It was 1964 when 19-year-old ye-ye singer Sylvie Vartan captured the hearts of Japanese cinemagoers in the French film "Cherchez l'idole," released here as "Aidoru o Sagase" and in English as "The Chase." Her track from that film, "La plus belle pour aller danser," was a hit here, selling more than a million copies.

Vartan's true impact on Japanese culture, however, was her je ne sais quoi: She was young, cute and musically gifted. Taking from the film's title, the Japanese entertainment industry began to assign the term "aidoru" ("idol") to singers here such as Momoe Yamaguchi, Junko Sakurada and Masako Mori, who all had the same aesthetic.

Fifty-five years later, the idea of the Japanese idol has gone through numerous transformations. From Seiko Matsuda and Takuya Kimura to Namie Amuro and AKB48, Japan has made the concept its own, split it up into several subgroups and exported it around the world. Thousands of young women and men have set their sights on becoming the next big idol, and an increasing number of them come from abroad.