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Here’s the latest example of why idol culture in Japan is so horrifying: idols being sued for having boyfriends. I really wish I was joking about this, but I’m not.
Link via aicnanime and vivian_games, who also had this to say:
The Reality of Idol Culture In Japan, Part 2
14 Sunday Sep 2014
Posted in anime, Social Commentary
Technically, they’re probably being sued for breach of contract. Not that having people sign contracts promising not to date is a good thing either, but I have to assume that the contracts were actually read before being signed.
Agreed as to the nature of the contracts. I assume the parents read them (since they’re included in the suits & the idols would have been minors at the time).
The real issue of course is the underlying business model that makes contracts like that exist in the first place.
I definitely agree that contracts like that existing to begin with are a major issue in themselves. Still, I have to wonder just what the girls (or the girls’ guardians) are thinking when they sign these types of contracts. Problems like this can only persist if other people actually let them.
True, and to be fair it’s been open knowledge that recording contracts in the west are basically designed to screw artists over as well.
And yet people queued up (or used to) for the chance to sign those as well.
I can understand why record companies would want to make Idols appear innocent and available, but suing them for having a relationship is a bit much.
This is what happens when your business model essentially boils down to selling sex fantasies about virgins.
You also get the previous AKB48 example where the young woman makes a tearful “apology” (including shaving her head) whilst the man basically gets away with it.
Crazy stuff. Reminds me of boybands that have to keep their girlfriends a secret from the public.
I doubt that the two are equivalent in terms of the levels of censure/humiliation directed at the boyband members vs idols in similar situations.
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