[quote name='aine' timestamp='1355267479' post='139305']
And if it's anything like politics or big business, then probably some 10-20 years down the road we'll learn that they were all working together behind the scenes to manipulate the charts or something. <img src='
http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... #>/meh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';/' />
[/quote]
This is a pretty big theory that is also covered in the book. The idol jimusho system is pretty complicated and has actually been involved in a number of scandals and court cases involving tax fraud, private or fabricated financial record-keeping, yakuza involvement, money laundering, etc. Everyone also probably remembers how the guy who runs the entire Johnny's organization has been publicly accused of child molestation of his idols, etc. You should find some of this interesting.
Its pretty confirmed at this point that idol management companies split themselves off into smaller mini-agencies so they can make internal deals and be able to do things a little bit more secretly and take the attention off of the bigger parent company and they don't publicly declare that they're part of the same company, even though some deeper investigation has revealed that this is true.
I sent a copy to everyone who responded so far, you should have it in your PM boxes.
