Japan is a country that has a weird idol culture.
たくさんのアイドルグループが存在し、一部の人々はたくさんのお金と時間を彼らの為に使っています。
There are many idol groups, and some people spend a lot of money and time on them.
「握手券」や「ハグ券」や「投票券」の付いたCDを一人で数百枚買うファンは珍しくなく、数千枚や数万枚買うファンもいます。
It’s not uncommon for fans to buy hundreds of CDs with “handshake tickets” or “hug tickets” or “voting tickets“, and some others buy thousands or even tens of thousands of them.
ある日本人アイドルファンの男性は、３００万円分のCDを買ってアイドルに告白しましたが、振られてしまいました。
A Japanese idol fan bought 3 million yen (around 28,500 usd) worth of CDs and confessed his love to his idol, but the idle rejected him.
その人は、「次はもっとたくさんのCDを買ってまた告白する」と言ったみたいです。
He told her that he would buy more CDs and confess to her again next time.
２秒間だけハグ出来るチケットを数万枚買って、数十分間ハグし続けたアイドルファンもいます。
Some idol fans bought tens of thousands of tickets that allowed them to hug for just two seconds and kept hugging for dozens of minutes.
しかし、コロナウイルスでアイドルたちのビジネスモデルは崩壊してしまいました。
But the coronavirus destroyed the idols’ business model.
そんな中、コロナウイルスを独創的な方法で乗り切ろうとしているアイドルたちもいます。
In the midst of all this, some idols are trying to survive the coronavirus in creative ways.
毎年、大きなアイドルグループには「総選挙」と呼ばれる選挙があり、アイドルたちはその年に発売されたCDに付属している「投票券」によって順位が付けられます。
Every year, big idol groups have what’s called a “general election“, in which the idols are ranked according to the “voting tickets” that come with the CDs released that year.
好きなアイドルに１位になってほしいので、ファンは沢山CDを買いますが、アイドルファンたちは必ずしも金持ちではありません。彼らの多くは収入の大部分をアイドルの為に使っているだけです。借金をしてしまう人も沢山います。
Fans buy a lot of CDs because they want their favorite idol to be number one, but idol fans aren’t necessarily rich. Most of them just spend the majority of their income on their idols. There are many people who get into debt.
この人は、３１５０万円を好きなアイドルを１位にするためだけに使ってしまいました!
This guy spent $30 million just to get his favorite idol in first place!
女性の熱心なアイドルファンも居ます（左の女性はCD80枚、右の女性はCDを514枚購入しています）
There are avid female idol fans, too (The left lady bought 80 CDs and the right lady bought 514 CDs)
８０分間大好きなアイドルと握手し続けるために他人のクレジットカード情報を盗み、大量のCDを購入した大学生犯罪組織も存在していました。
There was also a college student crime syndicate that stole other people’s credit card information and purchased large quantities of CDs in order to keep shaking hands with their favorite idols for 80 minutes.
偽造された握手券がオークションに出品され、知らずに買ってしまったファンもいます
Counterfeit handshake tickets were sold at auction, and some fans bought them without knowing it (The right is the fake ticket)
握手やハグや投票し終えた後、大量のCDはどこに行くのでしょうか？中古サイトで売る人もいれば、山とかに捨てて逮捕される人もいます
Where do the massive amounts of CDs go after you finish shaking hands, hugging and voting? Some people sell them on second-hand sites, while others get arrested for throwing them into a mountain or something
This Goku who works for $9 per hour seems to dislike those illegal dumpers, lol
アイドルたちは、１日で１０万人と握手することもあります。
Idols can shake hands with as many as 100,000 people in a single day.
これは少し古い本です。大好きなアイドル達と上手に（そして効率的に）握手するためのマニュアル本も存在します。
This is a bit old book. There is a manual book to handshake well (and efficiently) with your favorite idols.
この人は元トップアイドルで、握手会に来るファンの８０％はDTっぽかった、と言っています。DTとは童貞(DouTei)のスラングです(笑)
This lady is a former top idol and says 80% of her fans who came to her handshake events looked DT. DT is slang for virgin, lol.
– AFTER THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC –
コロナウイルス以後、アイドルに直接触ることは出来ません。しかし、今も大勢のファンが「マジックハンド」で握手してもらうために握手券を買っています。
After the coronavirus, you can’t touch your idols directly. However, a large number of fans are still buying tickets to shake hands with “Magic Hand”.
Btw, I run an online game slightly similar to VRChat for free, and an idol company asked me to convert it for their online pandemic handshaking event. At that time, I was very busy and couldn’t work for them, but I guess some idols are working online now.
(Some Japanese idols earn huge amount of money using youtube super chat. And their fans give them money hoping for being said “Thanks!” by their idols)
Loving the site so far, however it seems on this article the toggle for English and furigana don’t seem to work correctly. I can turn both on and off for the first paragraph, but any text after the first picture doesn’t change. Instead it always shows the English and no furigana.
Hi! Thanks a lot for your comment and report! 😀
Ahh, sorry! For now, the furigana and English buttons support the voice recorded area only! >< In the future version after developed an automated furigana functionality, I think I'll support all other areas, too. But it's a bit difficult to add furigana in other areas for now >< (I type every single furigana in the current version... ^^;)
Hi again! Just now I succeeded to make an auto furigana system!
I added furigana for all Japanese parts in this article now! Thanks! ^^
伝統的なアイドルは低下してしまってvtuberのアイドルが盛ったと思いますか?
コメントありがとうございます～！
はい！従来のアイドルはコロナウイルスの影響と、インターネット上のVTuberアイドルの影響で、昔よりも勢いがなくなっていると思います。
実は、この記事ではVTuberについても書く予定でしたが、記事が長くなりすぎたので、そちらはまた違う日に投稿する予定です(笑)