The twittos unanimously scandalized. This Thursday, December 1, 2022 on France 2, Special Envoy offered a shock report on idols in Japan, these young girls venerated by a majority of men, sometimes old, ready to pay dearly to approach them. While the report showed an idol only seven years old, many Internet users expressed anger and disgust.
This Thursday, December 1, 2022 on France 2, Special Envoy was first interested in the galley of transport, in particular in Hauts-de-France and in Île-de-France, as well as in the failures of CAF. But around 8 p.m., the show completely changed course by offering a report on a more surprising subject: Japanese idols. In Japan, young “kawaii” women are real consumer products for men, who are sometimes much older than them. Spotted by agencies, they are trained to perform on stage as singers, dancers, and develop a style and mimicry of women-children. But they have nothing of inaccessible stars. What makes these idols special is precisely that their fans can approach them.
After the concerts, the latter pay to have the chance to talk to them one minute alone. Some idols even offer dinner parties for several fans or private sports lessons. But the rules are very strict: no physical contact is allowed, no one can ask them for their phone number or give them an appointment elsewhere. It’s “platonic love,” as the report states. And the idols are forbidden to have a real love life in parallel with their activity, under penalty of being let go by their agent.
“All this thinly veiled pedophilia…”
Viewers have met Noji, a 63-year-old man who regularly buys the company of Mizuki, a 22-year-old singer with whom he is in love. This economic journalist devotes no less than a sixth of his salary to this passion. He thus offers himself 50-minute discussions with the young woman for the sum of 110 euros, buys personalized video messages and does not hesitate to queue several times after his concerts, to grab a few minutes of attention. . If the man is aware that all this “remains fictional, like in a manga or a film”, his feelings seem difficult to control: “when I see her having a good time with other fans, it hurts me … “.
Noji has already been in love with a dozen young girls. And he hides nothing about this aspect of his life from his wife: “He is always on social networks, it rings all the time. At one time he even used my salary, and I told him that’s enough”, explains this last. However, although she says she does not understand her, this Japanese woman does not seem more shocked than that by her husband’s passion. In Japan, a country where the possession of child pornography was only banned in 2014, this business has indeed become commonplace… it is however very tendentious: the report thus showed that the phenomenon of idols could concern very young girls, even little girls.
Seven-year-old Yono was spotted by an agency on the streets of Tokyo. The one who takes singing, dancing and modeling lessons, performs every weekend with her group. The age difference with the men who come to admire her is enormous: “you are very beautiful. You know I have a lot of photos but if I post too many, I will look sick”, one of them told him after the concert. “What I like is that they are imperfect, incomplete, that’s what touches me,” he then explains to the journalist. It is difficult not to question this fetishism for little girls, nor the responsibility of the parents who accept the situation: Yono’s mother, who maintains that she does not do this for the money but for the development of her daughter who, according to her, has become “less shy”, admits all the same to be a little worried. A man once “patted” his daughter’s head on the train after a concert, then followed her down the stairs. She also notices looks… On Twitter, this striking report had the effect of a bomb. Many Internet users have expressed their disgust at this unhealthy activity. Their strong words lived up to their outrage.