Earlier this month, teen golf sensation Ryo Ishikawa was driving his Audi when he was stopped by police and told that his international driver's license, obtained in the United States, was not valid in Japan. It was an innocent faux pas, but Ishikawa was forced to apologize profusely through the media for "causing trouble to my sponsors and fans." Note the order of priority.
Ishikawa reportedly earns in excess of ¥1 billion a year from endorsements. So far none of the companies he shills for have dropped him for his mistake. Advertisers normally insert clauses in contracts stipulating that they can immediately void the agreement if the celebrity spokesperson is involved in a circumstance that compromises his or her image. The only crime Ishikawa is guilty of in the driver's license incident was being naive, which may simply reinforce his popular image of being boyishly earnest.
Seventeen companies have invested in Ishikawa. According to the media research company Nihon Monitor, that's a record number of endorsements. Though prominent sports figures have always been pursued for advertisements, idols tend to receive the bulk of attention in Japan, and for a basic reason. Idols were created to be in ads. Though they ostensibly act or sing or model, the measure of their success is how many TV commercials they make, since that's where the money is.