Idol Auditions in Japan

This was supposed to be in my review of AKB0048 Episode 3, but since there is a lot to talk about, I decided to make a post all about it.

When it comes to idol auditions in Japan, there are multiple rounds. It generally follows the scheme of application round --> intensive training round --> final judgement round. There can be different rounds between each and within these rounds.
- The application round is based solely on the application form.
- The intensive training round involves intensive training in singing and dancing, as well as learning a new song or a new dance. After learning the new song and dance routine, they must show all their hard work to judges. This round will demonstrate to the judges how quickly these girls can learn songs and dances under pressure. Most importantly, it provides the girls with vital training necessary to become an idol.
- The final judgement round selects those who have officially made it into the group.

In AKB0048, the first round was a video audition. The second round was intensive training with judging at the end of it. There was no final round, as the judging in the 2nd round eliminated many of the girls, leaving us with the 77th generation.

Let's look at some televised auditions from over the years, starting from the most recent.

Audition #1
Let's take a look at the auditions for the AKB48 sister group, NMB48. NMB stands for Namba in Osaka, which is where they are primarily focusing to get there talent from. This is to keep up with the idea of "idols you can meet", so Aki-P has started sister groups in different regions of Japan like with SKE48 (Nagoya's Sakae), and the newest sister group, HKT48 (Fukuoka's Hakate). The thing with NMB48 is that many people, especially celebrities, don't think an idol group will be successful in Osaka because Osaka is known to be the comedy central of Japan.

For this audition, 7256 girls applied. 

As you can see, the application consists of filling out a form, and attaching a head shot and full-body shot of yourself. 

Every single application is reviewed, and only 430 were chosen to go to the second round. 

Before any of the girls are able to show what they can do, a majority of applicants are already eliminated. That's pretty intense.  

The breakdown of the auditions is predicted as follows. 

Only 100 girls will make it passed the 2nd round, and only 20 girls will be selected at the end. This gives only a 1 in 363 chance for any of the applicants to make it to the end. That's about 0.3%. 

The 430 girls show up for the 2nd round of auditions, which starts with a 1 on 1 interview with a judge. They will have 5 minutes to appeal to the judges, whether it be their talent or personality. They must also answer questions about what kind of performer they would like to be, etc.

Judges on the left, and the 430 candidates on the right.

After the interview, the girls are held in a waiting room until the verdict has been announced as to which 100 girls will make it to the next round. It's kind of crazy that girls are getting eliminated without even getting the chance to show any of their singing or dancing skills. You really need to learn how to sell yourself young when you want to get into this business in Japan. This is of course much different, for example, in the U.S.A. with American Idol where they actually let every single applicant audition, and decide from there (not what's written on a piece of paper or how well they can sell themselves).

For the 2nd round, it took 6 hours to go through all the girls with at least 10 judges. After the interviews, girls that were able to say what they wanted felt confident that they would pass, while others that were nervous or shy during the interview didn't feel as confident.

As you can see above, they announce who made it by writing their candidate number on a whiteboard. The girls then check to see if they made it or not. This is actually a great system to keep the girls anonymous at all times, and much faster than to write out all their names.

To the 3rd round of auditions!

The above picture shows the breakdown of what will happen during the 3rd round. Out of the 100, only 50 make it past the dance round. From those 50, only 30 will pass the singing round.

During the dance round, the girls will have to learn choreography created just for this audition. This will put all the girls on equal footing in terms of knowledge of the routine, and will show who can learn dances quickly and who can't. Of course, dancing well is important too. The girls have about 30 minutes to master about one minute of a new choreography.

After learning the dance, the girls are split into groups, and perform in front of the judges.

While these girls are being judged, the rest are practicing in the waiting room until it's their turn.

After all the girls have danced, the 50 that passed are announced, but have very little time to celebrate as the singing round will start right away. Aki-P comes in as a judge for this round.

For the singing round, the girls get to choose what song they want to sing.

Do you notice something in this picture? The girl is not looking at the judges. Why? Because she's reading the lyrics off of the karaoke box. That's right, you can't say you messed up the lyrics when it's right there. This also avoids headaches of the candidates having to bring their music, and giving it to the judges. Just get a karaoke machine and play the song from there. Of course, you don't have to look at the lyrics if you don't want to.

After this round, 39 girls made it vs the predicted 30.

When Aki-P was asked what he was looking for (or his "selection point"), he said the following:

Aki-P: "It makes you want to see what can be expected of them. After maturing, what we can see from them."

After the final selection round, 26 girls out of the 39 were selected to be NMB48's first generation of kenkyuusei (research students). This is much higher than what was predicted. Of course, the girls who actually become Team N is a completely different story.

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Audition #2:

Let's look at the Avex Idol Audition 2010, where the winners of this audition became the girl group, SUPER☆GIRLS. 

Application round: As usual, fill out an application form with the required two pictures of yourself.

At every audition location, after all the applicants have passed, those in charge will announce who made it through a few hours after on the same day. As you can see here, less than 10% of those that applied made it through. I should mention that the applicants do get to sing before the cuts happen. 

This is the result after all the preliminary auditions: roughly 7000 girls applied, and only 99 made it to the second round. 

They then decided to reduce the 99 applicants who passed to 24. The 24 who passed were contacted by phone.

The 24 girls who make it to the next round will be split into 3 groups of 8, and each group will sing and dance a different song listed above: "Nijiiro Star", "Kizuna Days", and "Be with you".

The 24 girls are split up, and receive bags containing MP3 players containing the song they have to learn, as well as lyrics for the song.

The girls then stay at a hotel until the auditions are over. This will give them a place to practice outside of the actual training grounds.

During the first day of training, the captains, which is usually the oldest member, in each group received a DVD containing the video of the dance they will have to learn. The girls take a look to get a feel of what they will be dancing.

They are then assembled to meet their vocal and dance coaches for each group.

"You're not here to make friends" is what one of the coaches said when he saw that the girls were not being serious during stretching exercises that were done earlier that day. The reason why the coach says this is 2-fold: first, they are there to become idols; second, if they made friends, but they didn't get through together, then it will be heartbreaking more than anything else. Focus on what you need to do. If you make it, you can be friends with the others who have made it as well. 

Now the 3 groups are off to their vocal and dance lessons. This is when and where all the tears will start flowing. Girls frustrated with themselves, and unable to keep up with what is demanded of them causes them to break down. These coaches won't go easy on them because nothing will be easy once they make it through. Here are the fruits of their labour. From the 24, only 12 will make it and become an official idol group. Here are videos of them performing in front of an audience: group 1,2 and 3.

The 12 girls are chosen, and you can see them perform in full the songs that they learned during training at the Tokyo Idol Festival 2010: "Nijiiro Star", "Kizuna Days", and "Be with you".

Audition #3:
Let's look at Morning Musume's 8th generation auditions. This is the kind of idol auditions that most people are familiar with. Watch all 3 parts with English subtitles: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. To find about the other Morning Musume auditions, check out this link.

As you can see, idol auditions follow a general formula, but the breakdown of the selection process varies.

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On a side note, what happened to the girls that didn't make it? Let me give you 3 examples:
(1) Koda Kumi: she auditioned for Morning Musume's 2nd generation, but didn't make it. She then auditioned for Avex's Dream Audition in 2000, and won 2nd place. Now, she's known as one of the queens of J-pop. How's that for not making it through your first audition?

(2) Satou Sumire: finalist to become Morning Musume's 8th generation member, but failed. She auditioned for AKB48, and became part of Team A, shuffled to Team B, and is now back in Team A. She voices Mimori in AKB0048. She's not the most popular, but she's definitely recognizable.

(3) Kikkawa Yuu: also a finalist in Morning Musume's 8th generation audition, but failed. She became a Hello! Project egg, graduated, and became a soloist under Universal Music Japan. She's definitely a lot further with her career than the actual winner of that audition, Mitsui Aika (who unfortunately had to graduate from Morning Musume due to recurring injuries, but is still in Hello! Project so I hope she gets some deserved spotlight soon).