Breaking up with My Idol: Imagined Intimacy and the Nature of Scandal in South Korean and Japanese Idol Industries

In 2013, tabloid photos exposed Minegishi Minami, member of the Japanese girl group AKB48, secretly meeting with a male idol. Shortly after she was demoted to trainee status, she appeared with her hair shaved in a tearful apology video uploaded to AKB48’s official YouTube channel, begging to remain in the group. Her actions had betrayed the innocent idol image her fans made an emotional connection with. Since the idol industry’s evolution in the 2000s that propelled groups like AKB48 to their success, idols have marketed their artistry, visuals, and appealing personalities as a form of emotional support for audiences seeking personal fulfilment in an age of “neoliberal exhaustion.” This research analyzes the role of social media in transforming the mediated connection between the idol and fans into one of mutual transactional emotional support. Social media builds fandom by creating a sense of ‘intimacy’ reinforced by the idol's frequent accessibility and visuals that encourage an indulgent fantasy of ‘closeness’. By examining idols’ social media usage as well as comments showcasing how audience expectations create and react to scandals, this study sheds light on the power structures embedded in South Korea and Japan's society and idol industry which are reinforced by social media and digitalized fandom culture. This results in visuals perpetuating a “fan gaze” idealizing and mandating the idol’s outward purity, patriarchal standards that ultimately apply to both male and female idols. Simultaneously, a neoliberal drive for competition controls the idol while pushing audiences to seek fulfillment through fabricated intimacy.