Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano recently praised the business model of the pop idol group AKB48 in a magazine essay.
Edano gained global fame via media exposure while he was the chief government spokesman following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011. The politician lauded the AKB48 business model in his contribution to the April 1 edition of Witchenkare magazine, which compiles essays written mainly by writer wannabes or b-list novelists.
In his essay “Popular Songs Change with the Times; Yasushi Akimoto, the AKB strategy and the Japanese economy,” the Democratic Party of Japan Lower House member of Japan argued that AKB48’s business strategy “could be effective for the economy in general.”