CNN recently interviewed Yasushi Akimoto, the mastermind behind ubiquitously popular Japanese idol group AKB48. Take a look at the transcript here, it’s an interesting read. In this post I want to take a look at what it all means and maybe provide some context as a springboard for the comments section.

The big takeaway was the interviewer’s sharp questions about how the group sexualizes girls as young as 13 or 14. Akimoto denied it and said he is just creating art about the real issues faced by girls that age.

The interview has generated some interesting reactions. The message board site 2channel was divided, with one admitting that a video making two girls kiss is stepping over the line, while some drew equivalencies with the US entertainment industry where young girls are occasionally promoted similarly.

In the English language blogosphere, reactions included calling the interview “interesting and horrible all at once” and one Japanese blogger (culled from Google) who defended the group: “it is natural that an idol dresses excessively.”

As a Westerner used to American pop culture and values, it obviously looks weird to see a group of underage and underage-looking performers so brazenly sexualized.

That is all well and good, but to provide some context I think there are a few important things to point out.

First, there is a big industry of “idols” in Japan that are used in all manner of pop culture, and have long been promoted in weekly manga, DVDs, music releases, and TV appearances for some who crossed over. AKB48 came from this tradition and proceeded to completely dominate it. The tactics they used were a bit more creative, and the promoters ramp up the sexy innuendo just a tad more than is typical for a different idol group.

Second, AKB48 is presented in wildly different ways to different audiences, and I think this is key to their crossover appeal. Once upon a time Japanese TV was notorious for raunchy exploitative content. The exploitation remains but the raunchiness has been toned down quite a bit. As far as I can tell, the AKB48 shown in commercials and TV shows has no girl-on-girl action and only a level of sexiness on par with a K-Pop idol group. Their appearance on public broadcaster NHK’s year-end music special (catch this clip on YouTube) was totally family friendly, for instance.

But then there is the other AKB48 presented to the hardcore fans and young men. This includes their ongoing dominance in the color photos in weekly manga, the YouTube videos, the DVDs, and on and on. Here the sexiness is ramped up to near-porn levels to entertain the fans and keep them coming back.

Thing is, very rarely will the mainstream be subject to the sleazier side of AKB48. The CNN interview did just that and made them look unseemly even to many Japanese. That AKB48 can get away with this is kind of amazing.

Also, because of this multi-pronged marketing strategy, the group means different things to different people. In Akimoto’s words:

Every person listening to their music and watching DVDs have different opinions of AKB48. In other words, because the girls are really cute, the attraction for some people is that they imagine them as their girlfriends or their idols. Girls who are around the same age as the AKB girls try to become like them and work really hard towards that. With the older generations, it’s not that they are striving to realize their dreams like AKB, but they want to cheer the girls on. This idea has spread quickly.

So beyond the hardcore target audience of young to middle-aged males, other people have come to like the group as well, even if they don’t buy the CDs. By dint of becoming popular and being attractive enough, they have gained a legitimacy and likability that makes them suitable to be put on TV and in advertising.

Finally, it’s also worth mentioning that one of the biggest reasons Japanese consumers like idols or boy bands etc. even if they aren’t traditionally “talented” is that they can identify with all the hard work the people put in. As he mentioned in the above quote, Akimoto knows people will want to support a group if they can see how hard they are working.

This was one of the core insights that SMAP had in the 1990s that has translated into possibly a lifetime of consistent fame. From Philip Brasor’s excellent Media Mix column:

Because they appear on TV so often, the five men, ranging in age from 34 to 39, have occasionally admitted that they know they aren’t talented. It isn’t just false modesty. They aren’t talented; at least, not in the way that people profiled on “The Professional” usually are. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t professionals. They are professional idols… Idols don’t have to be capable, because they represent the hopes and dreams of people who will never be idols. That’s why they do more talking than singing in concert. It’s why SMAP spent so much time on its Chinese stage patter. “We have to become partners with the audience,” Kusanagi said, laying out the whole purpose of idolhood.

Akimoto denies being a businessman, but all evidence points to him being a major creative force not just in putting the group together but also in formulating the marketing strategy. If nothing else, he deserves credit as, to borrow the words of music critic J Smooth, an “evil scientist of pop music” who has managed to create this amazingly successful group.