny’s and Takarazuka also embody the Ideal, and do so in ways that are quite similar. Fans, too, consume the idols in similar ways and contribute the ever- evolving construction of what constitutes the Ideal. I will now consider how the companies, idols, and fans create the Ideal in Johnny’s and Takarazuka.

How the Companies and Idols Market Themselves

The single most important thing idols and their companies do to create a marketable Ideal is making him easily accessible to fans. Companies tell their idols to play up the relationships the idols have with each other, and they release all kinds of information about their idols, from the idols’ birthdays, heights, weights to their ring sizes, favorite subjects in school, and admired senpai (members of the company who joined before them). Everything about the idol is commodified to minimize the gap between public and private personae, which in turn allows the fan to feel closer to him. Moreover, Takarazuka and Johnny’s idols in particular are tarento, who are not accessible only on their main stages—the musical for the Revue and the concert venue or music program for Johnny’s—but also in a wide variety of other media, such as dramas, commercials, magazines, tabloids, variety programs, and many more. The intertextuality of the idols’ appearances in cultural media makes them “not only identifiable but familiar” (Galbraith KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 54

& Karlin, 2012, p. 9). This familiarity creates the fantasy of closeness with the idol and foments a deeper connection between fans and their idols of choice.

Furthermore, the idols’ constant exposure through a variety of media allows everything about them to be known, which gives fans the interesting ability to collapse their public and private lives into one image with which fans can create their own fantasies. Almost paradoxically, knowing less about an artist makes it more difficult to place him into a fantasy narrative, whether it is with the fan or with a member of his entertainment group. The fan knows everything about her Ideal for both her pride as a fan and as a way to build the perfect fantasy for herself, whether that fantasy is eroticized, personal, or enjoyed based on the relationships not between the fan and the Ideal, but between the Ideal and other idols.

Similarly, Daniel Herwitz argues that celebrities are “empty,” but that this lack of character only further entices fans into creating fantasy narratives (as cited in Nagaike, 2012, p.

99). As Kazumi Nagaike (2012) states:

“That star icons possess a certain kind of authenticity, and the potential to initiate endless personal narratives, depends on the transcendent emptiness—here, “transcendent emptiness” signifies the entire practical reality of those iconic figures, which the public/fans can never attain—to which fans are subconsciously attracted” (p. 99)

That is, the star icon (in other words, the Ideal) has an authenticity provided by the large amount of information available about him for consumption, which is negotiated by fans into an infinite amount of personal narratives based on the Ideal’s transcendent emptiness, his “superficial multiplicity” (Nagaike, 2012, p. 99). The Ideal’s skilled navigation of his surroundings in the cultural supermarket give fans the sense that they know everything about him, though fans understand that they do not know his true self—which makes him “empty”—and this emptiness

“tempts female fans to fantasize about [him]” (Nagaike, 2012, p. 100). Based on the information KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 55 available to them, they can extrapolate how the Ideal might truly act, and of course every fan can interpret the information differently or come to different conclusions, thereby allowing for the great breadth of personal narratives.

In the specific contexts of Johnny’s and the Revue, the idols and actors attempt to imitate this idea to a large extent. They are made readily accessible, and fans are able to create their own fantasy narratives featuring their idols of choice. However, although any Johnny’s Junior or

Takarazuka underclassman can potentially function as a fan’s Ideal, only a few Juniors are pushed, even fewer debut, and even fewer rise to elite status; in the Revue, only a few women are star tracked, even fewer reach nibante and sanbante status, and even fewer achieve coveted top star status. Top stars and elite Johnny’s epitomize the Ideal because they have proven to both management and fans that they can sell themselves effectively as a woman’s ideal type, though nibante, sanbante, and debuted Johnny’s artists all fulfill the requirements to create the Ideal.

The first aspect of accessibility is detailing facts about the idol. Oftentimes in one of the five idol magazines—Duet, Myojo, Potato, Popolo, and Wink Up—there will be features on members of Johnny’s groups that give very thorough profiles about the idols, and include the idols’ measurements in details that may be somewhat limited (the breadth of his chest and shoe size) or much more detailed (the length of his eyelashes and longest strand of hair). In a recent issue of Duet, for example, the four members of the Junior group Sexy Boyz—Jinguji Yuta,

Nakamura Reia, Kuramoto Kaoru, and Haniuda Amu—had their heights, weights, chest, torso, and hip measurements, and foot sizes laid out for the reader, accompanied with full body shots of the members in only their boxers (2013, p. 91). In their profiles, the reader is educated about the members’ thoughts on fifteen different categories about themselves, ranging from their weakest subjects in school and favorite drinks to their hobbies and dreams for the future. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 56

Takarazuka, too, offers profiles for its actors. Every year the Revue releases a book called

Takarazuka Otome (Takarazuka Maiden), which offers personal information about all current members of the Revue, including the ken-1 students who have yet to be placed into particular troupes. As the Revue’s official publications website, Hankyu Books, advertises:

“Superior Members, Flower Troupe, Moon Troupe, Snow Troupe, Star Troupe, Cosmos Troupe, and even up to kenkyuuka-1nen, [the book] includes every student (seito) in the Takarazuka Revue for that year. From birthdays to hometowns, and of course alma maters, hatsubutai, favorite roles, and more, [this book] will introduce the profiles of fans’ personal favorite (ki ni naru) Takarasiennes” (2013).

Aside from Takarazuka Otome, which looks at every member of the Revue, there is another series that gives similar information but focuses specifically on one troupe called The

Takarazuka (Za • Takarazuka). Five different volumes for each troupe have been released between 1997 and 2012, and they include profiles from all the members of the troupe, pictorials, crosstalks between members, and more in depth messages by prominent members of the troupe, like the top stars and nibante, about their hopes for the troupe’s future, their feelings about the top combi, and more. Finally, there also books that focus on rising stars, such as the Personal

Books, Young Star Guides, and Rising Star Guides.

Aside from print publications, Johnny’s and Revue stars also frequently appear in televised media through which fans can learn more about their favorite idols. Variety programs allow idols to showcase their senses of humor and personalities, and top idol groups can host several variety shows of their own and appear by themselves or in smaller groups as regulars or sub-regulars on programs across the major broadcasting companies. Nakai Masahiro, for example, currently appears in some capacity as a regular, announcer, or MC on seventeen different programs, ranging from variety show host and participant to sportscaster. Although KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 57 most idols do not have the kind of MC exposure that Nakai has, Johnny’s idols host several of their own shows and make guest and regular appearances on many others.

The Revue, in contrast, does not often have its performers appear on variety television, probably due in large part to the women’s performance schedules, which allow little time for rest.

However, the Revue has its own broadcasting network called Sky Stage that broadcasts recordings of the various stage plays put on by the Revue over the years, including shinjin kōen9 performances, as well as talk shows about the plays, play digests, and even talk and variety shows hosted by former Takarasiennes and groups of rising stars. These shows, catered toward the niche market of Revue fans who have paid for the ability to watch shows on Sky Stage, function in the same manner as the variety shows idols appear on that are geared toward more mainstream audiences. Furthermore, the Revue will occasionally have its performers appear on regular variety programs, such as Star Troupe’s top combi and nibante’s appearing on Waratte

Iitomo! in July, 2012, and Cosmos Troupe’s top star and four supporting otokoyaku’s appearing on Arashi ni Shiyagare in October, 2012. These special appearances outside of the Takarazuka sphere are celebrated by fans, who enjoy seeing their idols interact with other famous television personalities, as well as the increased exposure to mainstream audiences.

Another important avenue for establishing the Ideal is in dramas, particularly the so- called trendy dramas. They were pioneered by the broadcasting company Fuji TV, and in recent years Fuji TV’s and NTV’s dramas have enjoyed the most popularity. In particular, Fuji TV has what is called the getsuku (meaning “Monday at 9 PM”), which is considered the primetime

9 Shinjin kōen literally means “newcomer performance,” and is a special performance held once during the Takarazuka and Tokyo runs of a Grand Theater show. Only actors who are ken-7 and below may participate, and being given the top combi’s lead roles is considered a great honor. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 58 television slot and indicative of what Japanese people are most interested in and what they are watching as a whole. Ying Zhu (2008) describes the trendy drama:

“East Asian trendy drama originated in Japan in the late 1980s. As recounted by Ota Toru (2004), the Fuji TV producer who devised the trendy drama, drama ratings were relatively low in Japan in the late 1980s, with most of the shows narrowly targeted at female audiences in their 40s and above. […] These budget-conscious housewives hardly made the ideal demographic for commercial sponsors, and the money for drama production dwindled. Recognizing the problem, Toru was determined to turn things around. He suggested to Fuji that new dramas featuring fashion, popular music, and trendy locals would attract image conscious young women. […] Not surprisingly, trendy dramas were frowned upon by cultural critics as frivolous “catalogue-drama,” but they were welcomed by the target audience. The lifestyle and fashion- driven trendy drama gave way to post-trendy drama in the early 1990s, with a new focus on romantic courtship” (p. 89).

Kimura Takuya, one of the most powerful cultural icons of his day, has appeared in ten getsuku dramas since 1993 and has had the lead role in nine of them. His 1996 getsuku, Long Vacation, helped to catapult him and his group into stardom, and his 2001 getsuku, HERO, had viewership ratings above 30% for every episode, averaging 34% over its eleven episodes. Although HERO is arguably Kimura’s most popular drama, his most-watched drama, Beautiful Life, achieved

41.3% viewership ratings on its final episode, which makes it the second highest most watched episode of a general drama since 1977 according to Video Research Ltd. (2013).

Takarasiennes, on the other hand, seldom appear in dramas due to their performance schedules, though I would argue that their shows, especially Grand Theater shows, function in the same manner as trendy dramas. The focus of Takarazuka theater productions has long been romantic courtship, identified as a selling point of trendy and post-trendy dramas. Also, Yuzuki

Reon, Ōki Kaname, and Ryū Masaki, the top stars of Star, Cosmos, and Moon Troupes, as well KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 59 as rising stars Kurenai Yuzuru and Asumi Rio of Star and Flower Troupes will be making a special appearance in the drama TAKE FIVE~Oretachi wa Ai wo Nusumeru ka~ in the summer of 2013.

Being able to see and interact with the Ideal in such a variety of ways through such a variety of media allows the fans to create an infinite number of fantasy narratives, which are often centered on love and relationships, both romantic and platonic. All of the aforementioned media sites work to bolster the Ideal’s relationships with other idols and an imagined other, which is usually a site for the fan to insert herself into the Ideal’s own constructed narratives. In print media idols are often asked to recount stories of their first loves (hatsukoi), their ideal dates for cherry blossom viewing, Christmas, summer, etc., and even their own ideal girlfriends.

In the October, 2012 issue of Myojo, the members of Kis-My-Ft2 were asked five different questions with a summer theme, one of which was, “With summer in mind, what kind of date plan is the most you?” and their answers ranged from going to festivals and camping to snorkeling and going for a drive (Kitayama et al., 2012, p. 54-5). Not only did the members give their plans for dates, but they also took care to give specific information about what the girl should wear and what they might be doing, and the magazine even inserted hearts and music notes into the dialogue to emphasize the idols’ commitment to cuteness (kawaisa), sweetness, and romanticism. Fujigaya Taisuke, for example, says, “Wouldn’t be nice if we were a bit like high schoolers♪ And then, I want us to slowly walk along together while we’re holding hands, y’know” (2012, p. 55). Tamamori Yuta says in his date plan, “Plus instead of a yukata or swimsuit, I’d rather she wear a tanktop♥” (2012, p. 55). In the same issue, other groups were asked questions about love, dating situations, and preferences in women, and this was certainly not the first time that they have been asked such questions, nor will it be the last. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 60

Dramas also give idols the chance to showcase how they would behave in relationships.

Their characters in romantic dramas are usually kind, interesting, and sensitive, and their whole worlds revolve around their love interests. Female fans can fantasize about being in the same position as the female lead, opposite her Ideal, in an ideal relationship. Idols’ talk show appearances about the dramas also give them the opportunity to discuss the relationships and characters on the show, telling fans about how similar or dissimilar characters are from their own personalities, and offering insights to what they might do in their characters’ situations. This again adds to the fans’ ability to construct fantasy narratives about the Ideal. Even in concerts and special programs targeted at the idol niche market do idols give their responses to love situations. In Kis-My-Ft2’s 2011 concert, Kis-My-Ft ni Aeru de Show vol.3, during the MC segment the members were given an imagined situation: “You have received Valentine’s Day chocolate from the girl you like. What’s your response?” Nikaido Takashi responded, “Eh~ I don’t need any chocolate. I want you!” and Kitayama Hiromitsu said, “Ah, thanks for the chocolate. Okay then, as a thank you gift, here—a key to my house.” All of the members’ responses to the situation were met with great screams of delight from the thousands of fans present. In their 2012 concert, the Kis-My-MiNT Tour, they played a similar game, but this time they were dressed as women and were given the situation from a woman’s perspective: “A one- line-er♥ that’ll make a man’s chest get tight (kyun to saseru).” The members’ antics during this segment received screams of joy as well, with the added bonus for fans that the things their idols were saying were not simply for comedic effect or to be cute (kawaii), but that they might be things that he actually wants to hear from the woman he loves.

On variety programs, in concert, and in print media, idols are given the opportunity to discuss their thoughts and feelings about love and love situations with an imagined other, but KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 61 they most often play up their relationships with each other in these venues. Companies market popular combi (konbi, from “combination”), who are usually close friends but may be the most popular members, and they are often given suggestive moments in dance choreography together; ranked highly on combi/pairing rankings in idol magazines; and often make sure to mention how close they are or tell stories about outings in their private lives. Fans who may not necessarily want to create fantasy narratives about themselves with their Ideal can deflect their desires for an idealized relationship to the Ideal and the idol of her choice.

For Takarasiennes, they can also be asked about their first loves or their first kisses, but they are usually asked about their relationships with their musumeyaku and otokoyaku partners.

This relationship is more important to fans than even the relationships between Takarasiennes as friends. Takarasiennes discuss their friendships with each other mainly in print media, such as through columns like “Especial Time” in the magazine Takarazuka GRAPH, in which one

Takarasienne chats with another. They also demonstrate their closeness with one another on the talk shows and variety programs on Sky Stage.

Although rising stars and the leads in shinjin kōen talk about their partners, the relationships most discussed are those between the top stars. Columns in Takarazuka GRAPH such as “Harmony” show the top stars acting cute and friendly, like a lovey-dovey (raburabu) couple, in the pictures, and the two of them discuss their relationship and each other: Their first impressions of each other, things that are and are not similar about them, unexpected sides of each other, etc. In the “Harmony” article for Star Troupe top combi Yuzuki Reon and Yumesaki

Nene, Yuzuki said this about the concept for their pictures: “For the theme we thought of—I’ve been paired with Nene for two years, so switching that with the situation for the photo shoot, we came up with “although they’ve been dating for more than two years, even now they’re still a KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 62 lovey-dovey (raburabu) pair!” (laughs)” (p. 32). In the replacement for “Harmony” in the more recent Takarazuka GRAPH issues, “deux→ing,” the feature for Cosmos Troupe top combi Ōki

Kaname and Misaki Rion has the two of them asking questions to each other, and chatting about each one. Rather than describing their relationship outright, the pair banters back and forth like good friends or a close couple. Everything the top combi does, both on stage and off, is done in a way that amplifies the closeness and the importance of the relationship between them. The otokoyaku devotes herself to her musumeyaku partner, who in turn falls in love with the otokoyaku on stage and demonstrates her own devotion to her partner off of it.

Fans also enjoy discussing these relationships on the social media site Twitter, and they will often write reports (repo) about the happenings of a particular performance or television so that more fans can know and join in on the fantasy narrative. Regarding close friendships between Takarasiennes, Twitter user @zuka_tsubutsubu writes about Ōki Kaname and her unofficial nibante, Asaka Manato:

“Today’s demachi. Kaname-san and Maa-kun, they came out acting really friendly and holding hands. In front of both of their clubs: Kaname-san, “I’m really saved by Kircheis’s 10 being here. Thanks for coming to Cosmos Troupe~♥”→hug[s Asaka]. Maa-kun, “Ehh, wawwa, that makes me happy to hear~♥”→hug[s Ōki]. I could cry ＼(^o^)／” (2012).

As of the time of this writing, this tweet was retweeted seventy-three times and favorited ninety times. Another user, @yuripon71, writes about an accident that occurred during a recent performance of the new top combi of Snow Troupe, Sō Kazuho and Manaka Ayu:

“«Snow Troupe Shonichi» During the duet dance (duedan), Ayucchi’s (Manaka) shoulder strap came off from her back on one side. She kept dancing while holding it in place, but then Sō-san tried fixing it for her! (←my chest got all tight (mune kyun)) But in

10 Kircheis was Asaka’s character in their play at the time, Legend of the Galactic Heroes. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 63

the end she couldn’t fix it…>< Both of them were going too fast probably, but they kept smiling from start to finish and getting through it was amazing (suteki)!” (2013)

At the time of this writing, this particular tweet was retweeted fifteen times and favorite thirteen times. Johnny’s fans also often take to Twitter to discuss the relationships between their idols, and companies will exploit the fans’ desire to know and chat about them, as this tweet from the official Twitter for Wink Up, a male idol magazine, demonstrates as it discusses the backstage goings-on between Kis-My-Ft2 members Tamamori Yuta and Miyata Toshiya, who are known for their close friendship:

“[Oct. Issue • Kis-My-Ft2 Behind-the-scenes Content] While waiting for the photo shoot, Miyatama11 were sitting together like good friends and chatting. Miya, “What are you doing when you’re having a good time~?” Tama, “Me? Bullying you!” Miya, “!!...For me it’s when I’m being bullied by you…?” And this was the always and anywhere lovey-dovey(!?) (raburabu) pair” (2012).

This tweet has been retweeted 570 times and favorited 459 times as of this writing. Many fans are clearly interested and delighted by the closeness of their favorite stars.

The male idol industry and the Takarazuka Revue are usually considered sites of female consumption and, therefore, a safe space for women, so it is not surprising that idol men work to cater their images, both physical and internal, to the desires of women. Although some critics tout male beauty practices as the feminization of men, as Miller argues, I believe that beautification has become a new “component of masculinity” (2006, p. 126). Furthermore, the more androgynous looks of male idols brings them closer to the safer, syncretically gendered middle that women find so desirable. For Takarazuka otokoyaku, who are biologically female,

11 “Miyatama” is a combination of the first two mora of the members’ last names, Miyata and Tamamori. The Japanese often create four mora-long couple names, as well as four mora-long shortened words for general items, such as rimokon from rimooto kontorooru (remote control) and pasokon from paasonaru konpyuutaa (personal computer).

KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 64 they must work to make themselves comparatively more masculine to reach this androgynous middle gender. All otokoyaku have short hair (although their hair tends to be about the same length as the average Johnny’s idol), and otokoyaku also exclusively wear pants, both on and off stage. However, they may wear more feminine blouses and accessories, all Takarasiennes wear makeup, and all Takarasiennes regardless of stage gender almost always wear high heels.

Although their off-stage fashion is an interesting blend of usual femininity and arbitrarily masculine traits, Takarasiennes take great care to make sure they are properly gendered on stage.

Costumes are specially cut to account for the otokoyaku’s narrow shoulders and wider hips, and women with larger breasts often bind them (Stickland, 2008, p. 118). On stage otokoyaku wear specially cut pants that lengthen the legs and give the illusion of a straighter body line, and they also wear high-heeled boots that give them increased height to appear manlier. Otokoyaku also crush (tsubusu) their voices to make them deeper through “cigarette-smoking and drinking copious amounts of alcohol…deliberate shouting and growling; or not resting the larynx when the performer has a cold or throat infection” (Stickland, 2008, p. 119). Furthermore, just like their Johnny’s idol counterparts, otokoyaku tend to be slender and hairless, with softer facial features as a result of their natural femininity, offset by the more mannish haircuts. Both otokoyaku and Johnny’s idols work toward achieving the very similar physical looks.

The physical image of the Johnny’s idol and Takarazuka otokoyaku tends to be closer to cool (kakkoii) rather than cute (kawaii), although they must utilize both coolness and cuteness in order to become an Ideal. Indeed, many Johnny’s talents and otokoyaku are called ikemen12 by fans. Nevertheless, the Ideal must navigate the realm between too aloof and too cutesy, and tends

12 Ikemen is a combined form on the words iketeru (cool/sexy) and men (face) to mean a cool guy. Alternatively, men could have come from the English word “men,” but the word means the same thing. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 65 of offset his ikemen looks with a more sensitive, goofy, or sweet status, an image gap that fans find especially endearing. Tamamori Yuta from Kis-My-Ft2, for example, is often considered to have cool physical looks but a cute personality, and Sagiri Seina, a popular member of Snow

Troupe, is also noted for having a cute and goofy personality but cool looks, as Twitter user

@dearsokk describes:

“Chigi-chan [Sagiri] irimachi: “Good morning! Welcooome! …I mean, I’m oooff!” she said as she walked in[to the theater] while waving. Too cute( ´艸｀) Even though she misspoke her expression, from start to finish, was a cool ikemen w13” (2012)

At the time of this writing, this tweet has been retweeted fifteen times and favorited twenty-two times. Even in the tweet itself user @dearsokk describes Sagiri as being both “too cute”

(kawaisugiru), cool (kuuru), and an ikemen, revealing Sagiri’s expert portrayal of the cute and the cool, as well as the fans’ enjoyment of it.

In sum Revue and Johnny’s actors and idols use a wide variety of media to market themselves. They make themselves accessible and create a superficial multiplicity, based on which fans can create any number of personal fantasy narratives. With particular attention paid to love, romantic situations, and close friendships, idols transform themselves into emotionally ready and willing participant Ideal for fans to consume. They not only modify their actions to make themselves more desirable to women, but also modify their bodies to conform to female expectations and desires about an ideal man.

How Fans Both Consume and Contribute to This Model

As mentioned previously, the fans’ great interest in the Ideal’s discussion and performance of love, romantic situations, and his relationships with others drive her desire and

13 “w” is Japanese internet slang that comes from the Japanese word warau, meaning “to laugh,” and is comparable to English emoticon “XD.” It refers to kind of internet chuckle. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 66 consumption of him. Many fan activities are based around the enjoyment of and the creation of narratives surrounding these topics. Of course, in an industry where the individual is the commodity to be sold and is therefore manufactured, packaged, and marketed just so, there comes the idea that the idol industry and its fans are indicative of an all-powerful industry duping its customers into mindless consumerism. However, fans are knowledgeable and powerful agents in the manufacturing process of their idols because it is their desires that shape how the Ideal presents himself, and it is often they who inform the companies about which idols to promote to stardom. As Aoyagi Hiroshi (2005) states:

“The consumption of idol images by fans [should be] considered an integral part of the process of constructing and distributing idols as cultural commodities. Idol fans, especially those who are enthusiastic, function as connoisseurs of idols and the system of their promotion. As such, they contribute to the popular digestions and significations of images and messages that are launched by idols and their promoters” (p. 16).

That is to say, not only do fans inform companies about which idols and types they prefer, but they help to disseminate the idol image as a consumable cultural commodity; in other words, they promote the idol as an image of what should be considered socially appropriate or ideal.

Fan input in Takarazuka and Johnny’s not only influences the types of productions put on by the company or kinds of songs released, but fans also have a strong influence on “the way gender is constructed and performed…through their support of particular kinds of performers, and by their demands as to how performers should look and behave” (Stickland, 2008, p. 4).

Indeed, as female beauty practices evolved in a way that allowed women to reject the salaryman aesthetic, it also enabled them to mold new ideal characteristics in modern men. Women have rejected body hair, endorsed slenderness, and enjoyed softer male countenances with their sultry eyes and longer hair (Miller, 2006, p. 134, 136, 139-40, 146). It is no coincidence, therefore, that KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 67

Kimura Takuya and his fellow Johnny’s idols tend to have smooth and slim bodies with minimal body hair; longer head hair (Kimura especially); and softer facial features. Even if an idol is manlier in his looks from working out or from personal preference, he makes himself less threatening in other ways, such as behaviors or personality.

Not only do fans inform companies about the types of idols and gendered performances they enjoy, but they also engage in the construction of fantasy narratives, both personally and for public enjoyment. Of course, fans will imagine themselves or others in situations with their Ideal privately, but fans also come together to commercialize their enjoyment of their idols of choice.

The most widespread manner of doing this for fans of male idols is through the production of dōjinshi, fan-made magazines, and through fan clubs for fans of the Revue.

Dōjinshi are created by fans of all kinds of media—idols, anime, manga, and more—and they cross many different genres and situations, allowing fans to both create and consume the fantasy narratives they have conceived about their hobby of choice. In the case of male idol dōjinshi, the focus is on the homosocial and homosexual relationships usually between members of the same group, but can cross group boundaries. The most popular genres are boys love (BL) and yaoi. Although both refer to homosexual relationships between men, BL, which is also more popular than yaoi, focuses more on the relationship between the main characters rather than on eroticism. Yaoi, on the other hand, is a kind of acronym formed from the first mora of three phrases: yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi (no climax, no point, no meaning).14 Yaoi works are usually sexually explicit with little attention paid to characterization, details, or plot. Although yaoi is clearly a genre that is based on the eroticization of male-male relationships, “[i]n a society inundated with pornographic images of women, and in which…male sexual pleasure has

14 The yaoi acronym and genre is similar to the American fanfiction genre PWP, which stands for “porn without plot” or “plot, what plot.” KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 68 typically taken precedence over women’s, these representations [of men constructed for female sexual enjoyment] may offer subversive and potentially liberating avenues for women to explore their sexual identity” (Darling-Wolf, 2003, p. 77). Similarly, BL works that focus on positive romantic relationships allow women to explore these relationships as sites of emotional attachment and development. As Mark McLelland states, “the boys in women’s comics take time to establish an emotional relationship and, although sex scenes are featured…the penetration scene is frequently followed by a scene in the shower, or at the breakfast table” (2000b, p. 281).

That is, although sex is part of the relationship, it is not the focal point of the story.

Takarazuka fans do not organize themselves like Johnny’s fans, and therefore their active engagement in creating fantasy narratives is more private, based on the dream world of the

Revue stage rather than the dream world that Johnny’s fans create in dōjinshi. As a consumer body Takarazuka fans come together in unofficial fan clubs for a particular Takarasienne.

Certainly, Johnny’s fans also have a particular favorite (tantō), and occasionally friends in a particular city or prefecture will get together to talk about the member and his group, but they are not nearly as organized or cooperatively dedicated as Revue fan clubs. Fans will dutifully wait for their stars and walk them to and from the theater in the mornings (irimachi, “awaiting arrival”) and evenings (demachi, “awaiting departure”). Members of the fan clubs are the stars’ guards (gaado), whereas fans who are not in a star’s fan club are the gallery (gyararii). During irimachi and demachi, members of a star’s fan club can give her fan letters and gifts, and members of the gallery usually take pictures and videos of the star in her private clothes. Also, members of the guard always don club wear (uea) while participating in irimachi or demachi.

During performances fan clubs will also encourage all the members of the club to go to a particular performance (sōken), and fans will wear their club wear during sōken. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 69

Fan clubs also organize tea parties (ochakai), which is an event held usually during the

Grand Theater performances in Takarazuka and Tokyo, and sometimes during other performances at smaller venues. At ochakai the star usually answers questions about the performance and her off-stage activities; a game or raffle is often played; and the star will generally close with a performance of a song of some kind. Each fan club also has a club president (daihyō) who presides over the other members of the club, plans ochakai, produces star goods, and allots performance tickets to club members among other things. In large fan clubs, usually those of top stars and nibante, there is also a club staff that helps the daihyō run the club.

Unlike Johnny’s, which decides on its own which idols are most marketable (although sale of individual goods at concerts is rumored to be an indicator of whom to push), the Revue uses fan clubs to determine the popularity of up and coming stars. Certainly, the sale of individual goods (stills, bromides, and post cards) at the Revue’s official goods store, Quatre

Rêves, signifies popularity to the company, but fan clubs will often stimulate sales by encouraging members of the club to buy goods only related to their star. Also, when fans write letters to their stars, they will usually write them on post cards featuring their star of choice, so higher post card sales of a particular star can indicate large numbers of fans and therefore high popularity.

As it can be seen, fans of idols are not simply passive consumers manipulated by entertainment companies; they are active agents engaged in the idol system, molding it to fit their own desires. Through a variety of different activities fans can enjoy the fantasy narratives they create about their idols privately or in the company of other like-minded fans, and when they do come together, it is often in a highly organized and efficient manner. Fans contribute as much to the creation of the Ideal as the companies and the Ideal himself. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 70

The Ideal and What He Means for Gender Expression

What is most important to understand about the Ideal is his transcendent emptiness that allows fans to create fantasy narratives; his syncretic gendered performance; and his interpretations of female desires. In Japanese society women are generally placed in the role of the submissive, subservient, and sexually passive, with their personal needs and dreams set aside in the face of marriage and childrearing. For women who cannot or choose not to rebel against the status quo conspicuously through feminist movements or shocking beauty subcultures, they can still reject compulsory patriarchy and standard ideals of femininity through their consumption and promotion of the Ideal as epitomized by Johnny’s idols and Takarazuka otokoyaku. The Ideal gives a uniquely gendered performance that fans find less threatening and more endearing than the average man, and in the safe space of their fandoms, they are free to explore their own sexualities and gendered identities through the creation of fantasy narratives.

Further, the Ideal’s incredible popularity among women informs the general public about what is trendy and socially appropriate, thereby effecting social change in new ways.

In the words of Aoyagi Hiroshi, “[t]he success of gender construction in idol performances depends on cultural timing as much as on the performers’ willingness to perform”

(2005, p. 122). The Bluestockings of the 1910s, women’s lib in the 1970s, and the gyaru of the

1990s all took place at the same time that there were shifts in gender ideology and gender performance in popular culture. Although the Bluestockings were themselves progressive, they had an interesting reverse effect on the Takarazuka Revue: It was the “excessive and unfeminine charisma” of the feminists of the era that “in part prompted Kobayashi Ichizō to establish an all- female revue in the first place” (Robertson, 1998, p. 27). Kobayashi wanted to train the women who joined the Revue to become Good Wives and Wise Mothers, and expected the actors to KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 71 eventually move on from the company and into respectable marriages. Interestingly, however, in seeking to provide wholesome entertainment for families, he gave young women the “freedom to perform in an era when there were few respectable places for them to do so” (Brau, 1990, p. 80).

Possibly without meaning to, as a reaction to the Bluestockings of his time, Kobayashi’s attempt at creating a training ground for future wives and mothers instead created a safe space for both the performing women and female fans to explore alternatives to that very ideal.

Women’s lib in the 1970s saw the simultaneous rebirth of Takarazuka popularity, an increase in popularity for Johnny’s, the rise of the BL manga genre, and the emergence of male idols targeted as objects for female desire. Ikeda Riyoko’s 1972 manga, The Rose of Versailles

(Berusaiyu no Bara), spawned the BL genre and Japanese women’s interest in male-male erotica as a point of gender freedom and expression. The Takarazuka Revue performed an adaptation of the manga in 1974, which prompted a resurgence in the Revue’s popularity. It has become one of the Revue’s most beloved plays, performed over twenty times by various troupes over the past four decades. Johnny’s also experienced an increase in influence due to the ever rising popularity of Four Leaves, the debut of Go Hiromi, and the debut of Johnny’s Junior Special. Johnny’s

Junior Special debuted with the interestingly named “Berusaiyu no Bara,” and also debuted as a result of the juniors’ great popularity at the time. Also notable is the emergence of Sawada “Julie”

Kenji, who was “[t]all, slim, and with a distinctive face rendered rather androgynous with the aid of eye makeup” and “an early expression of a male interest in being the object of female and/or male observation and desire” (Miller, 2006, p. 126).

In the tumultuous 1990s when young women were freeing themselves of traditional femininity through gyaru and related subcultures, as well as exploring their sexual liberty through emulation of powerful female icons like Amuro Namie, Takarazuka and Johnny’s again KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 72 experienced periods of high popularity and success, there was a so-called “gay boom” among

Japanese women, and Kimura Takuya appeared as the archetype of Japanese masculinity for women and men. In Takarazuka, one of their most popular productions, their adaptation of

Elisabeth, was performed for the first time in 1996, and Maya Miki of Flower Troupe and

Amami Yūki of Moon Troupe rose to prominence as top stars, eventually riding the coattails of their popularity into megastardom as actresses in mainstream Japanese dramas. Kimura Takuya and SMAP also exploded in popularity in 1996 with Kimura’s getsuku drama Long Vacation and the start of the hugely popular variety show, SMAPXSMAP. Interestingly, the 1990s is also considered to be the Golden Age of Juniors, not unlike the popularity of the Juniors in the 1970s.

Also, just like the rise of BL in the 1970s, there was a gay boom, in which “Japanese women’s media began to interest themselves in Japan’s gay subculture” (McLelland, 2000a, p. 7). This boom promoted the “fantasy of the gay man as a woman’s ‘best partner’” (McLelland, 2000a, p.

7), which suggests the idea that women began experimenting with inserting women into the emotional and romantic relationships they so enjoyed in their BL narratives.

As Jennifer Robertson says, “[t]he key to liberation, as it were, involves…a new identity, and by extension, a transformation in gender ideology” (1998, p. 86-7). In all three instances, but most particularly the 1990s, feminism and its transformation of contemporary gender ideology have been closely linked to how women feel about their genders and personal identities. For idol fans, the cultural context provides them with the ability to subvert gendered norms and therefore their own shikata ga nai identities, allowing for a much broader range of social cues to choose from the cultural supermarket. Indeed, “idolizing offers more than the instrumental value of pleasure or stress-relief” because it can also be “a process of renewal, rejuvenation, and re- sexualization of the gendered self” (Ho, 2012, p. 169). That is to say, women can reevaluate their KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 73 genders, sexualities, and identities through the consumption of the particularly constructed Ideal.

The fantasy space and personal narratives female fans build around their Ideal is such that they

“temporarily privilege their own romantic and sexual desire” (Glasspool, 2012, p. 124). Fans are able to create fantasy narratives because of the large amount of information they know about their idol without knowing, necessarily, his true self—his empty center. Indeed, Johnny’s fans frequently engage in dialogues about their idols on social media sites, and produce their own fantasy narratives for the consumption and enjoyment of other fans in the form of dōjinshi. The

Takarazuka Revue is often called “the world of dreams” (yume no sekai), where fans can enjoy respite from the stresses of their daily lives and daily genders. As Robertson says: “The Revue claims to sell dreams; the fans claim that Takarazuka is a bouquet of dreams; the Takarasiennes claim that they protect their fans’ dreams” (1998, p. 211). The idols exist to uphold their fans’ fantasy narratives.

In any case, this emptiness provides the Ideal with the opportunity to continually mold himself into the object of female desire. Fabienne Darling-Wolf describes Kimura as being able to be “kind and violent, macho and sensitive, aggressive and passive, sexy and androgynous,

Japanese and Western, traditional and subversive, all at the same time (2003, p. 82-3), but this evaluation applies to him, his successors from Johnny’s, and his otokoyaku contemporaries and their predecessors, such as Maya Miki and current top and rising stars. Their syncretic doing of gender and personal identity have created an idol—an Ideal—that is neither uniquely feminine nor uniquely masculine, nor is he even mostly feminine or mostly masculine like a socially appropriately gendered individual; the Ideal is rather the safe, androgynous “middle,” which I would argue is its own unique gender expression, just like feminine and masculine. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 74

In society’s attempts to create a distinct dichotomy between women and men, and therefore femininity and masculinity, insisting that women are inherently feminine and men are inherently masculine, some scholars seem to believe that the androgyny in Takarazuka and

Johnny’s undermines the idea of gender as a binary. Rather, androgyny itself cannot exist without the confines of hyper-femininity and hyper-masculinity. Indeed, fans and mainstream audiences alike understand Johnny’s idols and Takarazuka otokoyaku are portraying a masculinized gender, but their sex categories are known. According to West and Zimmerman, members of a society are constantly accomplishing gender to reaffirm their acceptance within a particular sex category, but for Takarazuka especially this is not the case because otokoyaku work to accomplish a masculinized gender despite their feminine sex and sex category.

Nevertheless, they retain many feminine qualities, even when some otokoyaku act more masculine or feminine than others offstage. For Johnny’s idols, even Kimura Takuya who has influenced so many young men with his looks and fashion, most are considered to be much more effeminate than the average Japanese man. Furthermore, Johnny’s idols often cross dress to the great delight of their fans, who find it extremely cute.

Just as Mezur characterized onnagata as being neither woman nor men but onnagata,

Takayama says that the “style of the otokoyaku is not that of a man, nor of a woman, but of a molded, abstract being” (as cited in Brau, 1990, p. 81). Although the unique gender portrayal of

Johnny’s idols may not be as readily understood because they are not women acting as idealized men (otokoyaku) or men acting as idealized women (onnagata), their looks, behaviors, and types of fans are nearly indistinguishable from the looks, behaviors, and types of fans of Takarazuka otokoyaku. KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 75

The unique gender performances of Revue actors and Johnny’s idols are just as stylized as any gender performance of femininity or masculinity, and require the same amount of work in order to be accomplished as a viable doing of gender. However, because the Ideal is not recognized as having his own gender, the performers themselves revert back to the genders they have been socialized to do: feminine or masculine. As a result of being able to perform two different genders at will, the concepts of gender as a role and gender as a display need to be revisited. According to West & Zimmerman, “[r]oles are situated identities—assumed and relinquished as the situation demands—rather than master identities…that cut across situations”

(1987, p. 128). What is meant by this is that, for example, an individual’s role as a student or instructor may change based on situational context, but that her gender does not change based on situational context. Though the individual may in one situation be a student and in another an instructor, her gender does not change based on this change. I agree that this is usually the case for average gendered persons, but in the case of the Ideal, he can change his gender based on the roles he plays. The Ideal, once he has mastered his gender performance, can transition smoothly from his feminine or masculine “master identity” to his unique idealized gender.

Moreover, West & Zimmerman argue that Goffman’s view of gender as “a socially scripted dramatization of the culture’s idealization of feminine and masculine natures” is flawed in that although one’s particular gendered displays may be optional, “it does not seem plausible to say that we have the option of being seen by others as female or male” (1987, p. 130).

Certainly, for average gendered persons it does not seem plausible that a person’s femaleness or maleness can be ignored, but for the Ideal, I would argue that this is exactly what is happening.

The onnagata, as Woman, is realized not by being hyper-feminine, but by masterfully incorporating both desirable feminine and masculine traits to create a Japanese idealization of KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 76 feminine nature. On the other hand, Johnny’s and otokoyaku, as the Ideal, are neither hyper- masculine nor hyper-feminized men. They, too, very skillfully incorporate feminine and masculine traits to create an idealized partner for women who is not necessarily Man, but is romanticized as their best friends whether there is an erotic attraction present or not. Indeed, gender as a display in the case of the Ideal is considering gender “as an ongoing activity embedded in everyday interaction” (West & Zimmerman, 1987, p. 130). The Ideal displays

(does) his idealized gender in the public sphere, and in private he returns to his normal doing of gender, whether that gender is feminine or masculine.

In West & Zimmerman’s own words:

“[S]ocietal members orient to the fact that their activities are subject to comment. Actions are often designed with an eye to their accountability, that is, how they might look and how they might be characterized. […] [S]ex category and gender are managed properties of conduct that are contrived with respect to the fact that others will judge and respond to us in particular ways…gender is not simply an aspect of what one is, but, more fundamentally, it is something that one does, and does recurrently, in interaction with others” (1987, p. 136, 140).

The Ideal is well aware that his actions are subject to comment and judgment, and in his case, he welcomes the comments and judgments because they inform his ever-evolving androgynous gender display. Based on the Ideal’s interaction with fans in the public sphere, he does his idealized gender knowing that fans will respond to him in particular ways, just as he would do in regular interaction in the private sphere while enacting his other feminine or masculine gender.

In sum the Ideal is an important gendered identity in Japan because he exists for consumption by women, whose desires, feminist movements, and fantasy narratives have created waves of change since the early twentieth century. Although gains may be arguably minimal, and although this social power is still felt only in niche markets, female influence has been pivotal in KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 77 the construction of icons like Kimura Takuya, who are visible, powerful, and have changed the face of contemporary masculinity. Although the Ideal is a masculine object, he is also targeted for the female gaze, which makes him unique and allows him and his fans to subvert the status quo.

Conclusion Following the quote by Aoyagi Hiroshi at the beginning of this study, whether idols are

“loved or disliked, widely admired or ridiculed, [they] inform their viewers about appearances and personal qualities that are considered socially appropriate and trendy” (2005, p. 3).

Takarazuka otokoyaku and Johnny’s idols do inform society about what is socially appropriate and trendy through unique gendered performances that are shaped by female desires. Since the early twentieth century Japanese women have engaged in several feminist movements that have set the cultural framework for women to explore their genders in new ways, which then affects the Ideal’s syncretic gendered performance. Furthermore, the new ways that the Ideal performs masculinity also informs how men perform their genders, which means that the Ideal aesthetic, based on female desire, affects men in general. In this way, women are able to further subvert the status quo. Through the Ideal’s stylized gender, female fans can create fantasy narratives to act out their desires in a society that has routinely denied women varied expressions of their genders and sexualities. Cast usually in the role of the sexually passive and submissive, with her identity linked inextricably to marriage and childbearing, the ability to create fantasy narratives based on the Ideal allows women to reject compulsory patriarchy and the gendered status quo.

Further research can be done to establish how Takarasiennes and Johnny’s idols feel about their own gendered performances, as well as research into the companies and fans. It would also be worthwhile to consider k-pop and female idols from this perspective because k- pop, though markedly different, does exhibit many of the same qualities as Japanese idols, and KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 78 female idols from both Korea and Japan serve as ideal types for men. Further research should be conducted into how the gendered performances of female and male idols are similar and different, and how their fans (who tend be nearly exclusively of the opposite gender) consume and contribute to the construction of their idols.

KAWAII BOYS AND IKEMEN GIRLS 79

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