The Jimusho and Idol Culture

There's a lot happening in my life right now and I'm struggling to deal with my problems. I swear I cause 99% of my own problems just by overthinking and overworrying. T___T Anyways, enough about that.

Ever since I've come back to the JE fandom, I've become more and more curious about learning more about Idol culture. In the past, I didn't even know many of the groups, let alone how the whole Johnny's agency operate. I blindly consumed and didn't really think about what lied behind the scenes.

Because of my love for JE, I've read a THESIS on my own will....(Never saw that coming! Refer to this post). I've also read a research book and many articles about Japanese Idol culture. They're really fascinating and I do recommend reading them! :)

The Jimusho System

• Separated into 4 parts
• Talks about blacklisting, control of rights, how indie agencies are really just part of larger agencies, and more!
• There are some interesting comments as well

Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture

• A mildly thick book about Idol Culture
• The link goes to Google Books. It cost around $60. T_T But if your university or institute is subscribed to this particular online library you might be able to read it for FREE here: palgraveconnect
• There's also a scanned snippet about Arashi floating around the net somewhere....but I won't link it. (You didn't hear this from me)
• The down part is that they didn't talk about Hey! Say! Jump that much (Excuse my bias)... They did talk about Arashi a bit and older female groups/idols I didn't really know about. 

There isn't much material that I've found, so I'm always on the outlook for more!