An open letter to the media regarding Smap
Over the course of the past week, there has been a lot of coverage in the Western press of the forthcoming disbanding of one of the most enduring and popular Japanese pop groups, Smap. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19279741
It appears that a lot of this coverage has been led by news wire AP and AFP coverage of the story and its distribution worldwide. As sometimes happens with news wire stories, the reporting is only covering one side of the issue. Most reporting takes as its foundation the official announcement by Johnny and Associates, the management agency for the group, of the disbanding. In doing so it misses the very big story that the disbanding has largely been driven by this very same management agency and is the by product of an internal power struggle over who will lead the very successful and powerful agency following the demise of its current head, Johnny Kitagawa.
Part of the failure of the press to understand the import of the issue may be due in part to a lack of understanding of the differences between how entertainment management companies operate in the West versus in the East.
For more description of this, you may wish to read the following:
http://yanie02.livejournal.com/277583.html?thread=2591311
In shorthand form, in North America, typically entertainers gain exposure under their own initiative and achieve a certain degree of recognition and notoriety of their own accord. Once they reach a certain level of success, they may hire the services of an entertainment agent or management agency to build on their success by negotiating new projects and appearances. Or, they seek the help of an entertainment management company to start them on the road to fame. In this relationship, typically the agency receives a fee that is usually a percentage of the talent's proceeds, but in this relationship the power lays in the hands of the entertainer. If an entertainer is dissatisfied with their management agency, they can discontinue the relationship and start with new management.
In Japan, many entertainment management agencies are 'producers' of talent. Promising individuals are hired in an employee/apprenticeship relationship and typically are subject to quite far reaching contracts that extend well beyond the scope of typical employee contracts in North America or Europe and can include gag orders on issuing public statements outside of those agreed by the agency and even the ability to form private relationships outside the scope of their work. The talent is trained, and given exposure in the public eye through the network of connections held by the management agency to print and television media. Musical groups are formed, given a debut, and are then promoted over the course of their career. Typically the management agency retains the bulk of the proceeds of the entertainer, and a salary is paid to the talent. While contracts can be renegotiated, typically even in the case of renegotiation, the power remains in the hands of the management agency. The talent emerging from Johnny and Associates has traditionally been young and handsome boy bands.
Another important note is that the integration of the entertainment management companies in the media and the symbiotic relationship there also greatly impacts how media news is covered in Japan. In addition to promotion of musical albums and concerts by the produced groups, the talents employed by the entertainment management agencies, and particularly Johnny and Associates, can be found throughout the media. Talents are supplied to television networks not just as performers in musical programs, interview subjects, or guests on music chart shows, but as actors in dramas, participants in variety shows, even sports and news digest presenters. They appear on radio programs, and do photo shoots, interviews, and even columns for various magazines from entertainment right through to high fashion and men's and women's interest magazines. The management agency produces the talent, and the talent become the content for so much of the media. The result is that it becomes extremely difficult for any of the mainstream media to write any negative stories about the agencies or their talents. Doing so directly threatens the provision of talents to feed the content requirements they have. For artists to disgrace the agencies by leaving or speaking out, the penalty is blackballing in the industry. While the current line up of Smap consists of 5 members, until 1996 the group consisted of 6 members. When member Mori Katsuyuki left the group to pursue a career in motorcycle racing, his very existence as a member of the group was wiped out in an almost Stalinesque fashion – video clips shown following his departure carefully edited out his presence and it wasn't for another 14 years that the members of the group could even publicly acknowledge him in a live broadcast to celebrate their 20th anniversary as a group. For more details of the agency system in Japan, I recommend the in depth series of articles on Neojaponisme, part I of which can be found here: http://neojaponisme.com/2010/04/05/the-jimusho-system-part-one/
Within the management agency of Johnny and Associates, the head of the company is Johnny Kitagawa. He has not been immune to his own controversies and he has previously faced allegations of abuse of the often very young talents under the control of his agency. Due to age and ill health, much of the management of the agency has been in the control of his sister, Mary Kitagawa, who is also in her 80s. Mary's daughter Julie Kitagawa, also part of the agency, manages a number of musical acts that are a part of the management agency. The other significant player in the company was, until the beginning of this year, Michi Iijima, who has served as the manager of Smap since their debut as a group in 1991.
Because the management agency is a closed shop, it is usually difficult to know what takes place in terms of internal power struggles. While for many years there had been rumors of a growing tension within the agency, and claims in gossip magazines that Mary Kitagawa was working hard behind the scenes to ensure the ascendancy of her own daughter Julie over the talented family outsider Michi Iijima, it was in January 2015 that what was once hidden was laid open in the press in what seemed to be a clear case of power harassment. Whilst providing an interview to magazine Shuukan Bunshun, Mary Kitagawa announced her daughter as the successor to the company, summoned Michi Ijima mid interview and accused her of sowing discord in the agency and would be fired. Ostensibly the dispute was over a subsidiary company that Iijima had set up to manage production of concert videos and other projects for the group. A thinly veiled threat to Smap, the agency's most successful group then managed by Iijima, was also issued. The ensuing discussion that was reported was excruciatingly rude by Japanese standards, as well as openly threatening Ijima's position. This very public airing of the internal 'dirty laundry' in the company was unprecedented.
Following this interview, on the surface things began to quieten. Smap continued with their public appearances, single releases and activities throughout 2015, and were announced as spokespersons for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic games. In 2016, the group would mark the 25th anniversary of their debut as a group by Johnny's Entertainment, and the 28th year of their employment with the agency. Bear in mind that the oldest members of the group are in their early 40's. As usual the group continues their appearances on their regular radio and television programs, as well as the increased number of appearances on special variety and musical programs in the run up to the year end.
From the end of the years, rumors began to surface that both Iijima and Smap were laying the groundwork to leave Johnny's and Associates for a new management agency and were seeking to find terms elsewhere. Hardly surprising given the scathing abuse of Iijima in the highly publicized Shuukan Bunshun interview at the start of the year, and other rumors that management of various popular groups was being reassigned from Michi Iijima to Julie Kitagawa.
Then from 13 January 2016, gossip newspapers ran with the story that Michi Iijima had resigned from Johnny and Associates and that 4 of the 5 members of the group were leaving. The source of the story was not published but is suspected by many to be someone affiliated with Johnny and Associates. Additional stories of rifts between members of the group were also appeared and again the source of these stories is believed by many to be the agency as part of a bit to discredit the members and to provide an ostensible reason for the departure that was not due to the the power struggles in the agency. Later in the day the agency issued a fax to the media to officially confirm the resignation that that the agency was currently negotiating contract terms with members of the group as some did express a desire to leave the agency and that negotiations were ongoing. No accompanying statement was made by any members of the group. The agency was the sole author to the press release. http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/idol-group-smap-rumored-to-be-splitting-after-28-years
Given the agency or jimusho structure in Japan, a bid by members of a group or a group to leave their parent company is viewed as akin to an act of betrayal. Perhaps anticipating how this betrayal might lead to punishment, fans, to show their support for the group, began a campaign to purchase copies of Smap's best selling single – 'Sekai ni hitotsu dake no hana' or 'The only flower in the world' in a bid to take the single to the 3million mark in sales
On 18 January 2016, the members of Smap issued an apology to their fans for troubling with them the story and would be continuing on as a group. The apology was widely commented on in the Japanese press, with Prime Minister Abe also commenting his pleasure that the group would be staying together. Depsite this, the perception of many fans was that the apology was not entirely voluntary. This has already been reported widely in the Western press, although few articles addressed the question of how voluntary the apology was with the notable exception of David McNeill at The Irish Times: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/pop-group-smap-s-apology-lifts-veil-on-japan-s-talent-agencies-1.2507025
From that time, fans were left waiting for news, or indeed any group activities for Smap. Following the apology, group activities, with the exception of Smap's weekly television program SMAPxSMAP, were curtailed. The SMAPxSMAP television show is in its 20th year, and has hosted a long list of international and domestic movie stars, as well as Japanese television stars, and even politicians. In February, figures at FujiTV who had long been attached to the show were replaced, with some concerns being raised that these changes came about due to pressure from Johnny and Associates. Quite notably the episodes for this began to move to have more emphasis on segments that did not feature the entire group but only one or two members at a time.
Previously, members of Smap's fan club could apply to attend live tapings of the show as members of the live studio audience. This was ended and members were invited instead to attend a viewing of a videotaped version of the show, presumable for the creation of a laugh or reaction track to be set to the closed studio-filmed video. In May, Johnny Kitagawa, attending an event for another of the agency's groups, was asked about Smap and denied that Smap would disband. In July, while there were no group activities, the most senior member of the group, Nakai Masahiro, was announced as the sportscaster for coverage of the Rio Olympics, and Smap song 'Arigatou' or 'Thank you' was announced as the Olympic coverage theme song.
The group's fan club, with its 4000 yen a year membership fee, seemed to suspend operations until an edition of the fan club newsletter was finally released in June. Annual summer music programs such as Ongaku no Hi (Music Day) and FNS Natsu Matsuri (FNS Summer Festival) that the group had performed on and participated in on a regular basis came and went without the group performing.
Then, on August 13 rumors appeared that a press conference was going to be held by Johnny and Associates, but instead, on the 14th an announcement was released to the media by fax to notify the disbanding of the group effective 31 December 2016. No press conference was held. While there were statements attributed to the members of Smap that accompanied the announcement, it is unclear if these were written and authorized by the members. The fax claimed that sustained attempts were made by the agency to resolve the matter, though the timings of these claimed meetings have been called into question.
Japanese fans have been seeking to point out the many inconsistencies in the recent announcement of the disbanding of the group and are compiling a database of these inconsistencies. They have documented these far more ably than I can and I am happy to refer any media enquiries to them and their chronicle of events. Fans are seeking to spread the word via social media but this has been portrayed in the press as fans being in denial about the breakup rather than paying attention to the very real issues they raise of workplace bullying, the blackballing of anyone who cares to call the status quo into questions, and the freedom with which the agency has been able to blacken the name of the members – all for wanting to change their conditions of employment and how this has been a factor in the breakup. Due to the symbiotic relationship with the agencies, mainstream press and television media have not picked up the story. The very great concern of fans is that the agency as a part of its announcement was clear to state that while the group was disbanding, the individual members remain a part of Johnny and Associates and there are fears that they will be subject to punitive actions on the part of their employers or that they will be driven from the industry for their attempts to leave the organization.
Most fans hold no illusion that the group will ever perform together again as a part of Johnny and Associates, and while disappointed that the group will be disbanding, show a willingness to accept this if it is the price that must be paid to escape the ongoing power harassment at the top of the agency and to allow members of Smap to move forward be that together or individually.
I invite journalists to please dig more deeply into the story using the investigative skills you have developed in your profession. Use the connections you have to others in the media to expose what is taking place.
With thanks,
Kathie C aka Smap fan Scotland
With thanks and love to SCS
