Idol "Dating Bans" - Discuss

[GraceMellody]

Dating/Love bans are something that Japanese idol culture is infamous for, with a lot of people thinking that they're inappropriate and harmful to the girls.

Personally, I think rules that companies like Hello! Project have are fine. Although they've never spoken up about what their rules are, we can see that they've punished girls under the age of 18 who've been caught with boys if they've been slacking, whereas girls over the age of 18 have had no punishment despite being posted in tabloids. I agree with this because I think girls under the age of 18 do need to focus on their public image once they're choosing the idol career, as well as their school life, and girls who do things like skip practise just to spend time with their boyfriends should put more work in.

However other companies who take it seriously and fire girls who have been working hard just for little things like being photographed walking with a boy, that's the kind of thing that I think is way too far.

Overall, I think dating bans are fine within reason, especially if it's more of a "Hey if you do date try to keep it quiet" as opposed to "If you walk with a boy you're fired".
Ultimately, girls sign these contracts and should stick to the rules or face the consequences in my opinion.

[MakiChan]

I think the dating bans are fine, I mean they don't really have time for any of that imo

[GraceMellody]

Yeah, especially not the big name groups

Smaller and self employed idols, sure, if you have time go for it
But it becomes hard to balance everything

[MakiChan]

Yeah because of all the practce, concerts etc

[GraceMellody]

Exactly, which is why I think that most companies only enforce the rules on the girls still in school. If you're doing that as well there's definitely not enough time, whereas adults do have a little more time to spare

[MakiChan]

Yeah most definitely, you can't be distracted by things like that

[Akane Mayu]

I think most Japanese and Korean idol groups have them and given how much time they have to devote to music I think the bans r fine has they don't really have time for a relationship imo

[GraceMellody]

I think most Japanese and Korean idol groups have them and given how much time they have to devote to music I think the bans r fine has they don't really have time for a relationship imo

The bigger companies do, it's actually fairly uncommon for smaller/indie groups

[Akane Mayu]

I think most Japanese and Korean idol groups have them and given how much time they have to devote to music I think the bans r fine has they don't really have time for a relationship imo

The bigger companies do, it's actually fairly uncommon for smaller/indie groups

oh really ?

[GraceMellody]

I think most Japanese and Korean idol groups have them and given how much time they have to devote to music I think the bans r fine has they don't really have time for a relationship imo

The bigger companies do, it's actually fairly uncommon for smaller/indie groups

oh really ?

Yeah, indie groups tend to just be like "Do what you want just don't flaunt it everywhere"
A good example is my friend translated the announcement of another idol leaving, I don't remember which group it was but
Basically they listed a bunch of reasons for her leaving, including missing practises, not being professional with the other members, in general not putting effort in, and then the last reason was skipping rehearsal to see her boyfriend. It showed the fans that they don't really care about them dating, unless it starts to get in the way of their career