Imagine this: your favorite idol just announced she’s leaving show business. Her most recent Instagram post shows a glittering ring on her left hand, with her new beau grinning in the background. She’ll be retiring from the idol group you spent years cheering on. There’ll be no more new music videos of her on YouTube, and you won’t see her performing live ever again. You grieve.
But you don’t always have to cry in the bathroom stall at work—if you work for the right employer. At Hiroro, a Tokyo events and advertising company, you can now officially take time off to nurse your broken heart.
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Under Hiroro’s new vacation system, employees are allowed to take up to 10 paid days off when their favorite idol is getting married. They’re also entitled to 10 days of bereavement leave, which is usually taken to mourn a relative’s death, if the idol is retiring. If one’s second, or even third, favorite is stepping off the stage, employees can take up to three days off. This is a drastic departure from the norm in corporate Japan, which has a notoriously strict work culture and no national sick leave system.
According to Shizen Tsurumi, the founder and CEO of Hiroro, the loss of an idol can be deeply upsetting and employees need proper mental care. “It’s like if your pet, one you loved dearly, suddenly disappeared,” he told VICE World News. “Not died, necessarily, but they’re living somewhere else so you can’t touch or feel them anymore. Or if your child moved out of the house to live alone. It’s that sort of sadness.”
Tsurumi came up with this vacation system when he noticed an employee was distracted at work. “A maid cafe idol they were supporting was retiring, and it was a shock for my employee. I could understand, from my own personal experience,” he said.
As for the employee grieving the loss of the maid cafe idol, “they’re already using this new vacation system,” Tsurumi said.
Japanese pop idols, like most beloved famous singers, hold a special place in fans’ hearts. They usually dance and sing in a larger group, with members wearing matching uniforms. The J-pop industry has a large fandom, and the industry itself is valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. Entire neighborhoods, like Akihabara in central Tokyo, are dedicated to J-pop and anime.
What we know as J-pop today began to take shape after WWII. In 1962, Johnny & Associates, Japan’s first idol group recruitment agency, was formed. Since then, a colorful variety of groups have emerged: some of the recent girl bands stealing hearts are AKB48 and Nogizaka 46. The king of boy bands, Arashi, went on hiatus earlier this year, but King & Prince and SixTones remain. Casual fans attend concerts, download the music, and stan their favorites. Some of the more hardcore devotees, who are sometimes labeled otaku, go to hand-shaking events, or spend hours writing fanfiction.
But otaku culture has long been criticized. Those who step over the line between fandom and objectification are said to contribute to toxic fantasy. Idols have had to leave school to pursue their careers, and have been banned from dating to avoid alienating fans, usually men, who dream of having a relationship with them. In the past, some female stars have been forced to publicly apologize and shave their heads after being “caught” in romantic entanglements.
Some extreme cases of objectification have led to violence. In 2018, Maho Yamaguchi, a member of girl group NGT48, was attacked by two men just outside her home. She was pinned to the ground as the attackers grabbed her face. The men later said “they were merely fans” who wanted to talk to her, and were not charged with a crime.
Her fans accused her management agency, AKS, of complicity by being silent on the attack and not supporting Yamaguchi. The agency only expressed regret after the singer herself apologized for “causing trouble” during a concert in 2019.
J-pop fanatics like the attackers have given other fans a bad name, but Hiroro’s founder Tsurumi pointed out that fandom isn’t necessarily harmful.
“I do get bashed about my fandom. People have called me gross, or creepy, but I just think it’s just a difference in values,” he said.
“An actor you like may be giving you the gift of their performance. But for idols, what they’re giving us is their growth. As they mature and grow, we get to experience that alongside them. It creates a strong relationship between the fan and the idol,” he said.
