Asian Young Idols

Asian Young Idols
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AN 11-YEAR-OLD Japanese girl wearing a French maid outfit sings and dances on stage for a crowd of middle-aged men, who hungrily photograph and film her every move.
Despite the disturbingly sexual element of the event, the child's mum happily takes her along – this is just what it takes to make it as a junior idol.
Junior idols are singers and models who are marketed as stars from a very young age in Japan, which can even include pre-teen children.
Although some see it as a way of building an audience before adulthood, the junior idol subculture has been criticised for sexualising young girls for an audience overwhelmingly made up of middle-aged men.
And in a country where possession of child sex abuse images wasn't made illegal until 2014, many think the practice is dangerous.
Now a new Marcel Theroux documentary, Unreported World: Schoolgirl Pin-Ups, delves into the creepy culture by following one junior idol's quest for stardom.
"I think it’s dangerous," one junior idols tells Theroux when asked if other fans in the culture are sexually attracted to children.
"Of course, not everyone has this feeling. But when I talk to them, many are dangerous.”
The Channel 4 documentary covers the life of Yune – who was scouted into the seedy junior idol business when she was just six years old.
Now 11, she's constantly working to grow her audience in Japan, which boasts the second biggest music industry on Earth.
“I’ve always dreamed of standing on stage at the Budokan," Yune tells Theroux, referring to the 14,500-seater Tokyo stadium that's hosted the likes of The Beatles and Taylor Swift.
To help her realise Yune's pop star dream, her mum takes her to junior idol gigs and helps her with her weekly broadcasts on a live streaming app called Showroom.
“I think for Yune, people come for her singing voice,” Yune's mum tells Theroux.
But she also recognises there's a darker side to the junior idol business, keeping her address a secret and carefully moderating all the comments on Yune's livestreams before her daughter sees them.
In one broadcast, which is watched by over 100 fans, Yune sings: "Give me, give me your love, kiss me baby, won’t you pamper me sometimes?"
At the end of the broadcast, in which adult fans can send her cash presents, one 38-year-old man tells her she's "very beautiful".
Despite the questionable comments, Yune's mum isn't worried.
"We have to think of a balance," she tells Theroux. "One doesn’t have to see what one doesn’t have to see.
"But when you’re trying to achieve something, there will always be obstacles.”
Even seedier than the livestreams are the live shows, in which 200 men flock into a concert hall to see a showcase of the girls in the flesh.
After the £30 performance, fans can then queue up to meet the children afterwards, paying another £7 for a CD or signed Polaroid.
But many fans just want to have their photo taken with the junior idols themselves – one even asks Yune to handcuff herself to him in a picture.
"This kind of culture is kind of a little bit growing and blooming in Japan, but still, most of the Japanese think it’s not a good culture," one fan tells Theroux.
"We enjoy her performance in a gentleman’s way, so no pressure, no harassment, but we support her play and her growing up.”
The 38-year-old who told Yune she was beautiful on the livestream even pays extra to do his own private photo shoots of her after shows.
The superfan, called Koji, slavishly attends Yune's gigs, even travelling to Taiwan and the Philippines to watch her.
“I do find it really weird," Theroux says. "There’s something strange about seeing these middle-aged men who are basically starstruck by these 11-year-old girls.”
Even Yune's own manager understands what he's exposing the little girl to.
"I can’t judge if the audience is watching in a sexual way," Mr Karimata tells Theroux.
"All I can do is protect her if someone in the room tries to touch her.”
The disturbing sexual element of her followers is also something the men who follow her recognise.
"Normal people think we are creepy," Koji says.
"Wherever I go, people think the same way.”
But when pressed if junior idols fans are sexually attracted to children, Koji confirms the grim reality.
“To be honest there were fans of Yune like that. I think it’s dangerous," he says.
"Of course, not everyone has this feeling. But when I talk to them, many are dangerous.”
Some people who have studied the junior idol phenomenon think part of the obsession stems from Japan's epidemic of loneliness.
Over 12million adults under the age of 40 in the country - which has a population of 126.5million - aren't in a relationship, leading to a whole service industry catering to satisfying the needs of lonely men.
One notorious example are the "maid cafes", in which blokes pay to be served drinks by young girls dressed as french maids.
“For people who come [to maid cafes] their actual life and families seem false, like a fake world," says Prof Masahiro Yamada, a sociologist who has studied loneliness in Japan.
"When they come here, they feel more like themselves."
Prof Yamada estimates that a quarter of all Japanese people under 40 won't ever get married, and they turn to alternative "virtual love" to fill the gap.
"People are looking for a fantasy family, such as a sister, mother or lover," he says.
"In the case of idols, it’s a daughter. Satisfying people who want a fantasy family has become a business.”
But despite loneliness being a factor in the spread of the junior idol subculture, Theroux remains wary of its risks.
“If I’m right, the junior idol industry is playing with fire, gratifying desires that would be criminal if acted upon," he says.
"As Yune treads her difficult path towards stardom, I just hope that those around her will continue to keep her safe."
Unreported World: Schoolgirl Pin-Ups is on Channel 4 on Friday, 7th August, at 7.30pm.
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January 26, 2018 published at 5:41 AM
Tokyo - In a cramped and dark venue in a sleazy Tokyo district, dozens of middle-aged men cheer at a performer on stage: The object of their adoration is a six-year-old girl.
Decked out in make-up with ribbons in her hair, Ai is dressed like an adult, but still looks very much a child.
She is a so-called "idol" singer - common in Japan, where rights groups have complained that society's sometimes permissive view of the sexualisation of young girls puts minors at risk.
It was only in 2015 that possessing child pornography was criminalised and authorities are struggling to bring the country into line with other advanced nations on the issue.
In the crowd at an idols show, Soichiro Seki, 40, says he watches young girls on stage twice a week. He insists he goes just to encourage the performers and feels no shame.
But he did concede that other fans objectify them.
"(For them) coming to a concert like this and visiting a hostess club in Kabukicho are essentially the same thing," he said, referring to Tokyo's major red-light district.
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Idol Tama Himeno, who has performed on stage since the age of 16, says the men attending her shows worship the performers and crave communication with young girls that they cannot get elsewhere.
Most fans are "pure," insists Himeno, now 24, although she admits she was once offered 30,000 yen ($260) for her used pantyhose.
"Men idolising young girls is relatively accepted in Japan," said Himeno, citing the "Tale of Genji", an 11th-century classic depicting a nobleman's romantic relationships with women, as well as a small girl.
For Ai's manager Hidenori Okuma, the men are attracted by the thought of contact with a "girl next door".
"Meeting and chatting with high-school idols has become so popular," said Okuma.
"It's now less embarrassing to admit you like young girls. Now they (male fans) say they prefer primary school girls, without hesitation." .
Ai's mother, Mami Yamazaki, says her daughter has wanted to be an "idol" singer since she watched an anime cartoon about young girls striving for stardom.
"On television, you see kids acting in dramas and commercials. In magazines, children are modelling clothes. What Ai is doing is not much different," she says, despite the audience for idol shows being mainly adult males.
Yamazaki, 26, herself played in a band as a teenager and sees her daughter's performances as a way into the popular and lucrative world of idols.
It can be a pathway to fame, as demonstrated by Japan's AKB48 band, one of the most successful acts of all time, who started in a small stage in Tokyo's Akihabara, with the youngest member aged 11.
But getting a foothold into the idol scene means the child has to interact with adult fans, taking photos together and autographing the backs of their t-shirts.
"It must be a bizarre sight" for foreigners, admits Himeno but she stresses any sexual advances are an absolute "no-no."
Japan's battle against paedophilia is well documented. The number of minors abused in child pornography has risen five-fold in the past decade, according to official figures.
Police have failed to stamp out so-called JK (Joshi Kosei, or high school girls) businesses, which offer men services such as going for a walk with a teenage girl so the customers have a chance to negotiate for sex.
Quasi-pornographic "chaku-ero", or clothed eroticism - images of small children posing in tiny swimsuits - are easily found on the Internet, slipping through a legal loophole.
Lawyer Keiji Goto, who campaigns for minors' rights, says the problem is a social one.
Many Japanese think that sexually objectifying young girls is not taboo but rather "just falls into a grey zone," said Goto.
Japan is far from being the only place with a problem of sexualising children.
In America, concerns have been raised about the hyper-sexualisation of children appearing in beauty pageants, as well as on reality shows such as "Toddlers and Tiaras." And the French Parliament in 2014 adopted a ban on "mini miss" competitions for girls younger than 13, prompted by controversy over a 2010 Vogue magazine photo shoot featuring provocative images of a 10-year-old.
But in Japan, there has been little public debate of the issue.
Psychiatrist Hiroki Fukui, who also treats paedophiles, says the awareness in Japan that children need to be protected from potential sexual predators is "so low." He explained: "We need to realise this situation in Japan is not normal." Shihoko Fujiwara, the representative of an NGO that helps victims of human trafficking and sexual abuse, warned of a dangerous mindset.
"The girls will think to themselves the audience is crazy about them because they are small girls and because their value will reduce once they get to the age of 18.
"A society that allows children to have such a twisted self-identity can never protect them."

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