The problematic nature of Japanese Idol culture is acknowledged. I still thought this was heartwarming.
An important announcement regarding Seira Umegwa
Thank you all for your continued kind support of Idol Kyoshitsu New.
Seira Umegawa is currently in the sixth grade, and we are informing everyone that as of the time of this writing, November 25, 2024, she believes in Santa Claus.
We apologize for the suddenness of this, but following discussions between the other members of the group and Umegawa’s parents, we are requesting that fans conduct themselves, in words and actions, with the presumption that Santa Claus exists.
The fans can decide for themselves, they don’t owe the idol anything Also, the idols themselves hate their fans for no reason
The parasocial relationship between fans and idols is so intense it’s escalated to idols being attacked on a number of occasions 😅. Thats not a criticism of these fans choosing to allow this girl the belief in santa, which is very sweet, but it is a criticism of the culture. The Wikipedia article for Japanese idols has a list of occurences. And the critisisms section is incredibly dark, some of which reflects on not just agencies but idol culture as well.
A lot of the issues are with the agencies, but definitely not all.