Episode 70: Johnny’s Ultra Music Power feat. Patrick Galbraith

My guest for this episode is the idol scholar Patrick Galbraith. I dunk on “idol studies” a lot on here but his work is really some of the best I’ve encountered on idols in English. You can check out the book we keep referencing is titled Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture (2012) and you can hear more of Patrick on the podcast Japan Station Episode 30 on Otaku and Episode 38 on AKB48.

• Our main topic is the scandal at the Agency Formerly Known as Johnny’s & Associates that exploded in the wake of the 2023 BBC documentary about Johnny’s & Associates founder Johnny Kitagawa’s decades of sexual abuse and the lack of response to that abuse. I wrote about the documentary here and here and you can find the translated passages from Kita Koji’s memoirs here and here. We also discuss Akimoto Yasushi, the producer behind AKB48 and the Onyanko Club who (in)famously married one of the young idols in Onyanko Club in 1988 and has something of a reputation—a reputation that extended to people around him and the company…according to the tabloids.

• I mention the meeting of the idol mogul minds when Akimoto Yasushi met Bang Shi-Hyuk of Hybe née BigHit. There was a massive nationalist backlash at a potential musical collaboration with BTS in 2018 but as AKB48 joined Hybe’s premiere product, Weverse, earlier this year, one suspects the relationship between the two remains friendly. Patrick mentions Akimoto trying to position AKB48 as “national idols” to the foreign media to mixed results; Bang followed this model in positioning BTS as “national idols” to the foreign press to much better results.

• Patrick (correctly) mentions the slew of “new masculinity” papers in the wake of SMAP’s popularity as an earlier incarnation of what we’re seeing in “K-Pop Studies” today with fan scholars seeing what they want to see.

• Dream Girls (1994) remains the best documentary on the Takarazuka Theater Troupe in English. The current scandal hasn’t really broken through to English language news the way that the Johnny Kitagawa scandal has but there is some coverage from English language sources in Japan. The company maintains that there has been no bullying but considers reevaluating the intense work culture. For what it’s worth, I’m a massive fan of Takarazuka and hope that they can improve conditions for the actresses without destroying the tradition.

• Patrick mentions ex-SMAP Katori Shingo’s bulking up as a reaction to the “Flower Boy” image. In K-Pop, idols have spoken about forced skinship and gay fan service. You can hear more about Shingo’s art exhibit in episode 63.

(L-R: SMAP in their early years with Shingo (born in 1977) to the far right; Shingo in 2004 on the cover of Anan; as his female avatar “Shingo-Mama”; and Shingo today at his art exhibit “Who Am I?”)

• The article on what happens to bulk bought CDs.

• Baldur’s Gate 3 is being censored in Japan.

• Go Hiromi, ex-Johnny’s & Associates talent, still glittering away into his golden years.

• Golden Bomber still putting out fun tunes…

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The tracks played are:

1. これっきりバイバイ by Moritaka Chisato

2. “DAYDREAM” by Yamashita Tatsuro

3. 青いイナズマ by SMAP

4. ボクの背中には羽根がある by Kinki Kids (Official MV)

5. セーラ服をぬがさないで by Onyanko Club

6. しらゆき by Aqua5 (the short lived “Idol Group” formed from very popular Takarazuka actresses)

7. “Delicious” by the Boys (Official MV)

8. ウオー！サオー！ by Yogayonara (Official MV)

9. 初心LOVE by Naniwa Danshi (Official MV)