Morning Musume rapidly gaining female fans;
popular columnist Inuyama Kamiko explains their appeal

Inuyama Kamiko, pictured with her dog Croquette

Morning Musume’s “counterattack” continues. After becoming a social phenomenon during their “Golden Era” around the year 2000, they had a period of less media appearances but they nevertheless kept going, focusing on live performances and continuously improving their vocal and dance abilities. Now their hard work is starting to pay off thanks to their high-quality performances combining the EDM genre and formation dancing. In 2013, they had three consecutive singles take the no. 1 spot on Oricon. Simultaneously their fanbase has been growing larger while celebrities and artists of other genres have publicly announced being a fan of the group. We asked popular columnist and author of “Make Bijo“, Inuyama Kamiko, to tell us about the appeal of Morning Musume from a woman’s viewpoint, and about the mindset of a female fan of idols.

―― Can you tell us how you first got interested in Morning Musume?

Inuyama: Back when I got my big break in my late teens, I was just casually singing their songs in karaoke and I was never really that aware of what they were doing. Then at some point I happened to come across “One･Two･Three” on YouTube and I was surprised by how cool and high level their dancing was. The singing was good, too, as was the song. I got hooked on it and I must’ve listened to it over 50 times, and then I went out and bought the CD. I couldn’t help but share it with everyone on Twitter, who in turn also shared it with others. It feels like the group is being reassessed by a lot of people.

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