Hello and welcome to the Chika Wota Blog!
The term chika wota (地下ヲタ) is translated as underground fan,1 which perfectly describes myself as a current J-Pop fan. I cover a variety of subjects, topics, groups, and artists from the chika aidoru2 scene, as well as mainstream debuted groups from the larger agencies such as Johnny’s, LDH, Avex, and others.
This blog started off as a subdomain of my personal non-niche blog, namely because I was a tad lazy in creating a whole new blog about the still-obscure, mysterious world of J-Pop male idols and artists. Generally, when you ask someone in general about Japanese Pop culture, one would immediately say any or all of these: anime, manga, video games (PlayStation, Nintendo, etc.), and idols. The latter category doesn’t mean idols in general, but it only refers to female idols.
And today, you can find so much information about female idols altogether around the internet that many don’t even know that male idols do exist. This even includes the notorious monopoly-like Johnny & Associates, the pioneer company who spearheaded the Asian male idol scene. This blog will cover the general male idol/artist scene outside Johnny’s, which includes the current fandom that I am right now: the chika aidoru/underground idol scene.
I also started this blog because of another trend that started within the male idol scene: Korean-based idol survival shows, more specifically, PRODUCE 101 JAPAN. My aim for this blog, in addition, is to also share and educate new J-Pop fans (namely on the male idol side anyway) on how the industry works, as well as introducing male (idol) groups and artists as well.
Lastly, I created this blog to also rant out my thoughts about different topics and issues within the J-Pop male idol/artist industry and as a haven so I can remain a silent fan, so to speak. I hope that I’m able to reach out to a wider audience with this little blog with what I know, what I learned, and what I feel that still needs to be discovered.