Because of the impact of the epidemic, many young people in Japan are facing the dilemma of lower salaries or unemployment, and one of the phenomena that cannot be ignored is the increase in poverty among young women.
Not long ago, Japan's ACG street Akihabara exposed the serious vicious incident of maid coffee snatching, in the current economic downturn, looking glamorous, in fact, cold and warm self-aware Japanese idols, but also facing offline activities are blocked, so it must be transformed situation.
If roughly classified, Japanese idols can be divided into two categories: above-ground idols and underground idols, and the idols we often see on TV are above-ground idols, but in fact, they only account for 10% of the total number of idols. They can go on TV shows, they can put on commercials, and they can hold concerts in large venues in gymnasiums and auditoriums.
In general, there is no strong company and producer support, holding meet-and-greets in small livehouses, selling Polaroid photographs, CDs, and scattered small idol groups around them, which are called underground idols.
Unknown idols face a difficult road of unstable income and uncertain prospects. The epidemic has greatly reduced the income of underground idols from offline activities, and in order to make a living, idols have to take the new "income-generating" road of live broadcasting. Recently, a Japanese program exposed a new service of Japanese underground idols - photo society.
The so-called photography club is when fans take pictures of their own love beans. Originally, the photography club was an activity for many fans to shoot idols together, but now more and more idols prefer to let a fan "charter the venue" and shoot their own personal photo clubs.
At such a personal photography meeting, fans can not only enjoy the happy time of taking beautiful photos of themselves, but also specify the photo action of Aidou and take the opportunity to talk to idols by the way. It's a three-bird kill with one stone.
Don't think that taking pictures of Aidou is just a gimmick, these fans have long purchased extremely professional photography equipment, their purpose is to shoot their own Love Beans beautiful smile.
According to this fan, his professional camera, the main body alone, is priced at 600,000 yen (about 30,000 yuan).
This kind of personal photography club service is not limited to small photo studios, as long as you can pack the time of Aidou, you can go out to shoot, and even go to a delicious restaurant with Aidou to enjoy food.
Usually white-collar workers, interested in Cosplay in order to earn some extra money, this year joined the team of personal photography clubs, the one-hour fee is 3,000 yen (about 151 yuan), you can accept location shooting, even exposed swimsuit shooting is no problem.
Because the traditional photography club must have an operator, it will spend more operating expenses, and 70% of the cost of an event will be given to the operation. Because the personal photography club is private, it avoids the problem of operating fees, and the one-hour fee ranges from 3,000 yen to 5,000 yen.
This kind of photography will make idols very happy, there is no company to draw, the vast majority of the income into their own pockets.
However, soon after the launch of such a personal photography, it faced the accusation of being a disguised "daddy live".
Some fans will meet privately under the pretext of eating with idols after taking photos, and without staff, the one-on-one interaction between idols and fans is really too problematic. Some fans will directly confess to idols, and even forcibly kiss and touch the body. Such behavior makes idols very afraid.
There are also idols who will really do their father's work (help with social interaction) in the follow-up under the guise of a photography club.
And such a personal photography meeting, because the cost of opening is small, the operation is simple. Soon, the strange "inner volume" was very serious.
For example, A idol dares to wear a more revealing swimsuit, B idol fees will be cheaper, originally want to seriously engage in idol activities of girls after entering the industry, it is inevitable that they will be biased by strange atmosphere.
Personal photography is just one kind of side hustle for idols, and idols are flowing into other professions, such as the concept coffee shop we'll talk about next.
The concept coffee shop is a combination of "theme + coffee", like the maid coffee shop we are familiar with, which belongs to the concept coffee shop. The girls who work in the concept coffee shop are called "concept coffee girls".
In recent years, the number of concept coffee shops opening in Kabukicho has increased to more than 90.
At night, the happy laughter of girls can be heard in a newly opened concept coffee shop. Although it is a new store, it is still full, and the owner SENA himself is a member of the idol group, and most of the staff are also idols, as well as students, youtubers, and Internet celebrities.
According to SENA, the theme they want to do at the store is love beans that can drink alcohol. I hope to create an environment like a drinking party with a female bean. The store has another funder, and she herself has invested money in it. The initial investment of this store is about 10 million yen (about 5.06 million yuan).
In order to diversify its business income, the store not only offers menus, but also sells a series of staff-themed peripherals such as limited liquor, towels, T-shirts, and perfumes, which have become popular in Japan in recent years.
There are more than 20 kinds of people around this concept coffee shop alone, which are divided into three kinds: random bonuses that can only be received after opening champagne, gacha that can be purchased directly, and special prizes that can be exchanged for score cards. The variety is very rich.
There are 12 seats in the store, and although it is a small shop that has only recently opened, it can reach million yen per month!
Of course, whether it is a drink or a light meal, the price provided here includes the service fee.
A cocktail made with Red Bull and Kokujo wine costs 1,400 yen (about 70 yuan).
A plate of omelette rice, which is "rudimentary" in the production process, is also 1400 yen.
In order to attract new customers, the first time back to the drink is limited time self-service, 40 minutes 1900 yen casual drink, converted to less than 100 yuan. Drainage at low prices is a common means of operation for such cafes.
A special service is offered to guests who order a high amount of drinks: if you order champagne for more than 10,000 yen, the lights will turn blue, for more than 30,000 yen, the lights will turn green, and the highest level is champagne over 50,000 yen, which will turn pink.
After ordering champagne, the girls here have a ceremony similar to a champagne call, where the clerks stand in a row and the designated girls make champagne.
During the filming, a customer just ordered a bottle of winterberry powder that cost 89,000 yen (about 4,500 yuan). When it comes to winter bailey, everyone may have heard about it from the cowherd shop. Although they are all called WinterBerry, the price difference between different WinterBerry is huge, and the most expensive WinterBerry Platinum can reach millions of yen in a bottle.
The 39-year-old investment company owner earns 460 million yen a year. He bluntly said that the girls in Kabukicho are of higher quality and know how to take care of guests, and if you have been to Kabukicho, you will not want to go to the concept coffee shop in Akihabara.
The other is a director, who earns 800,000 yen a month and spends three or four times a week, and he visits three or four stores like this with cute girls.
After that, the guest ordered a bottle of Martini champagne for 10,000 yen, a cowardly liquor for 28,000 yen, and a super popular "affordable" champagne in such a concept café - 5,800 yen dream Paris. There is also original champagne in the store, and the highest diamond stall costs 50,000 yen, with a chance to draw from a nearby egg machine.
At checkout, it was shown that the customers spent a total of 146,250 yen in the store, which was converted into 7,400 yuan, and this was just the bill for frequent customers to visit a store, and if they patronized more than one, the cost of a group of people would be tens of thousands of yuan. And the price of drinks in this coffee shop, according to them, is still cheaper in the concept coffee shop.
Seeing this, the chicken leg in the young jun's hand suddenly became unscented.
The girl who works temporarily in the concept coffee shop works 7 hours, earning a total of 19,400 yen per hour, drinks, meals and tips, and earns about 1,000 yuan in 7 hours. The hourly wage is fixed, and even if you make a more staying night club and drink all night, it is only 300 yen more than the hourly wage of the matinee.
If you want to make more money, you have to let guests order more food, open more wine, and buy more peripherals.
Seeing this, everyone may also understand that although the signboard is written about concept coffee, such a shop has nothing to do with the coffee shop we generally recognize, and is more like a new type of wine club. SENA claims to have worked at the wine club for a while, that all of her luxuries were funded by guests, and that she herself had just undergone plastic surgery with an eyebrow cut.
In the period when the store was not yet open, in order to raise the opening fund, the concept coffee's charging model was even more exaggerated. Eat with the girls in the shop for 2 hours and charge 100,000 yen, half a day, 500,000 yen, and full day, 1 million yen (about 25,000 yuan).
According to a survey by Young Jun, it is relatively common for idols to work in such a concept coffee shop, and they do not have to attend work every day, and they can have a monthly income of 200,000 to 250,000 yen a few days a week, which is similar to the average monthly salary of Japanese office workers aged 20 to 30.
Compared with the idol business that has no basic salary and even has to pay for it out of his own pocket, such an income is much more "stable".
If you don't make a name, idols are just nice titles, so idols who don't make money almost all have side jobs. Some will go to do odd jobs, some idols will do dad work, flow into membership clubs, do escort girls, do not work on the second-hand website to resell their private belongings for money, and some people will openly do online correspondence chat services, and then privately invite guests out.
Japanese comedian Takashi Okamura once said on the show: "The new crown epidemic is not useless. The pandemic will force more beautiful girls into the sex service industry and bring good news to men." This makes people wonder whether the idols who are "willing to fall" are because they do not love themselves, or because society and the epidemic have jointly closed their way to legitimate income.
Facing an existential crisis, how long will Japan's underground idols have to go before they actually become idols?
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