Last week, the Asahi Shimbun published an article about the suicide of actor-singer Park Yong Ha. The pieceanalyzed South Korean show business to ascertain why so many stars have killed themselves in recent years, and concluded that their relationships with management agencies grind them down. Park has been handling his own affairs for several years now and apparently had a tough time getting work in South Korea since leaving his agency. Like the three members of the popular boy band TVXQ (known as Tohoshinki in Japan) who sued their management and are now working on their own, Park relied on his Japanese fans to make a living. He was in the midst of a Japanese tour when he hung himself.
Though Japanese management contracts are less Draconian, the situation isn't appreciably different. Japanese artists can leave their agencies if they think they're being underpaid or over-worked, but they may have trouble finding jobs since it isn't in the interest of "talent buyers" (TV stations, concert promoters, etc.) to cross talent providers. If Japanese stars seem to be more complacent with this state of affairs, maybe it's because they are less emotionally demonstrative than Koreans are.
Some will say that's a facile generalization, but two weeks ago while watching "The Poison Tomato Murder Case," a TV special starring the five members of aging boy band SMAP, I was struck by how matter-of-fact the producers were in taking advantage of the group's professional docility. The whole point of the show was that SMAP didn't know they had been exploited. The drama itself wasn't the main attraction, which was just as well considering how bad it was. The main attraction was that the five members hadn't been aware they were actually in it while they were making it.