They sing, they dance, they even sew their own costumes. These performers are internationally recognised for their J-Pop performances — even if none of them are Japanese.
There’s a hidden world tucked inside a community theatre in Sydney's CBD. On certain evenings, a group of young women dressed in colourful costumes perform to a passionate crowd. Like the crowd, the performers are drenched in sweat. The bright stage lights reflect off the women, giving them an otherworldly glow.
As the crowd gets louder, the performers respond in kind. Voices mix until they become one; a chaotic duet between those on stage and the fans in the darkness. And it’s all in Japanese.
Japanese Idol or J-Idol is a niche music scene that’s been active in Sydney for more than a decade. It's made up of girl groups that sing and dance to original Japanese music. They call themselves Idols, a Japanese term used to describe this type of performer.
The Sydney scene is inspired by the original scene in Japan, where this type of performance is categorised as J-Pop. It's similar to K-Pop and, although J-Pop isn’t as globally recognised as K-Pop, its impact and reach can’t be underestimated.
According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, Japan currently holds the second highest spot for music sales in the world, just behind the US. Globally the highest selling J-Pop girl group is AKB48, which was founded in 2005 and has 43 members. AKB48 held the bestselling artist title in Japan from 2011 to 2018 and by 2023, the group chalked up 73.4 million sales.
The Sydney Idols perform in Japanese and produce their own original music in Japanese. But curiously, none of these groups are ethnically Japanese.
Faeble is one of the most popular groups. It was formed by leader Sunny* in 2021, and like other groups in Sydney, the group has no Japanese members.
When asked why the group don't perform in English, Sunny says that it would be disrespectful.
"I think it's disrespectful to the culture, at least in my view. We're performing a very specific culture that was created in Japan … all of the audience participation projects, the names of how to do things. It's all in Japanese because that's where it was created. It felt right for us to continue that," she says.
"You don't want to change it too much."
What attracts these entertainers is the culture, the aesthetic and the performance itself. "Idol almost encompasses the way they are performing and creating music as opposed to the sound itself," Sunny explains.
Unpredictability and popularity
The Sydney scene is small but thriving. There’s only a handful of J-Idol groups, yet there is a show at least once a week. Faeble alone performs several times a month.
Despite the frequency, it’s rare to see Sydney J-Idol groups performing outside of the CBD. They are sometimes invited to perform at events like the Chatswood Lunar New Year celebration or the Auburn Cherry Blossom Festival, but pure Idol events are almost always in the city centre.
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However profits can vary wildly and are often hard to predict.
Tilda is the former leader of the long-running Sydney J-Idol group étude. Despite their popularity over eight years of performing, the group decided to disband in July due to time constraints.
Tilda says the group's members needed to focus on their careers and studies. And she says once the group realised they could no longer maintain their personal performance standards, they decided to disband instead of risk a "bad image".
What didn’t help was the unstable revenue from their Idol activities, which cost them so much time and effort. Tilda says étude would sometimes earn less than a $1,000 per show, which would barely cover their costs. Sometimes they received $2,000 to $3,000 per show. This would allow each member to receive a small profit.
Their final show in July grossed over $6,000 in one night.
Buying time
Like other music scenes, Idols earn revenue through ticket sales and merchandise. However, there’s one special item that’s unique to J-Idols: the cheki.
Priced at around $10-20, cheki is an individual meet-and-greet with an Idol along with a signed Polaroid photo to commemorate the occasion. The meet up is timed, usually lasting thirty seconds to a minute per cheki. So, the more cheki a fan buys, the more time they have to talk to their Idol.
Often fans buy at least one cheki of their oshi (favourite group member) at each show and build up a collection to showcase their dedication.
In Sydney, post-show cheki sessions easily last over two hours. These sessions happen immediately after the show in the venue. Not wanting to keep fans waiting too long, Idols usually have around fifteen minutes to rest after their performance before cheki.
At étude’s final show, cheki lasted for over four hours, with some fans buying up to five chekis per member.
Performing passion
Fans’ passion can also be seen — or more accurately heard — through MIX. These are structured chants that fans shout during performances. MIX is usually yelled at the top of their lungs, often overlapping or even overtaking the Idols’ singing. They are often accompanied by dancing, moshing and lifting of fellow fans.
While outsiders may find this unusual, that’s not the case in J-Idol. Silence during a performance is perceived as a lack of support from fans and can lower the energy of a performance. Solo Idol performer Mayhem says that fans often find unique ways to show their passion for their Idols.
"Sometimes, the audience decides to do push-ups in an instrumental break. I've gotten really used to it, so it doesn't feel crazy anymore. But I don't know — does that happen anywhere else?"
For Idols, interaction with fans take priority over everything else, even on stage. Sunny says that for Faeble, members are expected and encouraged to ignore choreography if there is an opportunity for fan interaction on stage.
What makes an Idol?
Na-E is a J-Idol soloist who recently moved from Sydney to Japan to pursue her dreams.
After several performances in Japan and agency auditions, she’s realised that it’s personality, not skill, that is valued in J-Idol.
"There's so many people within, even in Japan, that don't know how to dance, that don't know how to sing, and they still have a lot of fans … because in one way or another they're endearing," Na-E says.
While she hasn’t been successful in her auditions yet, Na-E was featured in an audition broadcast for Appare!, a famous Japanese Idol group who has sold out Nippon Budokan, a 14,000 capacity arena.
While the audition ended with tears for Na-E, she’s seen an increase in social media followers since the show went to air. She's still performing as an independent Idol, and she's optimistic about her chances of success in Japan.
Respect for Sydney
In 2024, a Japanese Idol company called Alice in Project reached out to Tilda, seeking a collaboration with her group étude.
Despite thinking it might be a scam, the group was given the song Harutsugedori to perform. In July, the Alice in Project president travelled to Sydney to see étude perform the song.
Tilda sees this as an acknowledgement of Sydney’s J-Idol scene from the Japanese industry. "He said he felt as if the scene was steadily growing, because he wouldn't have chosen étude if there wasn't a scene in Australia already."
Most Sydney J-Idols, including Faeble and étude, are independent. "All of our work is based on our own time, our own money, our own resources. We don't have anyone to manage us. We don't have anyone to troubleshoot for us," Na-E says.
Not only do the Idols perform and produce original music, but they also do the accounting, marketing and management of the group. They even sew their own costumes. Profits from shows are often used for future projects, leaving the performers with little to show for the hours they have invested.
All have separate incomes. "I do work another job to support myself, but when I'm not doing that, I am almost always working on Idol. It's pretty much a few hours every evening and then all weekends," Sunny says.
But to Sydney J-Idols, even this struggle is part of the deal.
"Let's do our best. Let's keep going. Let's never give up. Those kinds of core themes to me are like fundamentally what Idol is all about," Mayhem says.
"In a lot of ways, I would describe Idol as a performance art. But I also feel that Idol is a mindset and a lifestyle of chasing your dreams."
*Stage names have been used throughout
