Junior Idol - Outline

Outline

The coining of the term chidol, literally "child idol" (チャイルドアイドル, chairudo aidoru?), 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- where U is short for the English word "Under" and 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. 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 available in a plethora of formats, usually physical goods such as bond photobooks, CDs and DVDs, but also digital content in the form of Portable Document Format books, JPEG photo sets, high resolution movie clips, etc. 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.