AKB48 is apparently a hugely popular girls band in Japan. One that includes a no dating rule. Even for adult women.
That must suck. Sucks even more to feel obligated to show your dishoner by chopping off your hair. A 20 year old, adult driven to this? sheesh. At least it wasn’t hara kari.
Maybe we could get Japan to adopt Justin Bieber? We’ll even throw in Selena Gomez too. 
They can have Bieber, but lets keep Gomez.
And forcing the girls not to date won’t?
So…they can date girls? Or…they can have a boyfriend, but they can’t “date” him…or sleep with him?
You know the economy is in trouble when a company can demand celibacy in exchange for a job, and people go along with it.
Hmm, if this was in the UK this would certainly be a publicity stunt and almost certainly one in the US. I don’t know anything about the Japanese music industry or too much about the history of such punishments but a publicity stunt wouldn’t surprise me.
No kidding.
Adoring fan: “She doesn’t have a boyfriend, I’ve totally got a chance with her!”
Other guy: “Dude, she’s not allowed to date anyone. She’s totally off limits.”
Adoring fan: “Goddammit.”
The Japanese Britney! Damn copycats.
Is that what Joan Jett and Cherrie Currie were all about?
No, but it sheds light on just how heavily scripted and controlled these people’s public lives are. Even here, young stars are little more than puppets for their media conglomerate overlords.
I for one welcome our new media conglomerate overlords!
media conglomerate indeed. 90 girls in that band. Makes any 1 girl easily replaceable. I hope the older girls have saved their earnings.
So they’re like nuns who sing?
Try again.
Here is a good post explaining the context for this. One crucial thing to note is that AKB48 is an idol group; the no dating rule generally only applies to idols, and not to musicians or pop singers in general. I doubt someone such as Utada Hikaru would have ever had any such clauses in her contract, and Ayumi Hamasaki has married and divorced.
I guess I just don’t understand the appeal of “purity”. I was “pure” at 20, albeit not by choice; it certainly didn’t make *me *more desirable.
First thought that occurred to me. Nothing like a bit of high drama to keep the plotline going.
Yep, if she were just another singer no one would really care. In Japan an “idol” is like a singer, but with a far creepier, obsessive fan base. The whole purity image is just a marketing ploy to said fans, who have been known to buy thousands of dollars worth of their CDs just to get tickets to an event where they can shake their hands. (site NSFW).
because otherwise fundie parents wouldn’t let their kids see or hear the latest Disney muppets.
Hmmmm, the last singing nun act with a “no dating boys” rule did not end well.
Japanese singing nuns?
Domonique-inique-inique
I’ve heard that being kicked out of an idol group is basically lifetime career suicide. It’s not just being unable to have any sort of romantic relationship (so the creepy housebound loners can fantasize about you being THEIR girlfriend, natch), but smoking is also an instant out. There have been a few idols, that have pulled themselves out of the rut caused by being kicked out due to dating/smoking, but from what I hear it’s a goddamn media feeding frenzy whenever an idol is caught doing a “not allowed” thing – to the point where they are trashed day in and day out until their name is mud.
The saving grace, as mentioned, is that non-idols can have normal lives – so if you resign and work towards a solo or non-idol gig you can be relatively safe. It’s just if you’re still an idol and get caught dating someone or something.
This is all second hand info I’m going on, though.
