Overseas Idol 'Sister Groups': A Brief History

Seishun Youth Academy

Recently, we reported on FES☆TIVE’s announcement of a sister girl group. While smaller ‘sister groups’ are a frequent occurrence in the Japanese idol world, FES☆TIVE’s sister group will have one unique and major aspect that sets it apart from others: it will be based overseas.

According to FES☆TIVE’s agency Rize Productions, the new group will be based in Thailand (presumably in Bangkok as that is where the announcement was made for the group) and will have its inaugural audition there, indicating that the group will primarily have Thai members. However, choreography, composition and clothing will be largely handled by Japanese staff, to achieve a “MADE IN JAPAN” feel consistent with FES☆TIVE’s overall theme.

FES☆TIVE’s foray into launching an overseas sister group is not new in the Japanese idol world, but it is certainly very rare. Only few Japanese idol groups have ever made attempts to launch sister groups or other related acts outside of Japan, and only a few have become prominent where they are based. Nevertheless, the concept has existed for a long time. The first instance of an overseas sister idol group to a Japanese idol group was in 1996, when Shanghai Performance Doll was launched as an overseas sister group to then-popular idol group Tokyo Performance Doll.

Shanghai Performance Doll

The 4 members of Shanghai Performance Doll were all Chinese, and while the intended concept was to be similar to Japanese idols, their music was sung in Mandarin Chinese (including some Chinese versions of Tokyo Performance Doll songs) instead of Japanese. The group produced and released one major album (BORN IN CHINA).
 
Because of the decline in the popularity of idols in Japan in the 1990s, no further forays were made into overseas sister groups until 2007, when Hello! Project made the first attempt to market a Japanese-style idol group in an overseas market with the launch of Hello! Project Taiwan. Two groups, Ice Creamusume (a 6-member group) and Frances & Aiko (a 2-member duo, later named Big Small Sister) were launched in Taiwan under the Hello! Project banner.

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Ice Creamusume

Both groups were disbanded after only a few years, despite the popularity of Ice Creamusume’s Japanese equivalent (Morning Musume) at the time, due to poor sales numbers and inability to establish a consistent fan base in Taiwan. Hello! Project has not attempted to launch any overseas idol groups since.
 
The first successful overseas idol sister groups finally materialized in the 2010s, when the international sister groups of AKB48 and the Japanese “48 groups” were launched. AKB48 was by the time extremely popular, and had several sister groups in Japan including NMB48 and HKT48. The 48 groups’ overseas expansion started with JKT48 (based in Jakarta, Indonesia - hence “JKT”) in 2011, and further expansions have reached mainland China, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. AKB48’s overseas expansion also resulted in IZ*ONE, a hit K-Pop girl group composed of Korean members and Japanese members from the original 48 groups.

IZ*ONE

While the international 48 groups have proven the viability of idol groups overseas, an expected wave of overseas expansions throughout the Japanese idol industry has not materialized. This is presumably because most idol groups’ management/talent companies did not possess the scale, connections, and funds to be able to establish themselves well in an overseas market. However, that trend was broken in late 2017 when Japanese rock idol group 青SHUN学園 (Seishun Gakuen)’s producer launched Seishun Youth Academy, an overseas sister group based in Canada. This overseas sister group was created as two established Canadian members of Seishun Gakuen (Ally & Sally), who joined ‘Gakuen’ while they were on a university exchange in Japan, finished their study term and had to return to Canada.

Although ‘Gakuen’ and its parent company (Kyushu-based talent agency NoMake) are much smaller than AKB48 and its parent company, they were still able to establish a sister group overseas, and the first such group to be based outside of Asia. SYA, which launched in 2018 with 4 members, quickly added a 5th and 6th—with all members based at its hometown in Vancouver, on Canada’s west coast. The group performs Japanese ‘Seishun Gakuen’ songs, as well as English versions, and have released one major original song in both languages.
 
Since their formation, they have enjoyed considerable success establishing a fan-base in Vancouver, having hosted numerous solo lives there (often featuring the Japanese ‘Gakuen’ members who travel from Japan) and also establishing a popular fan club on Patreon. There are regular broadcasts by the six members on the SHOWROOM application (also used by idols in Japan), and a seventh member is currently on board SYA as a trainee.

At the moment Seishun Youth Academy is the only active overseas ‘sister group’ to a Japanese idol girl group, outside of the many international 48 groups. With the addition of FES☆TIVE’s sister group there will be two such girl groups, and we hope that even more overseas ‘sister groups’ will be following in their footsteps.

-Daryl