Idol

An is a type of entertainer marketed for image, attractiveness, and personality in Japanese pop culture. Idols are primarily singers with training in acting, dancing, and modeling. Idols are commercialized through merchandise and endorsements by talent agencies, while maintaining a parasocial relationship with a financially loyal consumer fan base.

Peculiarities of Japanese idols versus general celebrities of a similar type in Western countries is that the entertainers are usually "young singers, actors, talents who have enthusiastic fans". Their ideal image is that female idols are virgins and male idols have "no sexual contacts". Therefore, regardless of the person's intentions, if the person is an "idol", any scandal with sexual contact involving the opposite sex, especially publicly, or even more benign relationships like being seen at the residence of a significant other, engagement, or marriage, will usually decrease any related merchandise or digital sales.

Types of idols
The diversity of Japan's idol industry has created several sub-category markets, each with a specific concept appealing to certain audiences.


 * Alternative idols
 * Alternative idols, also known as alt-idols or anti-idols, is a term coined by English-speaking communities to describe idol singers that have an image concept and music different from what is considered mainstream, such as having darker images and alternative rock. The alternative idol scene was pioneered by Bis and Seiko Oomori and made popular by Bis' successor BiSH.


 * AV idols (AV アイドル, AV aidoru)
 * AV (adult video) idols generally refer to pornographic actresses and models, with the industry first emerging in the 1980s.


 * Bandols &#91;ja&#93; (バンドル, Bandoru)
 * Bandols are idol groups that play instruments and perform as bands. The term first emerged in the 2000s as a shortening of the phrase, "a new genre of neither bands nor idols" (バンドでもないアイドルでもない新ジャンル, Bando demo nai aidoru demo nai arata janru), which was used to describe the marketing concept of the band Zone.


 * Gravure idols (グラビアアイドル, gurabia aidoru)
 * Gravure idols are models who pose in provocative swimsuit and lingerie photographs in magazines and photo books marketed towards men, similar to pin-up models. In the 1970s, Agnes Lum, whose rose to fame in Japan, is considered the first gravure idol despite the term not existing at the time. Other notable swimsuit models were Shinobu Horie &#91;ja&#93;, Reiko Katō &#91;ja&#93;, and Fumie Hosokawa. After Akiko Hinagata became a rising star in 1995, the term "gravure idol" was coined to describe her. In the 2000s, there was a significant growth in the gravure idol industry, with many women of different body types modeling. This led to sub-category markets in the gravure idol industry to describe their aesthetic and body types, which included "healing" (癒し系, iyashi-kei), "loli" (ロリ), "intelligent" (知性派, chisei-ha), "big breasts" (爆乳, bakunyū), and "sexy swimsuit" (着エロ, mizugi-ero). The gravure idol industry faced a decline in 2010 due to the popularity of AKB48, as some of their members also did gravure modeling; as a result, the demand for newer talents was reduced.


 * Idol voice actors (アイドル声優, Aidoru seiyū)
 * Since the 1970s, several voice actors of anime and video games also held successful singing careers in addition to voice acting. Early examples of voice actors who had an idol-like presence were Mobile Suit Gundam voice actors Toshio Furukawa and Toru Furuya in the 1970s, who gained a sizeable female following after forming their band, Slapstick. In the 1980s, idol singer Noriko Hidaka eventually became a voice actress after gaining recognition for playing lead in Touch. Beginning in the 1990s, several voice actors held successful concurrent singing careers alongside of voice acting, such as Hekiru Shiina, Mariko Kōda, and Megumi Hayashibara. As the anime industry began producing more late-night series in the 2000s, the term "idol voice actor" was popularized when more voice actors with a cultivated fan following began appearing on television. While previous examples involved voice actors who incidentally drew in fans through their singing careers or former idol singers who turned to voice acting, Yui Horie, Yukari Tamura, and Nana Mizuki were intentionally produced and marketed as idol voice actors by their record labels. Around the time when the "Idol Warring Period" was occurring during the mid-to-late 2000s, there was a significant boom in idols voice acting in anime, with Oricon naming Aya Hirano and Koharu Kusumi as examples, as both of them were established actresses and singers in mainstream Japanese entertainment before entering voice acting. Hirano, in particular, was strongly marketed as an idol at the height of her voice acting career, from the late 2000s to the early 2010s. While character song tie-ins were already common in the film industry by then, some voice actors also began making crossover television, stage, and concert appearances as their characters as well, leading them to be closely associated with one another.


 * Japanese-Korean idols (日韓アイドル, Nikkan aidoru)
 * While Japan and South Korea agencies have created collaborative idol groups in the past, with Route 0 in 2002, during the third Korean wave in the mid-to-late 2010s, the term saw usage again to refer to collaborative idol groups promoting primarily in Japan, but with music, styling, marketing, and presentation produced in the K-pop industry. The earliest example is Iz*One in 2018, followed by JO1 in 2019 and NiziU in 2020.


 * Johnny's (ジャニーズ, Janīzu)
 * Male idols contracted to Johnny & Associates are nicknamed "Johnny's idols" by the media and include groups such as SMAP and Arashi, who have led strong careers both individually and as a group. Since the company was founded in 1962 by Johnny Kitagawa, who is credited for pioneering the idol trainee system and popularizing the performance aspect of modern idols, the company has held a monopoly over the male idol industry in Japan, with Kitagawa pressuring the media to reduce coverage on male idols from other companies until his death in 2019. Johnny's idols also rarely get negative press such as scandals due to Kitagawa's influence on the media.


 * Junior idols (ジュニアアイドル, junia aidoru)
 * Junior idols are singers and gravure models who generally are 15 years old and younger. During the 1990s, a number of young girls were recruited to become idols, leading to what media named the "Chidol Boom" (チャイドルブーム), with the term "chidol" (a combination of the words "child" and "idol") coined by journalist Akio Nakamori in the magazine Weekly Spa!. In the 2000s, "chidol" saw fewer usage, and it was eventually replaced by the term "junior idol" to legitimize them as part of the idol industry as well as removing the focus on their age. While the industry is still considered legal in Japan, it has been criticized for sexual exploitation of minors. Many junior idol distributors closed after possession of child pornography was outlawed in Japan in 2014.


 * Local idols &#91;ja&#93; (ローカルアイドル, Rōkaru aidoru)
 * Also written as gotōji aidoru (ご当地アイドル) and chihō aidoru (地方アイドル) or shortened as "locodol" (ロコドル, rokodoru), local idols primarily promote in rural areas in their specific communities, where accessibility to celebrities is limited. The emergence of local idols was traced back to the early 2000s with Perfume and Negicco. The "Idol Warring Period" in the 2010s led to an increase in the number of local idols, with the 2013 television drama Amachan inspiring an accelerated growth. Journalist Mamoru Onoda estimates there are approximately 2,000 local idols active as of 2021. Most of the local idol groups are independently managed, relying on popularity through word-of-mouth. Several local idol groups who have crossed into mainstream media in the 2010s are Rev. from DVL and Dorothy Little Happy, the former after a photo of then-member Kanna Hashimoto went viral on the Internet.


 * Net idols (ネットアイドル, Netto aidoru)
 * Net idols are Internet celebrities who emerged with the accessibility of the Internet in the 1990s, using self-made websites and blogs to discuss their daily lives. Net idols currently conduct the majority of their activities through video streaming websites and social media beginning in the 2000s.


 * Virtual idols (バーチャルアイドル, Bāchuaru aidoru)
 * Virtual idols are digital avatars representing a fictional character or persona. The first fictional idol gaining mainstream crossover Lynn Minmay from Macross in the 1980s. In 1997, Kyoko Date was created as the first virtual idol In 2007, Crypton Future Media released Hatsune Miku as its latest addition to the Vocaloid software, who subsequently saw positive reception from amateur songwriters, with her character and music based on user-generated content. Virtual online streamer Kizuna AI, who first appeared in 2016, led to a boom of Virtual YouTubers (aka "VTubers") who similarly conduct their activities through a digital avatar on YouTube and other streaming websites.


 * Underground idols &#91;ja&#93; (地下アイドル, Chika aidoru)
 * Underground idols are independently managed idols who perform at small venues. Tama Himeno and Kamen Joshi member Tomoka Igari, both underground idols, describe them as being different from mainstream idols (nicknamed "above-ground idols" &#91;地上アイドル, chijō aidoru&#93;) in that underground idols are active through live performances rather than through exposure from mass media or CD releases through major record labels, thus making them more accessible to fans in comparison to mainstream idols. An example Igari used to describe close relationships that underground idols have with their fans is that underground idols will hold handshake events and take instant camera photos (known as "cheki" &#91;チェキ&#93;) with fans after every live performance.


 * Akiba-kei idols &#91;ja&#93; (アキバ系アイドル, Akiba-kei aidoru, lit. "Akihabara-style idols")
 * Akiba-kei idols are type of underground idol based in the Akihabara district of Tokyo, drawing influences from its otaku culture. Music from Akiba-kei idols are generally sold as self-published CDs at Comiket or promoted through Niconico. Akihabara Dear Stage &#91;ja&#93; is a dedicated venue where they perform. While Akiba-kei idols are niche, Haruko Momoi and Dempagumi.inc are cited as an examples of an Akiba-kei idols crossing over to mainstream media. Dempagumi.inc's music producer, Maiko Fukushima, describes the music from Akiba-kei idols as distinct from anime songs, with most composers being "amateurs" and its organic music culture facing a state of the Galápagos syndrome, as they had no direct creative input from J-pop or other music genres. However, Fukushima noted that songs from R-18 games were also key components of Akiba-kei music. In 2007, Vocaloid greatly influenced the growth of Akiba-kei music and idol culture. AKB48, one of Japan's most recognized idol groups nationwide, originated from Akihabara, but it is not considered an Akiba-kei group.

Well-known anime focused on idols

 * AKB0048 or AKB0048: Next Stage anime
 * Any IDOLiSH7 anime
 * Any The iDOLM@STER anime
 * Idoly Pride anime
 * Any Love Live! anime
 * Any Uta no☆Prince-sama♪ anime
 * White Album and White Album 2 anime
 * Zombieland Saga

Well-known manga focused on idols

 * AKB49: The Rules Against Love manga
 * Ensemble Stars! manga
 * Any The iDOLM@STER manga
 * Any Pretty Rhythm manga
 * Any Uta no☆Prince-sama♪ manga
 * Wake Up, Girls! manga