The first rule of J-pop club

AKB48 is a female Japanese pop band, perhaps the most popular pop band in Japan and one of the top earning bands in the world. Korean pop groups have grown in size over the years, but AKB48 took things to another level and has 88 members. And you thought trying to remember more than one member of One Direction was difficult.

To be one of the chosen ones, however, means obeying the cardinal rule of the act's management group: no dating.

20-year old AKB48 member Minami Minegishi was caught leaving the apartment of a dancer in a Japanese boy band, and when the photos were published in a tabloid, Minegishi went to the internet to beg for forgiveness in a four minute video for which she shaved her head as an act of contrition.

They portray an image of cuteness known as "kawaii", and have become a huge phenomenon both in Japan and increasingly in other Asian countries, correspondents say.

The condition for being part of such a successful act is that the girls must not date boys, so as not to shatter their fans' illusions.

AKB48's management office said Minegishi had been demoted to a trainee team as punishment "for causing a nuisance to the fans".

That she had to shave her head and post a weeping public apology is shocking enough, but even more disturbing is that it was posted on AKB48's official website. The video has been pulled down now.

In the Japan Times, Ian Martin wrote:

The deeper truth is that idol fan culture, as well as the closely related anime and manga fan culture, is institutionally incapable of dealing with independence in young women. It seeks out and fetishizes weaknesses and vulnerabilities and calls it moé, it demands submissiveness, endless tearful displays of gratitude, a lack of confidence, and complete control over their sexual independence. AKB48 takes this a step further by allowing its (largely male) fans to sit in annual judgment, voting members up or down in the group’s hierarchy. The danger is of this fantasy creeping out more widely into society: Japan currently ranks at 101 in the world gender-equality rankings (79 places below the United States, 32 below China, and two below Azerbaijan). What will a 13-year-old girl think when she sees a humiliated member apologizing for natural human behavior?

In this age of increased public coverage of celebrity lives, it's increasingly difficult to separate one's public and private narratives. Mickey Mantle could once go carousing and drinking after a ballgame and not have to read about it in Deadspin the next morning. The spotlight is bright, but it's also hot.

Some serious pivots

Startups in Silicon Valley get plaudits for pivoting, but a company that has had to make some real pivots with a capital P across many decades is none other than mobile phone goliath Samsung.

I had dinner tonight with a friend whose grandfather was one of several people brought to Samsung to help them make their first entry into technology hardware. At its founding in 1938, though, Samsung was a simple trading company that dealt in local produce. Later it shifted to processing sugar cane, then it moved into textiles. That was the first in a long line of transformations in its evolution from small family business to global conglomerate. From making your own noodles to making your own smartphones, that is survival and adaptation of the highest form.

There aren't many U.S. tech companies that have even been around that long, let alone having evolved so drastically. Off the top of my head, IBM and Xerox are the only two tech companies I can think of that were founded in the U.S. prior to Samsung in 1938 and that still exist. I'm going to venture that neither of those began as noodle makers.

Batman: Death by Design

A Batman graphic novel reviewed in The New York Review of Books? Yes, when it's by acclaimed dust-jacked designer Chip Kidd and artist Dave Taylor.

Martin Filler writes a review which had me clicking the buy button on Batman: Death by Design as soon as I finished the last sentence. The book features a character named Kem Roomhaus ("an affected, narcissistic creep, but he's also a genius" is how none other than Batman describes him) who is a not-so-veiled riff on controversial architect Rem Koolhaas. In the eyes of Filler, "the megalomaniacal Dutchman drawn by Taylor bears less of a resemblance to the Nosferatu lookalike Koolhaas than to a somewhat chubbier Daniel Libeskind (minus his industrial-strength eyeglass frames.)".

Filler does such a good job decoding all the historical inspirations for characters and places in the book that the first comment on the review is from Chip Kidd himself (or at least I presume it's him, who knows):

Wow, Mr. Fller. I am truly humbled. You totally got everything, the first reviewer to do so. Thank you so, so much. Chip K

For Your Consideration

The Academy can save some money on greenscreening Seth MacFarlane's head popping up out of Noomi Rapace's stomach for the Oscar opening number. They can just play this video and then cut to Anne Hathaway for reaction shots, for which she'll be well-rehearsed, I'm sure.

Full disclosure, I have not yet seen Les Misérables [please read that with French pronunciation, dear readers]. After watching the above video 60 times on loop, with no break, I feel like I have, though.

It will be hard for her to escape these accusations of disingenuous surprise given how much want she exudes. However, on Oscar night, if Hathaway suddenly breaks into song during her acceptance speech and spends three minutes singing a rehearsed thank you speech, managing to harmonize with the orchestra's shoo-off music at the same time as she completely ignores it, I will be the first to lead the standing ovation.

♫ Do it for me ♫

♫ Anne with an E ♫