In the first episode of the new series of Channel 4’s award-winning world affairs strand, reporter Marcel Theroux and director Liam Nolan travel to Japan to meet some of the country’s ‘Junior Idols’ – schoolgirl performers whose audiences consist almost entirely of middle-aged men. The girls hope their greying fans can be a stepping stone towards mainstream success. Theroux tries to work out whether the girls’ interactions with their older male followers are a quirk of Japanese culture or evidence of something more sinister going on in the music industry.
Unreported World: Schoolgirl Pin-ups – 7.30pm on Channel 4
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