TIC | 株式会社東京コンサルティング研究所

The Chinese Market Development of Japanese Idol

In the past, Japanese artists such as Takakura Ken and Yamaguchi Momoe have gained overwhelming popularity. However, with the growth of China’s economy, music stars and actors from all over the world have begun to enter China. The influence of Japanese artists in China has been affected by the fierce market shock and disappeared temporarily. Although Japanese stars is losing their power in China, the Japanese idol represented by AKB48 has gained great popularity in China’s entertainment market. By the strong effect of Japanese Idol, some Chinese idol who are imitating the AKB model also appearing. The reason that the japan-style group is grabbing people’s attention, is that its model hides a huge economic potential: the “Fan Economy”. “Fan Economy” refers to the economic effect of the transformation from the deep love for the idols into the consumer behavior that makes you spend money without stint. Like Johnny’s fans and AKB48 fans, spending a lot of money to show loyalty in support of idols is the marked feature of the fan economy. In China, the country with a huge consumer market of 1.3 billion people, how to win the hearts of local fans and create a vast economic effect is a problem faced by Japanese Idols. TIC’s new group, TOKYO Business (Bridge TBB), supports market development of consumer goods in China as well as the spread out of the unique Japanese cultural in China.