I Spent a Day with a REAL Japanese Idol | Exposing The DARK TRUTH 

not sure were to post this. Will you do a coin game against Ladybeard? I love when you challenge you friends to those crane games.

@@magicigconito3134 You mean Connor not Joey?

no

Wait isnt she still in contract?? Isnt risky to disclose the information??

What will you be watching Joey?

Hello 🙂

You did great :D

You were great! This was very insightful.

Thank you for sharing your experiences.

You sound like you’re an amazing person. Glad you’re finally free from this bs

Pitbull wishes he was her

i actually even speak 9 languages ✌️

@@xMelliferax actual insanity

@@xMelliferax thats incredible!

@@xMelliferax NANI?

Her coworkers/team members were all like brainwashed as well and said to her the same thing "stop being...." and their whatever idol industry culture is a bad cycle its sickening!

Basically: you don't want to be in the underground idol industry, you might get lucky and find a good group/company, but it's unlikely. And maybe with enough hard work and lots of luck you'll make it out of the underground and into a bigger idol agency. And then the hard work won't stop, but at least you'll get paid enough you don't need an other job.

Kiara's an Austrian, isn't she? A native German speaker like Jess in this video. Interesting coincidence. Many of these scouts probably target foreigners in particular whom they think would make good "exotic" idols to stand out among Japanese idols.

I watch her casually and so I didn't know anything about her backstory. Hearing her name come up here really caught me off guard.

@@autohmae It honestly sounds like you (an individual, not personal) don't want to be a part of any part of the idol industry, since it all seems to be rotted to the core.

@@jasonkeith2832 I would put it this way: being part of underground idol group is really bad, as we've seen in the video. Being part of a more mainstream idol group is sadly probably very similar to being part of lots of Japanese companies in any field.

I wonder how demanding are babymetal work policies, we only know Yui had to leave for health problems but we cannot reach conclusions over that

@@juampisito Physically Babymetal concerts are far more demanding. The amount of energy and preperation expended can't be compared to other idol pop groups. But they're not your typical idols. They don't have to be constantly out in the public eye, meeting fans, doing weekly performances sometimes twice a day, and always on social media trying to garner more fans to elevate their status within the idol group. The three Babymetal ladies have to be the most guarded kept in the dark secretive performers in the history of entertainment. We haven't seen or heard a peep from Su, Moa, Yui about their private lives since they became adults.

@@BagoPorkRinds you seem to know a lot about babymetal, im going to a concert early next year and theyre a supporting band so i was thinking about getting into thier music what are some good songs by them to get into?

@@bigbrexitdad879 just random person giving an insight here. Personally the one that get me into Babymetal is Megitsune, and still is my fav to this day.

@@bigbrexitdad879 i really really love gj and road of resistance personally but honestly just check out any of their live performances. cos the studio versions seriously dont do suzuka's voice justice + theres a live band

Not just Idol culture... this happens in EVERY entertainment culture around the world.

Yeah every entertainment has a scandal

Entertainment is, world wide. The most obvious and notorious in North America being Hollywood as an example.

Man Idol project was a lie

it's actually a lot more toxic than she let on.

and China. Don’t forget China.

Welcome to the entertainment industry or any high-competition industry for that matter. Selling "hope" is not exclusive to kpop. If you think getting into the kpop industry is akin to toxicity and scam where young "naive" people are being sold this notion and promise of fame while being exploited? Try getting into hollywood or any of the top modeling industry in the west, not only it's just as bad if not worse, they're not even pretending to be nice and polite about it either. The only difference between Kpop and any other is the exposure of the reality behind the screen. But here's the thing. Yes you can make a name for yourself via RU-vid, Instagram or Tiktok. But think about it for a second, which is easier, trying to be an idol in Kpop, or trying to be an idol in RU-vid? Being an idol and being famous are two completely different things. If Pokimane, the most famous twitch streamer on earth, at the moment announced she'll be going to the times square today, how many people do you think would show up to see her? Now, say Jungkook or Taeyeon announces the same thing, how many do you think would show up? You know the answer to that, and that, is the difference between an 'idol' and a 'famous person on the internet'.

While there are some idols who made it big through RU-vid, the reality is that the majority of self-produced/self-managed idols struggle to even find enough bookings in a week. There is a reason why the role of a producer/manager exists. Secondly, the image of an idol is not the person behind an idol, it is the persona that the producer creates for her. There is a lot more work going on behind the scenes than it is to the eye, so suggesting that the idol herself is doing most of the work is just plain wrong. Her work that fans see is just the tip of the work a well organised team is putting together behind the scenes, producer, composer, choreographer, costume designers, teachers etc.

The Korean idol industry is not the Japanese idol industry.

Agreed. If it's truly is your passion to become an idol, just try it alone first, you don't need such agencies. Nowdays there's so much means to get popular whether be a vtuber or socmed celeb, if you start having traction then you can hire your friend to be the manager.

man, that's sad D:

I live in Switzerland, so I'm wondering where they were. I assume Zurich, Bern or Basel?

He's been doing this for years though...

And I didn't have to read subtitles this time, my adhd mind can actually get through this video

@lukeskydive reading subtitles takes a lot more focus, iboften get distracted when trying. My thoughts trail off, and I end up having to replay the same 2 minute segment 5 time, and that happens constantly, especially something like this interview, where there's really nothing keeping my eyes on the screen, when it's in English I can basically just listen to it while doing other things, but if it were subbed, like the other interviews I'd get 5 minutes in, that would take me 10 minutes, then I'd stop watching the video all together and never return.

@@Brex10 lol I just realized my method is to watch the vid and read the comments at the same time. Try that if it's works idk. I just jump back and forth once I'm bored of the other

@@maineman5757The other interview vids he did haven't been 1 hour long in the YT Channel.

your use of sick in this context is kinda confusing.

Read Oshi No Ko

Read Oshi no Ko manga (well, it's not really 100% idol because it's also talk the dark side of entertainment as a whole but more on idol & actor) or wait for Oshi no Ko anime coming soon 2023

I dunno, it seems to me that a lot of the issues with the Idol Industry are pretty well documented to me.

Its either the boss who wants to earn guilt money or the fans are just delusional as if the idols are innocent girls living a happy life that Japan want this bad culture to continue....

Thats because in Japan that kind of sadness is basically cultural. Doesn't make it right though.

And before One Direction itself, people were outraged that NSync and Backstreet Boys hardly got paid anything. IIRC, one of the NSync members even said after a whole year of touring, they didn't even make enough to pay rent.

@@anirudhviswanathan3986 exactly! We know it's horrible and yet it's happening again

Sounds like what happened with Avicii which sadly was the main reason for his death

An example of a type of modern slave, literally.

They apparently worked for the same guy.

I mean yeah Jessica said so herself

Possible that they know each other well I also gravitate to other German speakers around me in Japan even though I speak Japanese

Kiara also got accepted in akb48 but she didnt continou cause she like the other group who rival akb which is a real flex

@@potatoxgaming9466 yeah she mention it in the same stream that she meet Joffrey(idr the name of the actor) I think

@@grayarystorjz6685 Well, at least the idol fans actually want to meet you, whereas the karens basically hate you.

weak

Some of the low end Kpop companies and I imagine idol orgs are just escort agencies (human traffickers). For the very rich, even the top end ones will arrange things. A while back a medium fame kpop star committed suicide with a note saying her agency had pimped her out a small group of rich men and she couldn't control her life even who she had sex with. Amber Liu of FX leaked that she knew people pressured to sleep with people and was vague about if it had happened to her. Keep in mind she was recruited at 14 and had been in the kpop system for year by her debut. This is not that different from hollywood or even elite modeling agencies. Some countries will not let girls who are citizens leave if they put modeling as a reason why they're travelling and many will flag 'models' for more scrutiny. Jeffrey Epstein controlled a modeling agency and would move girls with it. Once he met Trump and became good friends, trump bought a modeling agency a year after and was said to be a very pervy presences there and at the teen beauty pageants he ran. There is a lot of sleaziness around.

@@kingmanic A lot of the boy bands that were popular in the 90s were produced by this one guy, Lou Pearlman who would basically sleep with all the boys. He was later convicted of running a Ponzi scheme.

Those scouts stick around for years, decades. They often come before the agency. The agencies are more legit. The scout is the owner of the talent

Idol companies in Asia are just predatory af

Many of these girls have become idols even though they know it's hard. No one is forcing them to become idols, so if they don't like it, they can quit.

True. Back in the day, I thought japanese idols are cringe. But after going to idol events, it's actually more innocent than I thought. While there are definitely perverts and weirdos, most are just nerds that wants to have fun. Idol events are basically rave parties for nerds.

i mean, she did mention the fan acting like he was stabbing one of the girls @ 28:30

It's both creepy fans and crazy work policies

@@Xynic48 nerdism isnt bad things if you have something what you like but you need to know separate real world from fake one but i would like to come to some nerd group actions like comic con or anime con you know... meet other peoples wit same interest and make friends

I can say I hate the fans more.

Timestamp?

Damn ya don't gotta be like that. The vids almost an hour long, so it's understandable that most people wouldn't wanna sift through for one specific part. The conversation that leads up to it starts at 15:33

@@robertclarkson2068 Has it been edited out of the video somehow? I can't find it. She only mentions her senpai, but no name.

@@monsterlair Probably. There's a jump cut at 15:43. But either way, it is what it is.

This is the perfect time to post the upset aki meme

You could see the CRINGE on his face lol.

He can finally feel the embarrassment that Connor feels in each of his video where he tries different stuff

I feel it's because it's ingrained in their culture that it's going to be difficult to make a change. In the video it seemed like some of the girls in her group just accepted the way things were, made it seem like she was the one at fault because she's so negative. There's this saying that "it's easier to learn a new habit than to unlearn it". Add to that, the bosses are old and has this boomer thinking. Seems like gaslighting is normal for boss man. Mental health is also difficult in Japan. In Trash Taste, it was mentioned that there are not much doctors that treat mental health. It's so sad that the idol industry is like this. Idols are just humans. I'm glad she got out of it and sincerely hope for her healing.

watched anime that show that ,paripi komei i think explain that there and yeah sad truth

Germany isn't that much better tbh. We don't have idols to exploit but eastern Europe guest workers which get treaten like slaves

In Japan change is forbidden. It is only done when absolutely necessary. And any change will be reverted the moment the Japanese see it possible.

The US is pretty terrible when it comes to workers rights but we at least have a minimum wage law. Like, you would at least have to be paid like ~1k yen/hour ($7.25) of actual work.

They own the idol character image not the real person image. As an idol she was playing a character, different nationality and so. I may be wrong but I don't think she will get into any trouble with the company or fans for being herself and talking about her own life experiences.

Here is my perspective as a Babymetal fan who actually very much hesitated and rationalized before becoming a Babymetal fan. Judging by what was visible, I don't think she was depressed or had an eating disorder, but a back problem is what made her have to quit performing. That said it's not impossible she had an eating disorder. Lots of people in entertainment and outside of it who care about their image have this. So I definitely wouldn't rule it out completely. The way she changed over time is probably more related to her growing up and growth spurts. Compared to western companies (especially western/northern Europe), the average Japanese company: not a great work place. Amuse (which owns Babymetal, Sakura Gakuin, etc.) is a Japanese company after all so don't expect heaven. But she was probably getting paid well. Every leaked private photo of her and Su and Moa always wore very expensive clothing. These are clothes they choose and bought on their own (unless of course they all have rich parents, but even now Su and Moa are adult most recent private photo it still applies). Here is an other way to look at it: if Yui was treated badly she would not still have a contract with Amuse 5 years later. They are keeping her under contract so the investment they made into Yui isn't lost to an other agency when she gets back into the spotlight. She is probably still getting paid every month some token amount. Probably that amount is more than Jess in this interview was making during those 2 years in the idol every month. Some other signs about how Babymetal and the girl group they came from Sakura Gakuin, didn't have have personal social media presence, etc. says a lot about how the company. And how long others keep working for the company. I would say Amuse is a lot better than any underground idol group and probably a better place to work than being part of AKB.

She left and the agency respected that. They already moved on

I love babymetal a lot however the fans annoy me sm bc most of them are metal heads and sexualise the members it’s honestly heartbreaking and needs to be stopped

@@flowtaku I don't see any fans sexualized the members. They don't wear any revealing clothes or maybe you mistaken them from another band/group.

@@flowtaku I wonder where you hang out, because the Babymetal fans I know most appreciate their image isn't sexualized, etc.

Like which or who? I cannot think of any besides Tool

@@starman6468 Most concerts at the Mercedez-Benz stadium have phones banned, such as Metallica, etc. You'll see the warning on the TV screens, etc. Eagles had their phones banned when I was at the Canada Life Center a few weeks ago.

@@serapiel I've seen Metallica live in the UK and phones were fine so in that case I expect it to be the stadium. Actually, now that I think about it, none of the concerts I've been to have had a no phone policy

That sounds way nicer than what was said in this interview. At least Aggretsuko's boss cared a little bit.

Which Kiara? The vtuber?

@@animeking17 yeah. She mentioned Kiara Takanashi was in her agency for a while, quit, joined another one and became popular

Isn't Kiara Austrian?

@@stevensiegert yeah she is, I was talking about Jessica being German lol

Yes I pretty much feel she got treated like that because she is korean

I'd say its mainly because of the whole Japan colonising Korea back then and their belief that they r a superior species which still lives in some of the older generations in Japan, tho speaking as a korean, our old folks aint much different but i guess maybe theres a difference in justification between the victim and the perpetrator.

@@kimsewoon0904 that’s what i think too. It’s also possible that korea entertainment industry is taking some ideas from Japan, such as the cutesy look, the drama, and such.

Vice-versa Ig

​@@eksen7221The Kpop industry is more welcoming to Japanese considering there's a lot of Japanese kpop idols nowadays

That's strange

Any video about that?

Seriously??? I thought it was just the camera guy having his thing out. I can see why she has so much trauma of guys and other things. I'm so glad she's at a good spot right now.

@@shinsuikyoraku6101 my comment kept getting removed, idk why. But it's on RU-vid

Yeah same really like watching her and her other gen mates ! 🧡🧡

No. Not all the idols; those that took advantage of each other.

fr though, when aqua scouted that one idol in episode 2, this interview came to mind.

I mean, there's not that many idol groups out there, how many will hire foreign women? And of course she'd remember Kiara, they probably both speak German, etc.

The idol industry can still stay afloat because the companies which own these idol groups are the also the ones producing your mindblowing anime. These issues have been known for ages, and Oshi no Ko is not the first manga series to bring it up, the powers that be in Japan just choose to ignore it.

It shouldn't even be an industry. People who listen to, follow, and support this sort of "entertainment" is the root cause of the problem. Shithead bosses exist in every industry.

Aqua totally safed his sister by making sure she didn't join some random group, but built one for themselves.

I knew i'd find an oshi no ko comment somewhere

I watched Zombieland Saga, but I didn't see any mention about idol zombie agency, sad :(

The one❤️❤️❤️❤️

*Joey Obligatory: Who's Joe?

Thanks for being a good father in that sense. I've often wondered how people find themselves drawn to or working in these kinds of conditions even after the detailed information is publicly available. The entertainment industry especially at the underground level sounds like a form of borderline human trafficking and slave labour.

@@Harkz0r It sounds like that because it is that. If it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck and acts like a duck.....

It's crazy to me she stayed for two years

And than you get sued and ow them money. I heard of a few cases in different Asian countries how idols who quit got into big fights and their bosses sued them for money ... how can you make someone give you money when they have non?

About the suing art. I remember as example that 3 years ago a guy left his group in Korea. He was forced to pay 300.000$ that he didn't have and so he said that its ridicioulus to make him pay when he never earned any money. The agency gave no fuck and sued him for not being able to pay. During the process of getting sued the dude went public and said "I lived with my group for 3 years and before that trained for 4 years in my company and never got payed any money outside my phone-bill. I have no job and search for one right now. The job I will have has to make sure that I can pay for rent, food and than I have no money left that I can even send to my former agency. What do they even expect from me? If I keep going like this I am either dead really quick with more than 1 job just to be able to pay off this dumb dept or I am ruined forever" the company than forced him to make his parents pay instead as if it was comon to ask family member to pay when you can't as an idol after leaving and the boy went public again saying "They can't be serious? I have no money, than they think they can take my parent's little money. Who do they think my parents are? Rich? No, my mom never worked before and my dad is retired allready since a younger age cause of how sick he is and therefore they have barly any money to suport themself and it gets worse since my dad's treatment to get well and fit again costs too much". The company didn't cared and went to court, but after that the court decided on terms of how poor the boy is and how sick he is that the company has to pay for his dad's treatment and to lower the dept from 300K to 100K and also added that the boy can start paying the 100K if he got a job and is stable enough to have money left over that he can send to the company. This is just one of the many cases where companies in Asia think they could sue their former idols.

@@ACEsParkJunheeWreckedMeHard That is insane, even 100K is insane to a poor family too. I'd imagine working for a decade to pay it all back since the guy and the mother are starting to work and the starting pay for entry level jobs are ridiculously low compared to 100K on top of being mentally healthy since the father is sick (might pass away, idk more about him) and the motivation to pull through all this. I am not an emotionally stable person and my family is poor enough to have money saving practices like knowing when to use plates for food, always taking free plastic spoons from restaurants, and reusing plastic containers so this blows my mind.

I wish lawyers from better call saul were real so i could sue that boss man

They won't fire you because that wouldn't look good on them. Instead, they'll apply extreme pressure on you, make your working life hell, until you quit. Apparently, that's the go-to practice for many businesses in Japan, even those that aren't black companies.

Same. And I allready thought that some of my fave artists had it hard. I mean for example I follow a boygroup who is super popular in Japan who's leader was interviewed by a YT-channel and he said he was training each day from 9am to 10pm and than when he was back home even 1 more our and he said if they are about to release a new CD he was training longer and mentioned that on such days he would train from 7am to 1am and I was shook tho and thought that this was allready super hard

There are some documentaries on it online, what she experienced is just the tip of the iceberg, it gets way worst. Korean Idols are also in the same situation.

But just like everywhere it is different depending on who you sign your contract with. "Lower Idols" usually always get treated poorly.

Idol industry in korea is way worse lol. Changing their faces to fit more in korean beauty standard. Infernal diet.

@@_console Dude dont compare jpop idols industry with kpop idols industry. Kpop idol industry its all fake , their faces , their lives , etc. Its all fake and everybody knows this