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Are Japanese Idols Still a Thing or Are they just not promoted on Youtube at all like they used to be a little more in past years?


https://www.statista.com/statistics/1290757/japan-most-popular-female-idol-group/

I found this page. And from that and reading other pages. It doesn't seem Japanese idols are much of a thing anymore.( Just few ones, and then more and more Korean influenced ones). The Japanese idols used to be popular in the 2010s or even 2000s. I had a chance to see them in International channel ( Cable tV) and then in youtube. But now i search even in japanese and most what comes up is old 14 year, 11 year old, 8 year old videos of groups that probably not active anymore.

But then recenly last year or year before there was even an Anime, you may know it, about Idols as if it's a big thing. So either i'm stupid and don't know how to search( cause i'm not finding even web pages that actually introduce current 2025 idols ), or idols are just not a thing anymore in Japan?

I don't know. ANybody care to share what they know and how it works now?

Why was it easy before and there were many active idol groups but now there's just seems to be a few in youtube with many now being Korean influenced. And when i search web or youtube "Japanese idols introduction" or something like that even in japanese , instead of getting that i get results about Kpop idols.

PS. I'm not a obsessive about this just interested in the culture and especially since i see pages and videos that talk about Japanese idols but they don't really show what idols are the ones active currently.

by WittyVermicelli4097

5 Comments

  2. EnoughDatabase5382

    The very existence of the TOKYO IDOL FESTIVAL, held each summer, indicates a large number of idols and a healthy market.

  3. Blackisrafil

    They’re definitely a thing, especially the Sakamichi series.

    Check out Sakurazaka46 (The most explosive group out there)

    Nogizaka46 (The first of the groups that focuses on beauty and elegance)

    Hinatazaka46 (The split group that was born from Hiragana Keyakizaka46 who Sakurazaka46 were)

    Then theres Boku Ga Mitakatta Aozara who have now become the new rivals of Nogizaka46 (Previously it was AKB48)

    Then you have the 48 series who have lost a lot of stardom, but all their groups are still releasing great music (Especially SKE48 imo)

    Then you have other idol groups like Cutie street, Fruits Zipper, etc who are pretty huge, especially with a lot of my female students.

    Oh and the groups produced by Sashihara Rino (Former AKB member)
    =Love
    ≠Me
    ≒Joy

    Those three groups were much more popular than I thought when I come to live in Japan I realized.

  4. Nakajima_Kitto

    I think it’s a bit of perception bias aggravated by physical disc market evolution. As someone who lives and works in Japan, I don’t subjectively get the sense that anything’s really changed and there is still a lot of activity around idol groups; but on the other hand idol culture is and always has been a niche market within the mainstream music consumer population, and back when Japan was much more cloistered from the rest of the world, the novelty and visibility of idol culture as something “representative” in the rest of the world’s perception of Japan (both good and bad) amplified it to seem bigger than it really was. Now that the Japanese music market is more open and accessible to outsiders, everything else that used to get overlooked is now being categorized as JPOP alongside idols, thus comparatively lessening the attention paid toward the latter.

    Also, while I never was personally a part of the female idol fandom, my outsider’s recollection is that a lot of word-of-mouth hype and media activity is driven by physical CD campaigns (goods with purchase, raffles for in-person events, etc.). And while physical media is still a VERY big part of the domestic market (certainly compared to anywhere else), Japan has finally seemed to cross the point of no return toward digital distribution, so while such physical CD campaigns still happen, they’re hyper-targeted and localized toward existent fans and are overlooked and forgotten by general audiences. A core fan will still engage with such, but a light user/average consumer probably won’t, so no point in spending marketing dollars on such persons but as a result the broad impact appears lighter.

  5. Expensive_Giraffe398

    I see a lot on Youtube. The way to find them at least for me is to listen to Kpop and then Jpop will start appearing in your algorithm.

    I’ve been noticing than many new Jpop groups are being influenced by Kpop.

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