Kurumi Takahashi is crowned by Shoko Nakagawa.

12-year-old wins first prize at 'Mid-summer Girls’ Audition'

Wednesday 02nd September, 02:00 AM JST

TOKYO —

First-year junior high school student Kurumi Takahashi, 12, took out the top prize at the final of Watanabe Entertainment’s “Mid-summer Girls’ Audition” held at Tokyo Dome City this week.

Five girls including Takahashi made it through to the final, leaving behind some 17,000 other applicants. The five finalists modeled bikinis, outlined their strong points to the judges, and sang songs by “multi-talent” Shoko Nakagawa, 24, who was a judge at the event. Takahashi, while only 144 cm tall, stood above the rest of the group, impressing the judges with her dance and her voice.

Nakagawa praised the diminutive Takahashi to the skies and said: “Even her name is cute, and her animation voice is just great. The gods got this one right. She’s just like a moving figurine.”

Takahashi couldn’t hold back her tears of joy, and when asked what kind of entertainer she would like to become, she said: “I want to be someone who’s always smiling and is loved by everyone. Like Nakagawa.”

Takahashi will now star in an upcoming “Super Robot Wars” computer game commercial for Namco Bandai Games Inc, and begin her rise up in the showbiz world.

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Latest 15 of 48 Total Comments Show All

tkoind2 at 03:56 PM JST - 2nd September

Mittsu. To be fair, show me a culture of the past that did respect women. Women have been marginalized in all cultures. But at least there was a degree of overall respect in old Japanese culture that has been replaced with something far more shallow and objectifying in modern Japan.
LFRAgain at 05:35 PM JST - 2nd September

Mittsu,

First, I should state that I reserve as much disdain for child beauty pageants back in the States as I do for this nonsense.

I’m not sure if you intended it or not, but it seems you’re lumping the issue of sexualizing 12-year old children in with social issues regarding equality for adult women, as if the two are one and the same. I maintain, as does Tkoind, that this particular phenomenon (exclusive of the objectification of women, a topic deserving of an entirely new thread in and of itself) is a rather recent social phenomenon and doesn’t find roots or expression in pre-modern Japan.

During the Edo Period, the Shogunate made extraordinary efforts to curb the “water trade,” as it was called, recognizing the social ills that would result from an unfettered indulgence in any and all vices, no matter how vile. Part and parcel of this regulation was the strict control of how women could appear in public – including banning women from appearing in kabuki plays, a ban that has survived into modern times in the form of a cultural proscription against female kabuki performers – which speaks to a whole other bag of issues regarding the patriarchal attitudes that permeate Japanese society. Against this backdrop, I’ve yet to come across any data indicating Japanese society, from periods preceding the Meiji Era, either condoned or encouraged the sexual objectification of children as a matter of course. This isn’t to say it didn’t exist, but I’m saying it wasn’t an ingrained part of Japanese society.

Speaking to one of your other points, this isn’t strictly about children wearing bikinis. Bikinis don’t kill people. People kill people. Or rather, the bikini in and of itself is not necessarily a sexual charged item of clothing. Like you said, children – and adult women – wear them all the time, all over the world, and that’s perfectly normal attire – as it should be. It’s when such a normal aspect of daily life is seized and turned into yet another avenue for objectification, with children as the medium for delivery of that message, that I take issue. As if we don’t have enough problems getting kids to grow up with as few emotional hang-ups as possible, we have to throw “not looking good enough in a bikini,” of all things, into the mix?

Adult women prancing around in bikinis to sexually titillate? Fine. They’re adults making informed decisions. Twelve-year olds, however, aren’t. Having children demonstrate their “value” to society by having them parade around in bikinis under the scrutiny of adult judges who give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down based on some as-yet unfathomable criteria strikes a profound chord of wrongness on so many levels.

I can’t disagree with you in that as long as a still-considerable segment of Japanese society continues to believe that the blatant objectification of something so inherently non-sexual as a child is acceptable, things are unlikely to change soon. However, progress comes from people first griping about it, and people do gripe –not only we meddlesome Puritanical, sexually repressed, self-righteous ex-pat types ;-). Anyone who tells tries to convince us otherwise is a liar, a fool, or both.
lostrune2 at 06:19 PM JST - 2nd September

The only thing missing are her measurements.

Kids wear bikinis in beaches because there's sun, sand, and water there. Hopefully they put sun, sand, and water up on the stage show too....
zoechan at 09:47 PM JST - 2nd September

LFRAgain - great informative post of Edo Japan. Thanks
elbudamexicano at 10:20 PM JST - 2nd September

If kids, young girls do not wear bikinis because, some prudes here find them so highly sexual?? WTF!! What are kids supposed to wear to the beach? to the pool? etc..are they supposed to be covered from head to toe like in Iran? This is Japan! Back in the USA no one would even comment about how evil Japan is for having a bikini contest for teenagers. Some people here are very, very sick! I am not talking about perv Japanese, I mean the westerners here ranting that this is the same as child prostitution? Give me a break! Go to the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, etc..here you will find outright child prostitution, but a bikini contest for teenagers?? NO, these are oranges vs. apples! You don't like it? Get back on da plane! As the local brothers say in Hawaii. Aloha!
harmoneeikaiwa at 11:22 PM JST - 2nd September

And I suppose of 17,000 teens the winner had to be a pipsqueak of a non teen 12 year old eh ?
ablestmage at 12:42 AM JST - 3rd September

Although there are plenty of other swimsuit options than bikinis (as they're considered far and wide to be the least resembling an actual suit for swimming, than fashion statement) for teens and under, I don't think having a modeling portion of a pageant designed to make assist talent to become a media star is particular inappropriate.

Most of the people who are appalled here have clearly not familiar with the young idol culture, heard of gravure photoshoots, lolicon, or know a single thing about the Bishoujo Gakuen DVDs.
Cliffy at 01:45 AM JST - 3rd September

All these beauty pageants are so past age. On top of that, a minor. I can only think of one term to describe the people who enjoy watching this - "lolita complex".
DenDon at 01:48 AM JST - 3rd September

JT you need to seriously think about this stuff, are you going to remain part of the PROBLEM or do you have the guts to part of the solution, right now yr the former

so? what's it to be? bigger photos of a 12 year old in a bikini, no more pandering to perverts, or fence sitting on 'free' forum with a thumbnail picture?
lostrune2 at 05:07 PM JST - 3rd September

What's the point of bikini contest on stage for tots?

Wear bikinis on beach, not on stage.
kirakira25 at 05:47 PM JST - 3rd September

Back in the USA no one would even comment about how evil Japan is for having a bikini contest for teenagers.

This was not a bikini contest for teenagers - the winner was 12.

Most of the people who are appalled here have clearly not familiar with the young idol culture, heard of gravure photoshoots, lolicon, or know a single thing about the Bishoujo Gakuen DVDs.

Sadly, I think they are, and that is why they are appalled.

I fail to see why a 12 year old needs to prance around a stage in a bikini to demonstrate her "worth" to the judges. I thought this was a talent contest? So sing, dance, play an instrument - but a pre-pubescent parading around in a bikini - sorry, it leaves a very nasty taste in the mouth and I agree with tkoind2 - this is a symptom of a serious problem in this culture.
womanforwomen at 07:12 PM JST - 3rd September

The event was partly sponsored by Watanabe Entertainment college. Thanks Kirakira- pre-pubescent is the word I was trying to say too.

Here is the video and the interview with the little girl. Enjoy those of you who think it is normal http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=ja-jp&vid=24335aff-d1b0-483e-a33a-3a9d12de4c76&from=imbot_ja-jp&fg=rss
Cicada at 07:31 PM JST - 3rd September

Takahashi will now star in an upcoming “Super Robot Wars” computer game commercial for Namco Bandai Games Inc, and begin her rise up in the showbiz world.

In other words, this "pageant" was an audition for a role in a commercial. As such, it likely violates child labor laws.

Disgusting. What parents would subject their daughter to this?
PepinGalarga at 11:42 AM JST - 4th September

hilarious. saw the video. funny they didnt ask her if she already had a boyfriend.

anyway i think beauty or talent pageants for kids is okay, but not swimsuit competition.
lostrune2 at 06:46 PM JST - 4th September

PepinGalarga,

They don't even have the goods to flaunt, so what's the use?

Also, good point on that oversight.