At this very moment, thousands of young musicians throughout Japan are busy pursuing the same elusive goal: pop stardom. Some are driven by the need to express their artistic vision; others by the perks of stardom; and still more of them by the simple desire to support themselves by playing the music they love.

For most, it's some combination of the above. Yet whatever their motivations, these young (and sometimes not-so-young) hopefuls are all striving to turn avocation into vocation. An important milestone in the pursuit of that goal is landing that first recording contract. This, preferably with a major company, can spell the difference between getting by with day jobs and occasional weekend gigs on the local live-house circuit, and becoming a full-time, self-supporting musician.

Enter the talent scout. These music-business pros, usually on a record company's payroll, stake out smoke-filled live houses on almost a nightly basis, looking for unknown performers with the critical combination of talent, energy, passion and stage presence that characterizes top musicians.

Faced with plunging sales in the current market, Japanese labels are redoubling their efforts to find new artists, and talent scouts are under more pressure than ever to discover tomorrow's musical successes today.

Although decisions about who to offer a recording contract to are still made by record company executives, new technology is bringing fans into the loop. Thanks to new Web sites, a wide cross section of fans can now listen to and comment on selected submissions, possibly influencing record companies.

One example is MusicFront -- www.musicfront.net -- Yamaha's new online music audition Web site. Since its debut in 2000, 8,000 songs have been submitted by young hopefuls, either in CDR/MD/cassette format or as MP3 files. Entries are categorized by genre and posted on the site. Fans can visit there to hear the tracks and rate them. If an entry gets enough favorable responses, a MusicFront staffer will go to see the act playing a gig -- which could lead to a one-time record deal.

Fuji Television sponsors "Break Gate," an online music talent contest that began in April. From all the entries submitted, Fuji producers select the top 100 "Gate Breakers." These are then posted on its Web site www.fujitv.co.jp/breakgate for fans to listen to and rate. The company reports that 20,000 to 30,000 fans visit the site every week. Their ratings help select the five monthly winners. Some winners get the chance to showcase their skills either on Fuji's cable TV or on regular broadcast TV, and even bag record deals.

Toshiba-EMI talent scout Keitaro Kamo says old-style audition contests are of limited value today. "For rock artists, being unique is much cooler than following a formula," he explains. "These days, truly gifted artists don't enter big-company auditions. Ten years ago that's what everybody wanted, but now they avoid it."

As well as having to be able to know good music when they hear it, talent scouts also have to be willing to take a chance on acts that push the envelope. That's not always easy in the cautious Japanese music industry. Back in 1991, for example, the manager of Thee Michellegun Elephant tipped Kamo off about a band called Ulfuls. Kamo liked the Osaka-based, soul-influenced group and convinced Toshiba-EMI to sign them.

One of Kamo's recent discoveries is Kishidan, a band recommended to him by a producer-friend he ran into at a funeral. With their slapstick humor, ridiculous pompadours and three-chord rock 'n' roll, Kishidan have been called Japan's Leningrad Cowboys. Kamo admits he "didn't really get it" at first -- but had a hunch and signed them anyway.

The risk paid off. The band's debut album, "1/6 Lonely Night," made it to No. 3 on the Oricon chart after its April 2002 release. A followup single, "One Night Carnival," reached No. 7.

So what trends do talent scouts foresee in the music industry? "Foreign influences used to be big," says Kamo, "but now Japanese styles are cool."

Case in point: Chitose Hajime. The teenage vocalist's music is strongly influenced by the traditional minyo (folk songs) of her native Amami Island, in southwestern Japan. Hajime's major-label debut album, "Hainumikaze (South Wind)" was Japan's No. 1 album for two weeks in July.

"Although the overall industry is shrinking, the indies market is growing," says Koichi Yoshida, project manager of MusicFront. "About 30 percent of the new Japanese releases at Tower Records are indies."

Okinawa-based ska-core band Mongol 800 put out the first indie album ever to go platinum here. Released on Okinawa's tiny Highwave label, "Message" has sold more than 2.2 million copies to date. "Success in the indies scene is becoming clear," says Yoshida. "I don't think Mongol 800 is a fluke. Young eager listeners are not satisfied with the major labels' offerings."

If this audience demand for bold, unorthodox music continues, spurring major labels to look for new faces and new sounds, many more talented amateurs will be quitting their day jobs.