Morning Musume. '14 12th gen - Golden audition

[Mixi]

I'm surprised no one pointed out that Tsunku's announcement clearly said that any single woman between the ages of 10 and 17 can apply regardless of nationality... He wants to introduce the world to the sound of J-pop.

[JonCC]

They tried that once and failed hard.
Let's stick to Japanese members.

[Zunu]

The group as a whole was failing hard relative to now. That's not an indictment of all foreigners ever.

[otaku_blue]

isnt it more of a local thing though.
as in girls within the area who are half-caste and what not to come off as racially inclusive, and not specifically relating to international girls?

[JonCC]

That's not an indictment of all foreigners ever.

I still think it would be a bad idea.
But we'll see what happens. I doubt they'll actually put completely non-Japanese girls in the group again.
H!P's track-record in general with foreign members (across it's entire history) isn't that great.

[Mixi]

Well, he talked about the world afterwards... and "国籍" is "nationality". Not ethnicity, just citizenship. As in people with another citizenship (i.e. foreigners) have permission to apply.

[otaku_blue]

Well, he talked about the world afterwards... and "国籍" is "nationality". Not ethnicity, just citizenship. As in people with another citizenship (i.e. foreigners) have permission to apply.

I did not know this and this is interesting.

[TotallyUncool]

And I immediately thought of Korea and Taiwan...

[randompasserby]

I hope I'm not coming across as rude but I really don't understand the management's fascination and some fans excitement with the idea of adding foreign members to the group. I mean, as long as they think the girl has potential, is committed to work hard and improve and could contribute in any way to the group, I definitely wouldn't mind either way.

...but why would they complicate it so much by adding non-japanese members? They're not exactly going to be making waves internationally just by that one gesture. And what about the internal group dynamics? will she be able to fit in? can she communicate well enough with the other members? with the staffs and their instructors?
Not to mention all the hassle with that comes from working in a foreign country. What happens when her visa run out? is she only going to be a member for a predetermined set of time?

None of the above is a dealbreaker per se but the benefits, for the agency and the group as well as for the fans, isn't clear to me either. So I just have to wonder if it's going to be worth their while.

[riversong]

Ah, I guess it's just one of those wishful thinking/self insertion kind of things.

Maybe we could at least get someone who's mixed/half? It happens all the time in k-pop -- Tiffany and Jessica from 2ne1 were born in California but they're fluent in Korean and English both. All the members in miss A are actually Chinese (I think) but sing in Korean and some of them know English as well. It's really not that uncommon in other parts of Asia.

Of course, on the other hand, we all know what happened with the pandas, so...