Is it just me, or is the pool of Japanese actors starring in dramas really small? I keep seeing the same faces over and over again, especially the supporting cast. It's not quite like being in Mexico and watching only TV Azteca, where the same ten actors play all the lead roles in telenovelas, but compared to the UK, with less than half of the population, I'm struck by the small number of actors getting all the jobs.

Can someone who has read or studied the Japanese TV/movie industry enlighten me? Is it the cartel-like structure of the production firms, or the talent agencies? Is it because fame in Japan is fleeting, and during your few years of fame you need to do everything, act, sing and advertise for the hell of it because you are dropped eventually?

I've been noticing this recently too. It seems like it's always the same group of people playing policemen, bad guys, etc., and before long it gets hard to keep their characters apart.

It seems like Japan still hasn't quite learned how to train decent actors, and even most of the famous ones are on par with Keanu reeves. Maybe they just don't care and are content with their thousands of talentless tarento.

Japan has plenty of talented actors and it shows, and any country tends to use only a limited pool of actors that get recycled, even if someone else, lesser known, may have fit the role. I think it's a fairly recent and rare phenomenon in other countries that unknowns are getting a chance to shine in particular, well-written roles, and break out from there. There seems to be more of a synthesis of writing and characterization in those areas that isn't happening in Japan, is my impression. But I haven't kept up with jdorama or kdrama the past couple of years.

I think Japan is unique in the way the yakuza have control or heavy involvement of/in major talent agencies (Burning Productions, Johnny's Entertainment) and/or in the power the talent agencies wield over productions, no?

Neojaponisme has been doing an interesting series of articles on the structure of the media industry, talent agencies and so on (part one; part two; part three; part four may arrive at some point in the future), which touches on some phenomena which might form part of the explanation:

Quote:the main bosses of about a dozen groups dictate to the media and advertising agencies whom from their keiretsu they want used rather than having an open audition process, where even small firms can provide upcoming talent. (Even the bit roles in Japanese TV shows are usually fleshed out by junior members of the stars’ agency.)

I know basically nothing about this area but I think the posts are an interesting read.

Yeah that's what I was getting at; that and I think Jake Adelstein on yakuza involvement in Burning/Johnny's? Although for the former, I tend to assume there's a level of hyperbole in all of Marxy's writing/ideas about Japan, slanted towards negative extremes, so I mentally tone down his writing about 20% or so. ^_^ (The veracity of it, and that percentage changes depending on the topic.) He and Momus used to go at it quite a bit, and I always tended to be more sympathetic towards Momus' view/logic on these things.

I assume those articles mention blacklisting, as well. I was also reading about Space Battleship Yamato's story being changed through talent agency pressure, from a space battle focus to a dramatic focus when Takuya Kimura was cast?

It's probably because they know the person can do a good job and they are a sure thing, as opposed to going with someone new/new role and not knowing what could happen. With the high breakneck pace of the Japanese media industry, there's not much room for mistakes.

pm215 Wrote:Neojaponisme has been doing an interesting series of articles on the structure of the media industry, talent agencies and so on

Quote:the main bosses of about a dozen groups dictate to the media and advertising agencies whom from their keiretsu they want used rather than having an open audition process, where even small firms can provide upcoming talent. (Even the bit roles in Japanese TV shows are usually fleshed out by junior members of the stars’ agency.)

Makes sense---despite the hyperbole and shoddy writing of this blog. If the industry is structured that way, we would see the attempt to maximize the return on the investment in a single artist by flogging them everywhere, from drama to pop music to commercials. We would also see a smallish number of actors being re-cast over and over again. We would see shorter careers, because the audience eventually gets enough of most faces. And there's not necessarily much of an incentive to become a really good "character" actor, although obviously there are a handful who are just great despite having launched their careers in such a closed system.

Another factor might be that there's less of a route from theatre to movies and back, like there is in the US and even more so the UK, which just sustains a larger talent pool. In fact there's no comparable theatre world in Tokyo. And much like vaudeville used to do, Kabuki seems to produce better comedians than actors.