LOVE ON TRIAL (RENAI SAIBAN): DUBLIN SCREENING, INTRODUCTON BY kim-marie spence
Love on Trial (Renai Saiban) by Kōji Fukada is a treat to watch. Prepare for an introduction into the music industry and celebrity East Asian style by Kōji Fukada. It is actually less about love per se and more about love in the celebrity glare.
I am Kim-Marie Spence and I research global Non- West music industries namely K-pop and reggae; and increasingly Afrobeats and Amapiano – and yes that means the study of the currency of these industries – talent and arguably more importantly celebrity. Additionally, it was a study abroad in Japan and a love of J-pop – which has in part led to this direction. A love of reggae was the other.
There are three themes to this introduction into the world Love on Trial introduces us to.
Youth and female youth in these industries
The star training and management system we get a glimpse of, increasingly characterises East Asian pop; and is one of J’pop’s legacy to K-pop. We will see (very) young people living, eating, and working together – as part of a pop culture machine.
Japan and Korea stand out for how young their pop music industries require them to start. Most in this movie seem to be teenagers. This is actually old for J- and K-pop. The lead is herself an ex-idol – Saito Kyoko – Hinatazaka46 – and is all of 28 years old; and she started at 19 years old. Importantly, her leaving likely coincided with the filming of this film. In her group Hinatazaka46, the average debut age was 15, Memi Kakizaki - 15years old. Mao Iguchi at age 21, joined after college and told by a teacher that she would destroy the image of the group – as a college grad.
Why so young? This generation is called in Korea the palshippallmanwon sedae (팔십팔만원 세대) – 880,000 won generation (the amount a low-paid worker earns and striggles to survive). There is Japan’s lost/freeter generation – between 1994 and 2004 – a period that coincides with the birth of this generation of J-pop and the rise of K-pop. Job and stability were scarce (or the Employment Ice Age) – it sounds like the times we are living in. It is one of the reasons means of stability whether going to the right university – through cram schools for college admissions test; then cramming to become civil servants or work for Sony (Japan) or Samsung (Korea). Pop stardom is just another channel in such a system and people are willing to start early. This means dorms and control. Even on K- and J-pop sites, the dorm room arrangements are listed. This is a competition for stability and a way to earn. Everyone is an island here.
The gendered aspect speaks to presentation of the girl groups. It is a different aesthetic – innocent, girl-like – even in comparison to K-pop. The fandom – of men and the parasocial relationships remain similar.
Additionally, the group nature further amplifies the product aspect as the stars can be replaced. The group can go on without one or two or three members. This is a deliberate business strategy – hence the prevalence of groups. Think Spice Girls performing without Posh. Going back to Saito Kyoko’s own group Hinatazaka46 – it is now in its 5th generation!
Celebrity Relationships
As per the title, another way in which Japanese pop celebrity differs is in the relationship to fans and the public. Again, one sees a reflection of wider Japanese society.
In The Irish times, The Guardian, The Belfast Telegraph (has that covered this island?), we are inundated with coverage of potentially fake celebrity relationships. Was Barry Keoghan and Sabrina Carpenter real? Here coupledom diminishes the artist. The highest relationship is to the company, the group and the fans. This group is a cultural product – to be consumed without complications by fans – who get to project onto the stars. Asking questions of whether fans should ask so much.
NOTE this case could happen today.
As recently as last year (in 2022), during another AKB-48 (girl group) no-dating scandal, the group’s director, Mukaichi Mion, who was a former idol herself, made a sympathetic statement on Twitter. She suggested it might be time to reconsider the no-dating rule and mentioned she would discuss it with management.
‘I sincerely apologize for surprising my fans who have supported me,’ wrote K-pop singer Karina, a member of the girl group Aespa on Mar. 5 after her relationship with actor Lee Jae-wook was made public late last month
International
I was struck by the localness of this glimpse. When you watch anything involving Jamaican reggae stars or Korean idols – the world is their goal. Reggae stars dream of the London O2 and touring Africa. K-pop stars dream of LA.
While Ambition (and disappointment) is evident in LOT, the dreams are very Japanese – Tokyo. It is one of the elements many of us academics in this space agree on to explain the different trajectories of J-pop and K-pop.
Love
At the start I noted this is not about love per se. Well< I think I exaggerated. As much as Fukada offers us an insight into a Japanese pop music machine, and the gilded cages that result – it also calls to all of us about love – and the choices, implicit and explicit, we make in the pursuit of love. While you watch, despite few of us here being on the way to pop music stardom whether in East Asia or in the island of Ireland, Fukada asks places a smorgasbord of love choices before us. Which would you choose?
Thank you for inviting me here to speak and for the EAFFI! We are introduced not only to the east Asian films and lives – an introduction that changed my whole life – but also there is the joy of seeing where you are from represented on screen – or where you want to go. THANK YOU and ENJOY!
(14 October 2025)
Dr. Kim-Marie Spence is a lecturer, and is currently the Subject Lead for Arts Management and Cultural Policy at the School of Arts, English and Languages, Queen’s University Belfast. Her research focus is Non-West cultural industries and cultural policy with a specialisation on reggae/dancehall and K-pop.