SMAP supports Taro Aso & the LDP

SMAP AD

Japanese pop group SMAP ran a newspaper advertisement this week trying to convince young voters to support the ruling Liberal Democratic Party:

The five-member all-male group, which has had a top-10 selling compact disc for 17 straight years with songs such as “Celery” and “Fly,” appeared in a four-page newspaper ad this week titled “How to Build a Happy Nation.”

“When the economy is good, prime ministers are popular, but in bad times, that popularity fades,” the band said in the ad, which was wrapped around the Wednesday morning edition of the Sankei newspaper. “Still, these are people whom we’ve elected, so let’s make some allowances and support them.”

There is some speculation that the ad doesn’t actually contain the opinions of the band members, and that it may have been written by their puppet masters at Johnny’s Entertainment.

[hat tip to FG]

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temmage

Interesting post on the ongoing political debacle, James. I have always been amazed at the level of control exerted by the major Japanese entertainment entities on their celebrities; I still remember being blown when I first heard of all-girl groups such as Morning Musame and AK48 being constructed solely to appeal to a very narrow and precise demographic. I am quite curious as to the degree of freedom celebrities can exercise as private citizen in regards to their personal opinions on various social and political issues – is this kind of faux political support quite common in the Japanese media? Would it be acceptable, for example, if a Japanese band went on stage during a concert and began voicing certain opinions on the current political situation (as the Dixie Chicks have done in the US)?
George

So their logic is, “We elected them, so it’s really only fair to elect them.” Got it.
nakamura25

Dear SMAP,

Fuck you.

big, hairy and tasty——–coconut

thnks dude, we enjoyed it….

yoga boy

It is utterly disgusting how they are using SMAP to push their political agendas. It is even worse that the talent agency is on their knees willingly doing it while the SMAP members are mum simply because they want their paychecks. Freaking sad all around…but the Tokyo zombie people won’t even bat an eye. Must obey.
http://www.chirimotsumoreba.net Jordan

SMAP should really not get involved in this sort of thing.
hidflect

“Johnny” (sic), ex-oner of SMAP’s Jonny’s Entertainment (but now dead I think) was one evil b@stard. He was a child star but you can’t find one person who’s seen his face. Try and Google for it. Rest In Hell you pedophile.

nakamura25

He’s still alive.

CHA

This is actually an ad for their newly released single on 8/26. They ended the message with the name of the single “Sotto Kyutto” and if you turned the page, there was a huge full-page picture of them and information on that Sotto Kyutto single. They then gained extra promotion for their single because all of the morning news shows talked about this ad and helped advertised the release of the single. Brilliant marketing strategy!!

http://www.zdwonline.de Haf

Indeed, this extra information puts the whole thing in a different position. It really seems to be a brilliant marketing strategy, at least for the agency. One can only speculate what the SMAP members actually think about the whole thing and if they really want to support the LDP or if they also just wanted to cash in or if their opinion didn’t even count when this ad was decided upon.

The Overthinker

The last.

dizzy

I’m not sure about the political leanings of the other SMAP members but I’m sure that Katori is really liberal. He has been very outspoken against the Bush administration. This ad makes me think that this has nothing to do with the actual opinions of the members and it’s just what Johnny’s put out there.
Even though they might oppose it they can’t really do anything against the jimusho.
CHA

Speaking of members’ opinion regarding politics, Nakai openly criticized the current pension plan during his solo in last year SMAP concert. And yes, Katori once spent his whole show bashing and ridiculing Bush administration.
kebin

that title sounds like a shitty recipe. I like how they dumbed down the kanji too, that means either they think were too dumb to read kanji or that theyre just morons. thanks smap!
Troy

I just found this on Lewrockwell.com
“The CIA-established Liberal Democrats have been defeated by the less-warmongering Democrats. Don’t tell me the Japanese are finally ready to declare WWII over, and get rid of their US occupiers! See Jason Ditz. PS: US Out of Japan! (And US Out of Alabama!)”

SMAP supports Taro Aso & the LDP

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