Last month, Meiji University's law department announced it would offer a social-psychology course on the boy band Arashi. The syllabus includes lectures about the group's individual members; its work in TV dramas and advertising; and the "culture of Johnny's Jimusho," Arashi's powerful production company. At the end of the semester there will be a test, in case you thought this was a joke.
Pop culture is a legitimate subject for scholarly study, and considering the impact Johnny & Associates has had on Japanese show business and, by extension, society, the company's "product" is ripe for academic assessment. However, according to the course description class materials are based primarily on Arashi promotional videos and other visual aids featuring the group, and Johnny's is notorious for controlling its exclusively male charges' images. Will the class be able to talk about all aspects of the Johnny's juggernaut, including controversies that have occasionally surfaced in the tabloid media regarding the way founder and CEO Johnny Kitagawa runs his ship?
If the Meiji course is really going to talk about the influence of Johnny's on culture, it would be remiss if it didn't cover how the company has dominated the TV industry for the past two decades. Whoever is putting together the reading material would do well to include articles from last week's issue of Shukan Bunshun, always Johnny's Jimusho's most dogged critic, and the web magazine Real Live about the end of TBS's long-running morning information program, "Hanamaru Market," and its replacement "Ippuku," which was launched March 31. Ever since it began in 1995, the emcee of "Hanamaru" was Hirohide Yakumaru, who until 1990 belonged to Johnny's as part of the idol trio Shibugakitai. The emcee of "Ippuku" is Taichi Kokubun, who is still managed by Johnny's as part of the boy band Tokio. Real Live claims that the transition marks a victory for Johnny's, which set out to "destroy Yakumaru," but that's difficult to prove.