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Last fall, Fuji TV premiered a half-hour series called Love Love Aishiteru. Co-hosted by the teenage singing/comedy duo Kinki Kids and veteran singer-songwriter Yoshida Takuro, Love Love is what is known in Japan as a "variety show," meaning that it is essentially a talk show centered around a theme, a gimmick, a strong personality, or any combination of the three. The theme of Love Love is music, since Yoshida is considered one of the main forces behind Japan's early 1970s folk music boom, but most of the half hour is taken up by light conversation between that week's guest and Kinki Kids, who, owing to their sharp sense of humor and huge popularity among adolescent girls, provide the show with its strong personalities. Yoshida, for the most part, sits uncomfortably to the side during these chats. The show's gimmick is its band, which includes several of Japan's most respected musicians and singers. Yoshida and Kinki Kids sing on the show, but the guest always sings a song, too.
One night, the guest was Osaka comedian Akashiya Sanma, who is more than twice as old as either of the Kinki Kids and about a decade younger than Yoshida. At one point in the conversation, Akashiya tried to explain the importance of Yoshida's music to his own generation. "Yoshida was like a god," he said, "like...." He paused, trying to come up with an analogy that these youngsters would understand. Domoto Koichi, the funnier of the two Kids, finished the sentence for him: "Like Johnny?" The studio audience exploded in laughter. Everyone knew that Koichi was referring to Johnny Kitagawa, the president of Johnny's Jimusho, one of Japan's oldest talent agencies. The audience's reaction was understandable, since Johnny Kitagawa is Kinki Kids' boss and, considering Kitagawa's reputation as a dictatorial impresario, certainly something of a god to them.
Johnny's handles "idols," a term that has a specific meaning in Japan different from the one native English speakers know. Generally speaking, idols are young performers targeted at teenagers. Johnny's idols are all male, and include almost every major boy act that has appeared in Japan in the past 30 years, from the original cute vocal group, the Johnnys, who debuted in 1962, to the late 1980s sensation, Hikaru...