In lieu of our traditional opening ad read, I just want to start things off by reminding folks that the Netflix documentary I worked on, Age of Samurai Battle for Japan, releases in the United States and the United Kingdom next week, February 24th.

It was a lot of fun to work on this project, and I'm really excited to see it come together after some delays thanks to COVID and just generally the editing and shooting process.

So if you're at all interested in the subject, please do check it out when it releases on Netflix next week.

I hope it's as much fun for you all to watch as it was for me to work on.

Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 378, A Star is Born.

This week, I want to take on a topic that I have literally been getting requests for since like 2014.

However, I've avoided it until now, because it's well outside my zone of expertise.

But I've finally had some time to read up and think about how to approach this, so let's talk

about the history of the idol scene in Japan.

And before I get into this, I should note my own relationship to this topic.

Specifically, I don't really have one.

I'm not really a fan of idle groups

or idol music, just because pop music in general is not so much my thing in any language.

Frankly, my introduction to the whole genre involved college-level seminars on modern Japan,

which talked mostly about how problematic the industry is, which, believe me,

we are going to talk about, and that's not really the sort of thing that sets you up to become a

big fan. But I'll do my best, I promise, to talk about this with an open mind.

I also want to note this is not going to be an episode on a specific idol group or groups,

but on the idol phenomenon more generally.

What is it? Where did it come from?

And what have its impacts been on modern Japanese consumer culture and society at large?

So if you're looking for a history of Japan episode on a specific singer or idol or group,

...