Idols You Can Meet: AKB48 and a New Trend in Japan’s Music Industry YUYA KIUCHI Introduction KB48, A JAPANESE IDOL GROUP WITH OVER 130 YOUNG FEMALE singers, presents a new trend in the entertainment industry. A It is a trend that is seemingly more democratic, but that cre- ates and takes advantage of passionate and sometimes obsessive fans in a unique way. More significantly, it is the trend in which musical talents matter less than the group’s manipulative image of purity that discounts the individuality of singers, quiets them, and even exposes them to psychological and physical danger for the success of the group. The group reflects problematic gender dynamics in which women’s sexuality is both idolized and exploited. Members of AKB48 are constantly evaluated by fans through pop- ularity voting. The winner of the process, also known as the general election, earns the middle front-row spot to appear on TV and in con- certs. The group sells merchandise that also serves as a medium for popularity voting, creating a massive marketing machine. In other instances, CDs come with a ticket for a special invitation-only event. Such an event where fans may be able to shake hands with or talk to a singer not only gives fans a sense of privilege but also reminds AKB48 members that their career is directly connected to these core fans. Furthermore, despite the mass popularity of certain singers, new singers join and old ones quit frequently. Group members are also split into subgroups so that AKB48 can be at multiple locations at The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 50, No. 1, 2017 © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 30 Idols You Can Meet 31 the same time. All of these tactics feed the popularity of the group. Although similar business strategies existed before AKB48, the group has been unprecedentedly successful in taking advantage of them to the point that the Japanese music industry is fearful that individuals’ musical talent is least important to create celebrities out of singers. The success of AKB48 is worth noting partly because the musical group became the savior of Japan’s music industry, which, along with the United States and other industrial societies, had suffered a decline in CD sales. In the early 2010s, however, AKB48 helped reverse this trend and enabled Japan to surpass the United States as the largest music market in the world (Yasu). In 2011 and 2012, AKB48 was ranked as one of the top 10 hit “products” in Japan by the interna- tional marketing agency Dentsu (Kannan). The success of the group, however, beckons a set of questions about what it means to be a part of the group that Satoshi Hamano and Yuka Ieizumi have separately characterized as religion-like. In the group, singers compete against each other for popularity. While being a member of AKB48 can very well help the career of some singers, the process relies on capitalizing the sexuality of the group’s young singers. AKB48 has also exposed singers to both physical and psychological threats. Being expected to be pure, AKB48 singers rarely, if at all, voice their own ideas and opinions, nor are they allowed to date. AKB48 is a complex environment for singers. On the one hand, their individuality is not only recognized but also encouraged. Although many fans support AKB48 as a group, many also have a favorite singer whom they follow and support more than others. In other words, AKB48 grows thanks to fans who support specific, indi- vidual singers. For AKB48, the consumerist behaviors of such fans are more pronounced than with other musical groups. From fan voting to fan support in online games, individual popularity is constantly translated into intragroup hierarchy. The hierarchy is then made visible through the locations each singer is assigned on the stage, the songs she sings, and, essentially, every activity she is assigned as a member of AKB48. On the other hand, singers are often seen to be utilized as a part of a larger business plan. Because the group is so big and complex, individuals can easily become a fungible component of a larger system. This has become apparent in the high turnovers and transfers between AKB48’s subgroups, as well as the 32 Yuya Kiuchi group’s hierarchy and some of the high-profile scandal cases, for example, instances of violence against and around AKB48, a dating controversy in 2013, and AKB48’s male-dominated fandom. AKB48 as a Massive Capital-Generating Machine Yasushi Akimoto and AKB48 are inseparable. Akimoto, a Japanese lyricist active since the early 1980s, is the founder and mastermind behind the group. As the chief producer, Akimoto launched AKB48 in the Akihabara district in Tokyo, in 2005. Akihabara in 2005 was known for its electronic district and its underground popular culture known as the otaku (geek) culture (Galbraith 210). AKB48 was initially considered as a local underground group; its popularity grew quietly until the late 2000s. Nendai Ryuukou,an online popular culture almanac, reports that AKB48’s first ten CDs never sold over 100,000 copies. Except for three songs, the sales were less than 30,000 copies per song. The sales, however, exploded in 2010 when the group hit a million sales with the sin- gle Beginner. Since 2011, all of AKB48’s singles have sold over a million physical copies, including Sayonara Kuroru (2013), which sold over 1.9 million copies. In 2015, the group became the first musical act in Japan to have twenty consecutive million-selling CD singles (“AKB48 Become First”). AKB48 differs from other popular idol music groups for its size. As of December 2015, the group has over 130 members divided into five groups: Group A, Group K, Group B, Group 4, and Group 8. Akimoto’s initial concept for the group explains the size of the group. He imagined that fans could “go and meet” AKB48 singers (“Japa- nese Idol Group”). First, the group’s size with over one hundred members helps attain this goal. Second, the group is split into several subgroups so that fans at various locations can meet a subset of AKB48 on the same day. Akimoto has also realized the concept by establishing AKB48’s own theater where the group performs almost every day. This structure enables a segment of the group to appear at the theater day after day. This is particularly important because many of the singers are in their teens and some are as young as thirteen years old, in junior high school. This is to say that AKB48 can appear at the theater and on TV while participating in a fan service Idols You Can Meet 33 event concurrently to realize the “idols you can meet” concept all at the same time (Hirata and Warschauer 72). AKB48’s contribution to Japan’s music industry is immense. Internationally, the music industry has been suffering, particularly due to both legal and illegal downloading of music. Music sales in the United States, for example, shrunk from $11.8 billion to $7.1 billion between 2003 and 2012. The revenue has been reduced by more than half during the same period after adjusting for inflation (“A Decade of iTunes”). In the meantime, Mariko Yasu reported that Japan’s consumer music revenue grew 3% in 2012. This growth enabled Japan to be the world’s largest market. Japan Record Indus- try Association also reported that Japan’s music sales in 2012 was about $4.3 billion, topping that of the United States. Yasu com- mented that “music sales in the country rose for the first time in five years” (“A Decade of iTunes”). Nikkei Weekly reported, “King Record Co. logged an 8.5% gain to 23 billion yen, with the help of... AKB48” (“What Crisis”). Of course, it is not just AKB48 that enabled Japan’s music industry to recover in the early 2010s. But Ikuo Minewaki, presi- dent of Tower Records, one of the largest record stores in Japan, attested, “When we hold an event for an artist, CD sales for that person or band are sometimes as much as 100 times bigger” (“Music Stores Look”). With the frequency of handshake events, general elections, and other fan events that AKB48 is involved in, it is no surprise that the band contributes substantially to the Japanese music industry. The sales trend of 2011 in Japan that saw 16% increase was a sharp contrast to the 50% decline in the world (“Music Stores”). In 2012, an AKB48 fan “reportedly spent US$6700 to secure 2700 votes in online auctions” to support his favorite singer (McCurry, “Japan Gripped”). Such a rise in CD sales is particularly intriguing as the music industry in general suffers from illegal music downloading and sharing that does not benefit the industry. Fans who wish to secure a ballot for their favorite singer have no choice but buy a CD. As noted above, some buy more than one copy. This CD-marketing strategy is significantly different from the cases with Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and Adele who refused to have their music streamed online so that they could be properly compensated for their artistic work (Sisario). AKB48 promotes its CD sales by attaching a special 34 Yuya Kiuchi right for fans—ballots, invitations to attend special events, oppor- tunities to play a special game, and so on,—to CDs. The popularity of the group as attested by the sales figures and its impact on the Japanese market in general can also be attributed to several other reasons. One of them is what is called “sister projects.” These projects are similar to AKB48 but in different locations.