Junior idol
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In Japan, a Junior Idol (ジュニアアイドル?), alternatively Child (チャイドル?) or Low Teen (ローティーン?) idol, is primarily defined as a child or early teenager pursuing a career as a photographic model. Child actors, and J-pop singers (whose musical genre is often termed idol pop) can also be considered junior idols, and are often featured in photobooks and image DVDs.
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The coining of the term Child idol (チャイドル?) is attributed to columnist Akio Nakamori and dates back to the mid-1990s, a period marked by significant increase in the number of child models and works involving individuals in that age range. Eventually, this neologism fell out of use and was replaced by 'Junior Idol'.
There exists not a clear set of guidelines regarding the age at which an individual becomes a junior idol: Yumi Adachi, for instance, started her modeling career at age two and many other idols have starred in image DVDs at the ages of three, four and five. It can therefore be postulated even a new-born girl posing for one of the aforementioned products can be considered a junior idol for as long as she performs and is under the age of eighteen.
Within this group there are several subcategories designated by a simple code in the format of U-[N] where U is short for the English word "Under" and [N] represents the maximum age. While U-18 is a clean division, all other divisions can overlap by as much as a year. This is slightly counterintuitive when using the English definition as even a model who has technically passed their fifteenth birthday can potentially still be referred to as "U-15." The primary divisions are divided by years U-18, U-15, and U-12 but there are also more recent partitions designated as U-10, U-6, and U-3 to reflect changes in the marketplace and idol fan communities.
The majority of junior idols belong to specialized talent agencies, some of which offer acting and voice training and are geared towards the production of television commercials, photobooks and related materials. Though sources indicate revenue is relatively low for photographic models, a number of idols (and their parents) see this activity as a gateway to more mainstream media roles[1]. These transitions are indeed frequent, one example being the case of Saaya Irie who was cast into the live action adaptation of the popular anime series Hell Girl and several other television programs.
Content is a available in a plethora of formats, usually physical goods such as bond photo-books, CDs and DVDs, but also digital content in the form Portable Document Format books, JPEG photo sets, high resolution movie clips, etc. In order to promote a particular idol, or to celebrate the release of a specific title, certain stores hold special events where fans get to meet the idols, shake hands with them, obtain autographs or take photographs, either polaroids or pictures taken with the customers' own cameras, in accordance with the amount of money spent on related goods (either regular DVDs, photobooks, etc or multiple copies of the same title.)
Concerning the contents of the titles put on sale, these include, in general terms, pictures or footage of the idols trying out a variety of outfits, such as school uniforms, bathing suits, gym clothes, yukata or even maid, police and anime inspired costumes.
Some services providers, such as Imouto Club (清純いもうと倶楽部 Seijun Imōto Kurabu?)—a subscription-based website—also feature short radio and movie dramas, available for download and later purchase on DVD.
According to the Japanese Anti-child prostitution and pornography law enacted in November of 1999—revised in 2004 in order to criminalize the distribution of child pornography over the Internet—child pornography is defined as the depiction "in a way that can be recognized visually, such a pose of a child relating to sexual intercourse or an act similar to sexual intercourse with or by the child", of "a pose of a child relating to the act of touching genital organs, etc." or the depiction of "a pose of a child who is naked totally or partially in order to arouse or stimulate the viewer's sexual desire."[2]
Given the above adumbrated definition, junior idol materials stand on legally ambiguous grounds: it is often difficult to draw the line between art and pornography.[3]
Despite the inherent difficulties in effectively enforcing a ban on such materials, on August 25, 2007 the Japanese branch of Amazon.com removed over 600 junior idol titles on grounds the likelihood these were produced in violation of the Japanese anti-child prostitution and pornography law was high.[4] This incident was then followed by the arrest—on October 16—of 34 year old Jisei Arigane (有金慈青?) chief producer of Shinkosha (新交社?) (a company specialized in idol and pornographic materials, as well as a number of novels and technical texts) and 3 associates over the production of an 'obscene' DVD shot earlier in 2007 in the Indonesian island of Bali, starring Yuki Yamagata (山形由希?), seventeen at the time. The prolonged filming of the girl's genitalia was in violation of Japanese law.[5] Following the incident, the release date of several photobooks and DVDs originally slated for publication in November 2007 was postponed and idol events cancelled.
