The 4th Installment Report on Talk Series on “Inequality, Stereotypes, and Stigma in Leisure”

Akira Tanaka (2021 Research Assistant of the B’AI Global Forum)

・Date & Venue: Friday, July 2, 2021, 17:00‐18:00 (JST) @Zoom Meeting
・Talk: “Idols and the Structure of Oppression: Norms and Distortions in Leisure Spaces”
・Speaker: Mana Kamioka (Graduate School of Human Relations, Keio University)
・Language: Japanese
・Moderator: Yuko Itatsu (Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, the University of Tokyo)
(Click here for details on the event)

On July 2, 2021, the B’AI Global Forum held the fourth instalment of talk series on “Inequality, Stereotypes, and Stigma in Leisure.” In this meeting, Ms. Mana Kamioka from Keio University, who studies the Japanese idol industry (Japanese often refer to the so-called pop stars as “idols”), talked about the repression that occurs in their labor, and in particular the problems related to “forced heterosexism” that lies behind it.

First, she explained that Japanese idols, similar to care workers, are oppressed in various norms. According to her, they are easily replaceable because they often pose unskilled labor and encourage their fans to consume the process of their personal growth. Moreover, they need to expose their entire daily lives and therefore prioritize entertainment activities including “unscheduled shootings.” As a result, despite its piece-work system, they cannot freely get income from other part-time jobs, so they cannot help relying on support from their families to make ends meet. Behind this, Kamioka analyzes, there is the structurally imprinted sense of the power relationships such as “my production company allows me to work.”

She also pointed out that many fans portray Japanese idols as objects of pseudo-romance. Since this image is supported by heterosexism and gender binary, the female idol groups such as AKB48 are forbidden to have romantic relationships. On the contrary, she introduced the idol group “Nichome no Sakigake Coming Out,” whose members are all gays. While taking advantage of the needs to consume abstract emotions such as empathy and healing, this group focuses on music rather than pseudo-romance, as it straightforwardly incorporates the anxieties of sexual minorities into their music.

Overall, from her presentation, we could understand that the idol industry packages personalities as entertainment, making the structural repression and distortions behind it invisible. And then, we discussed the way of consumption as well as the norms on the producers’ side. The issue on care workers and their labor in such popular culture needs to be examined more, and this research meeting was an excellent opportunity to recognize how important this issue is.