Idols%20and%20Celebrity%20in%20Japanese%20Media%20Culture

Introduction: The Mirror of Idols and Celebrity 25
the idol, interactions between members of the group, or interactions
between groups (Shūkan Pureibōi 2011c).
Today, we are in what Playboy calls the “hyper idol age” (chō aidoru
jidai) (Shūkan Pureibōi 2011b), when the presence of idols in Japanese
media culture seems as inevitable as it does irredeemable. The “hyper”
here also refers to “hypercapitalism” (Graham 2006), or a highly saturated
media environment that produces celebrity spectacle for the purpose
of promoting goods and services. Under hypercapitalism, notions
of value become increasingly abstract as media companies seek to position
consumers as fans (see Chapter 3 in this volume for a discussion of
the “affective attunement” of audiences to idols). Fan behaviors, even
those once attributed to hardcore fans (otaku, discussed in Chapter 9
of this volume), are spreading to all segments of society (see Chapter 8 in
this volume about middle-aged and older women engaged in fantasy
relationships with idols). Marketing to fan audiences in Japan today
involves translating the sense of familiarity and intimacy with the
idol into action. Hypercapitalism has extolled the myth of consumer
agency to convince consumers that they are empowered to choose
what they consume. However, as Arjun Appadurai (1996, 42) argues,
this “fetishism of the consumer” is nothing more than a “mask for
the real seat of agency, which is not the consumer but the producer.”
The power in the Japanese media of the idol producer specifically,
and the entertainment management company (or agency) generally,
demonstrates this. They create idols—literally, in the case of virtual idols
(see Chapter 10 in this volume). Another rendering of the “hyper idol
age” might be the “transcended idol age,” when idols are no longer
bound to any specific time, place, or body (see Chapter 9 in this volume
for a discussion of female idols as images and Chapter 4 for a discussion
of male idols as icons). It seems that potentially everyone can be an idol,
and idols are potentially everywhere.
It is worth noting also that idols now seem to be “transcending”
the limitations of their role promoting consumption. After the devastating
earthquake and tsunami that struck northeast Japan on 11
March 2011 and the nuclear contamination that followed, idols and
celebrity performers in Japan launched into charity activities that challenge
the assumption that they are “simulacra of intertextual images
devoid of political or moral meaning.” For example, AKB48 postponed
sales of their much anticipated third album (bringing the suffering of
the earthquake, often experienced as far away from Tokyo, into the lives
of fans); just days after the earthquake, their management company—
AKS, along with Akimoto Yasushi and the members of all the groups he