Pop Culture

The most prevalent form of pop culture, especially among girls, is music. Many music artists in Japan are with a group of people rather than singing alone. These bands are also often referred to as idols. The groups are usually very large and they seem to be created by larger figures such as label companies than the singers themselves. For example, for the boy groups, many stem from a group of boy idols called “Johnny and Associates.” When the boys become older their music groups are formed out of these groups. While at first I found this to be a rigid process, I realized that it can be seen as a natural product of Japanese culture. Through this process of being the “Johnny and Associates” back up dancers to the idols, you learn through experience where you are expected to look up toward the older and experienced people who have come before you. While to outsiders of Japanese culture, the job of these idols is to produce music, their real job seems to be popular and to entertain rather than to sing. For example, my host mother told me that when she was young non of the idol groups could sing very well, but they were still very popular. Physical appearance, of course, has a lot to do with this. The idols of Japan are unavoidable. You see them on television shows, television commercials, vending machines, collectable merchandise (as seen above in the picture), and you hear them while walking on the streets or through the hall ways of a karaoke business. There is one drink that you can buy at a conbini that comes with a collectable keychain of a band member. One of my students at my middle school had a huge collection on her backpack.



PURIKURA! Japan is very good at making things I wouldn’t want to do very fun. I learned about purikura when I was very young and it was the first aspect of Japanese pop culture that I learned. Simply put, purikura is just a photobooth that you go to with friends and take pictures. However, these are highly sophisticated photobooths compared to the ones in the United States and you have to be very fast to operate them. Purikura machines have amazing photoshop capabilities. You can change the tone of your skin, add very fun backgrounds, and write whatever you want on top of them. Purikura seems to be an easy icebreaker of sorts for meeting new friends. I’ve met people for the first time only hours or minutes before doing purikura with them and the first day my host sister and I were free together we went off to take purikura. This seems to be the equivalent of going out for coffee in the US. The pictures come out as stickers, which are sometimes put into books, or can be sent to a cell phone. The picture above is of the SICErs favorite purikura location. Purikura areas seem to be usually located near game centers.