Seishun Youth Academy Launches Crowdfunding Effort for Japan Performance

We’ve certainly heard of overseas idols and idol groups wanting to travel to Japan to do performances, but not like this: Vancouver, Canada-based idol group Seishun Youth Academy—one of the few overseas idol sister groups in the world—has launched a crowdfunding effort, with the support of their Japanese agency NoMake, which aims to bring all of the members of Seishun Youth Academy to Japan. There, they would perform together with their Japanese sister group 青SHUN学園 (Seishun Gakuen) at an unspecified major idol festival in August.

The group’s announcement of the crowdfunding effort for a trip to Japan was made during a live event at the Richmond Night Market, where they also announced upcoming performances at Anime Expo in Los Angeles (July 4th-7th). The crowdfunding effort has since launched using Kanatta, a Japanese online crowdfunding platform. Although the website is entirely in Japanese, SYA is inviting international fans to contribute to the crowdfunding effort and has posted an English language guide on their Patreon page, to assist overseas fans wanting to make a pledge. View the links below:

• Seishun Youth Academy 2019年初来日プロジェクト – Kanatta (in Japanese)
• How to: SYA's Crowdfunding from Outside of Japan – English guide

The crowdfunding effort’s target of 1 million Japanese yen (approximately $12,200 Canadian dollars) must be reached by August 1st. It will largely cover for the cost of flights to send the SYA members and associated staff overseas from Vancouver to Tokyo. For reference, as of the time of writing, round-trip flight costs from Vancouver for a 1-week stay in Tokyo in August are between $1,400 and $1,800 Canadian dollars per person. It would be phenomenal if SYA could achieve the 1 million yen target on time, as it would fund the full flight costs and serve as a demonstration of their fan backing both in Japan and internationally.
 
The raised money will also fund the numerous campaign exclusive rewards that fans will be able to receive in exchange for their contribution. T-shirts, signed “Message” CDs, cheki tickets, special event access (including a BBQ event and an Asakusa tour), and Skype call sessions are among numerous perks up for grabs. The various courses on the website run from 3,000 JPY to as high as 100,000 JPY for a course that gives you all of the perks.

A sample of T-shirt that will be distributed to contributors at the 10,000 JPY tier and above.

At the time of their major debut in early 2018, Seishun Youth Academy had 4 members but quickly added a 5th and 6th. A 7th member is currently on-board as a trainee and will be eligible to join the other members on the trip if she advances to the full-member status before the departure date.
 
While some Japanese Seishun Gakuen members (including group president SHUN) have travelled to SYA’s live events in Vancouver before, and one SYA member (Yayoi, who is inactive as of the time of writing) was able to perform with ‘Gakuen’ in Japan on one occasion, this trip will mark the first major SYA group visit to Japan to perform. It will also be a homecoming for SYA leaders Ally & Sally—who were originally members of SYA’s Japanese sister group (Seishun Gakuen) when they lived in Japan for university studies.
 
For the other Canadian members participating, it could be their first opportunity to perform live in Japan, in front of a Japanese audience. They must be really, really excited!

-Daryl