DATA ANALYSIS

5.1 The attitudes towards the feminine image of Japanese male singers
After collecting data from the interviews and observation among the ten interviewees, the researcher has analyzed the information about the attitudes and behaviors of Thai female adolescents towards the feminine image of Japanese male singers. The research found that adolescents have positive attitudes towards the feminine image of Japanese male singers and have lots of activities concerning their favorite singers. In this chapter, the analysis will mention their attitudes, behaviors and the influencing factors in pushing them to become interested in the feminine image of Japanese male singers.

Firstly, according to the interview and observation with ten interviewees of Thai female adolescents, it was found that all of the sampling of adolescents was interested in Japanese trend and culture before, so this factor influenced them to show favor for anything that is Japanese. They are quite open to Japanese entertainment and basically have positive attitudes in their mind, so this could be one reason to make them have positive attitudes towards the feminine image of Japanese male singers.

According to the Theory of Reasoned Action, human behaviors and intention come from two basic determinants, the individual positive or negative evaluation of performing behavior, called ‘attitude toward the behavior’ and the social pressure called ‘the subjective norm’. Therefore, an individual will intend to perform a behavior when they evaluate it positively and when they believe that important others think they should perform it (Icek and Fishbein, 1980). From to the Theory of Reasoned Action, attitude toward the object results in the individual’s intention to perform, or not to perform, a certain form of behavior. In this case, it suggests that the positive attitudes that the interviewees have towards Japanese trend and culture supported them in undertaking any action and activity about Japanese popular culture with a positive feeling.

Besides, the interviewees like the ‘loveliness’ of Japanese trends, cartoon characters, fashion, female idols and movie stars so they can accept men who look ‘lovely’ like cartoon characters or possess some feminine characters and regard as something normal. Compared to the culture from the west such as America, Japanese culture and trends are deemed more aesthetically attractive and they feel more familiar with them also. The reason could be that Japanese trends are more similar and close to Thai culture. In their opinions, Japanese media such as cartoons, movies or dramas possess ‘lovely’ characteristics – Japanese cartoon characters are ‘lovely’, Japanese female idols are ‘cute’ and Japanese fashion is popular among a wide group of girls. They ‘love’ to see anything relating to Japan because for them it is ‘lovely’. With these reasons, they do not feel opposed to seeing men with feminine characteristics.

Secondly, the sampling of adolescents thinks it is more pleasant to see men with a good looking appearance. They think that male singers who are good looking will receive better feedback and will be more interesting to female teens than singers who do not look quite as good. They stated that the handsomeness and ‘loveliness’ of the singers are advantages because they are the first impression to win over the fan’s hearts. These singers can have various styles and characters in one person. They can be smart, handsome and ‘lovely’, depending on the occasion and the interviewees think they are attractive.

From observation, it was stereotypical among the interviewees that men who have good appearances must be white, with feminine faces and long (dyed or permed sometimes) flowing hair, big eyes, high pointed noses, red lips, arched and waxed eyebrows, hairless bodies and slim figured. Any male singers who have this kind of appearance have a high tendency to be favored by the interviewees and perhaps among other teenagers as well.

Outer appearance is the important thing for adolescents. As with evidence shown in research by Wijit Madsathan entitled “The Satisfactory Characteristics of Opposite-Sex Adolescents in Educational Institutions in Khon Kaen” has suggested that admirable characteristics of opposite-sex adolescent are: clean dressing, good appearance, good at studying, honesty, good-looks and handsomeness respectively. In the physical aspects, the satisfactory characteristics are good manners, good looks, handsomeness, clean dressing, good appearance, fine complexion, and up-to-date dressing from most to least respectively. This research signifies that adolescents regard the personality and outer appearance as the important things because they are the first impression to attract the opposite sex (วิจิตร, 2546).

With these findings of male’s stereotype among the interviewees, it suggests that the male stereotype in Thai culture is changing from the past, when women preferred men with masculinity and strength. According to a research by Kittiwut T., Coleman E. and Pacharin D., “The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality: Thailand”, it states that the image of Thai man is represented by the notion of chaai chaatrii, which is an embodiment of the typical masculine features: authority, courage, self-assurance, physical and emotional strengths, and sexual prowess. In the part, this image and stereotype becomes the ideal men that women dream of. But with society changes and the research’s results, it signifies the changing stereotype of men among females. Men no longer have to be full of power and strength anymore. The stereotype is changing to be an image that used to be regarded as not ‘real men’ or ‘homosexual–like’. From the research’s results, men can be feminized and they will be admired and favored by women also.

However, the positive attitudes towards feminine image mentioned here is regarding only the appearance. If concerning the feminine characteristics or personality, which is another of level of favoring, the result is a bit different. In the case study finding, three among ten of the interviewees have negative attitudes towards too much feminine characteristics presented by the singers. In their point of views, sometimes these male singers look too feminine and present too much sexual seductive character. For example, the way they dance in concert and on TV shows or the fashion shoots where they look too much like females. These three interviewees said that they do not like it and would avoid watching it. They think that not every singer can be presented with a feminine image. Some of the singers do not have feminine characteristics. Some male singers have female faces and it is acceptable to be presented that way while some look more masculine and to be presented like a female would make them look ‘weird’ and ‘funny’ instead of attractive. Nevertheless, they do not like it when the presentation, performance or characteristic is too feminine, but for the feminine appearance, they neither disagree with it nor dislike it.

5.2 The behaviors towards the feminine image of Japanese male singers
The teenagerss who like these Japanese feminine male singers called themselves a ‘fan club’ and they have many activities both individual and in a group. The first individual activity is using the internet which is the main method for them to get news and information of their favorite actors. However, teenagers have a tendency to be internet-addicted. They spend approximately more than five hours a day on the internet, searching through websites to find news and information they want. They sometimes use internet to download movies, concerts or music videos of their favorite singers. Almost all of the interviewees, the researcher found, the first thing they do when they get up is to turn on their computer to download files, and then go to school or university. Moreover, there are web board and fan sites that are created especially for the fan clubs in which they enjoy access, share information and talk with their friends who also like the same singers. Apart from using the internet to access information and downloads, they also use it as a tool to communicate with their friends in a group by using chat programs. The chat program is very popular among them and everybody uses it. Most of them have opportunity to know many new friends who also like Japanese male singers via chat programs and therefore it becomes an activity that ‘they cannot live without’.

The next activity can occur both individually and in group; it is the ‘TV addicted’ behavior. Apart from spending most of their free time with the internet, the rest of time is spent watching TV shows, dramas, movies and concerts of their favorite singers. If they do not want to download the TV shows or movies from the internet, these TV programs CDs are available on the internet to buy both cheaply and easily. The prices are around 15-30 baht per disc. However, some fan clubs prefer to download the TV shows and dramas by themselves to save money. For fan clubs in Bangkok, they can phone to order and get CDs at department stores or at Siam Square. For fan club members in other provinces, the delivery can be done by post. In this way, fans clubs can enjoy watching the TV shows and will not miss any programs they want to see. The sampling group is also the same. They love watching TV shows, concerts and dramas and attest that they could spend the whole day watching them.

Apart from the internet and watching TV, the sampling group said that they spend a lot of money on buying things regarding their favorite singers such as CDs albums, magazines and concert’s products. For CDs and singles, which are usually released every few months or so, the sampling groups order from the Japanese music shops that in Bangkok. Also, they can place orders on the web board from fans that live or travel in Japan and buy CDs to export to Thailand. The prices of the CDs are much more expensive than Thai albums. Each is around 500 – 3000 baht. The sampling group has to save their money every month in order to buy the CDs. However, if they do not want to buy the copyrighted CD from Japan, they can order copied versions that are also on sale on the internet as well.

Besides these CDs, Japanese imported magazines are very popular among fan clubs. Japanese magazine are sold in Japanese bookstores, many department stores or at some Japanese music shops in Bangkok. Moreover, one business among fan clubs is selling ‘clips’ from magazines. Clips are the cut pages of Japanese magazines and are sold for about 10-30 baht per page, depending on the popularity of the singers and the quality of printing. The price of ‘clips’ is very cheap compared to the price of one whole magazine which is around 300 baht. The fan clubs will cut the pages of singers who are not their favorites and sell to others. And there are also some of them that sell clips for business. The sampling groups used to buy the Japanese magazines every month, but later if wanting to save money, they buy only clips or download from the internet.

One more group activity that the sampling groups and other fan clubs love to engage with is having fan club parties, so that they can enjoy making activities together. Sometimes, the party is among fans from the same web board, while sometimes it is a party between fans who like the same singers from a variety of different web boards. At these parties, club members will discuss their favorite singers as well as sharing news and information with other fans. Sometimes they gather in a Japanese music shop for hours, chatting and watching concerts or music videos together in that shop. At least once a year or more often than that, they will hold a concert or event for fans of Japanese music to join together, in which there are cover bands and cosplay shows. The cover band is an imitation of their favorite band. Sometimes they play music like a rock band or sometimes they dance like a pop band. The important thing is that they will dress exactly the same, or at least the best they can do, as their favorite bands or singers. The cosplay is similar to a cover band but fan clubs will dress to imitate the cartoon or movie characters. At a party like this, fans come to meet each other, to join the activity, as well as to show the solidity of the group.

The final activity that the researcher found out about is ‘fan fiction’. All of the interviewees read fan fiction and seven among ten liked to read a lot. The fan fiction, as mentioned in the previous chapter, is a story that was written by fan clubs and for fan clubs themselves. They are romantic love stories, sometimes very sexual, between male characters based on the feminine male singers who serve as the protagonists of the stories. The plots are various. Sometimes these are realistic, while sometimes they are fantasy stories; however, one thing that every story shares is that the writers used the characteristic and names of the singers to represent the characters in the fictions. The advantages of using real people to be characters in the stories, aids the readers’ imagination. So, the fan fiction writers make use of the images, characteristics and styles of each singer in the stories and do not have to describe much about the characters’ personalities and appearances in the fiction, because readers already have those images in their minds, and they do not have to use their imagination much.

Fan fictions are available on web boards or at fiction fairs which are usually held in Bangkok. The sampling of interviewees spent most of their time reading fan fictions. Some of them read up to 5-7 stories per week. Usually, they read them from the web boards or sometimes they order the fan fictions directly from the writer, or they could go to these fiction fairs. Since they like to read love stories about two men and as a result of that, fan clubs like to match couples of male singers and imagine that they are lovers in real life. This is an activity that they usually participate in with their friends just for fun and when they are with other fan clubs, they usually enjoy discussing these match making scenarios.

However, the matching between singers and favoring of reading fan fiction are just for entertainment. It does not mean that the samplings of adolescents is interested in homosexual men or believe that the fan fiction is ‘true’. After interviewing and observation, the researcher can conclude that the sampling group does not think or believe that these men are homosexual and it does not mean that they enjoy homoeroticism. Their love in reading fan fiction or their group activity to imagine about the men as lovers are just for group entertainment and inwardly, they all insist that they strongly believe that their favorite singers are (and should be) straight men. They just enjoy seeing and imagining the feminine parts of their singers as part of individual and group entertainment.

Concerning this activity, the fan fiction and notion of feminine males influence each other and have affected the behaviors of adolescents in favoring feminine male singers and reading fan fiction. Because the singers have a feminine image, so writers use their characters in a plot. Girls who love to read love stories about boy’s have a tendency to like feminine male singers. And fan clubs who like the feminine image also have a tendency to be in favor of fan fiction as well. Nonetheless, fan fiction is just imaginary and a phenomena influenced by the feminine image of Japanese male singers which has spread among many Thai fan clubs.

In some ways, the popularity of fan fiction in Thailand could be influenced by the popularity of Japanese boy’s love cartoons in Thailand. Japanese cartoons, as we knew, have great popularity among Thai teens. Therefore Thai adolescents, both male and female, could easily be influenced by the idea and beliefs embedded in the cartoons. When Thai female adolescents read a lot of Japanese boy’s love cartoons, they are getting used to this kind of story, and little by little absorb the ideas into their minds. In the interview and observation, all of the interviewees read Japanese cartoons, some are even addicted to general Japanese cartoons and some are addicted to boy’s love cartoons too.

Traced back to their Japanese background, the boy’s love stories and boy’s love cartoon generate from the strong patriarchal society of Japan. Japanese women are oppressed under men’s control and they want to escape from the unequal aspects of their real world. In Mark Mclelland’s article entitled “Why are Japanese Girls’ Comics Full of Boys Bonking?”, his research found that the boy’s romantic comic (a comic story about romantic love between boys) is a symbol of romanticism and equal love that Japanese girls cannot have in real life due to the strong patriarchal society of Japan. They, therefore, identify themselves with the male character. This implies that this kind of comic is an escape from reality and provides an outlet for fantasy and happy release among female adolescents in Japan (Mclelland).

Another research also done by Mark McClelland, “Male Homosexuality and Popular Culture in Modern Japan”, explains the situation of homosexuals in modern Japanese society and the homosexual in women’s media. In this research, he clarifies the boy’s love cartoon into two main types. The first one is shounen-ai or boy’s love which is more romantic, and another, YAOI, which has more sexual scenes. The male characters in the girl’s comics are just fantasy for they are not ‘gay men’ and not ‘men’ either. They are drawn to suggest androgynous ideal images; tall, slender bodies, high cheek bones and pointed chins, wide eyes and long flowing hair, and they behave with ‘feminine manners’, expressing the emotion and vulnerability like female characters but with male appearance. The beautiful boys in YAOI or shounen-ai are created by Japanese women as an expression of their dissatisfaction with current gender stereotypes and the ‘narrow life paths’ which restrict women in the strong patriarchal world of Japan (McClelland, 2000).

Moreover, another article also tries to explain the reason of boy’s love cartoon, which was first generated in Japan around the 1970’s that boy’s love cartoons were basically generated based on three main reasons. The first one comes from the fact that women cannot get romantic love from men so they imagine and create a male character in order to get a romantic and equal love from men. Secondly, boy’s love cartoons are a symbol of romantic love beyond genders, and the male characters are the representations of females because they have feminine images and personalities like women. Moreover, the beautiful male characters are created to avoid the sense of jealousy of female readers. To explain clearly, female readers may feel jealous and dislike some female characters in cartoons, therefore the writers replace them with feminine males and the reader feels more satisfied. The last reason is based on the idea that Japanese women are taught that sex or passionate love are taboo. Therefore, to imagine sexual scenes between men and women would make them feel guilty or embarrassed. On the other hand, to dream of sexual scenes between men would make them feel less guilty. Consequently, the article stated that, Japanese women could not get equal love from men, so they have to be imagined men in order to get an equal relationship with these lovers. However, they also want to be feminine and want to be loved by a man. So they invented characters that are akin to a woman in a man’s body, because they are sensitive and gentle like a woman (Doshinji Farm, 2548). From these backgrounds, fan fictions have developed from the boy’s love comics which any women can read. But fan fiction is limited to fans of the singers only.

5.3 Influencing factors towards the favoring of Japanese feminine male singers by Thai female adolescents

5.3.1 Peer Influences
The first factor that pushes adolescents to be in favor of Japanese music and Japanese male singers is their friends. Most of them get to know the Japanese singers via a friend’s introduction; only few of the sampling groups entered fan clubs by themselves. As the sampling group spends most of their time with friends, they want to be in the same groups as their friends. Moreover, they are interested in their friends’ activities and also persuaded by their friends. So regardless of their friend’s activities, they will want to participate in them as one of the members of their group. In this case, because their friends like Japanese music and Japanese male singers, they become interested and became fan club members eventually.

For teenagers, friends are very influential in guiding and shaping their behaviors. According to Professor Doctor Nongpa-nga Limsuwan’s article on human emotional development, she has mentioned that friends are the important persons for adolescents. They want to be accepted by friends, therefore they usually follow and do what their friends do (นงพงา, 2549). In this case, it parallels to the theory of reasoned action that an individual will intend to perform or not to perform a behavior when they evaluate it positively and when they believe that important others think they should perform it (Icek and Fishbein, 1980).

5.3.2 Media Influences
I. The influences by Japanese girl cartoons
Apart from friends, another influential factor that plays important roles on adolescents’ attitudes and behaviors are media. Media has become parts of people’s everyday lives and it can be found almost everywhere. Adolescents spend lots of time with media such as watching television, listening to a radio, using internet and reading magazines, books or cartoons. Accordingly, the value and norm embedded in media can influence adolescents easily.

After interviewing, the researcher found that all the interviewees read Japanese cartoons and some of them are addicted fans of Japanese cartoons. It is one influence that pushes them to be interested in Japanese trends and culture. Some of them even expressed that Japanese cartoons are the first books they started to read when they were young and Japanese cartoons have much influence among them. It made them interested in anything about Japan, such as language and culture as well as music and for some of the interviewees they decide to study Japanese language because they like Japanese cartoons.

Japanese cartoons came to Thailand during 1977 – 1982 and were widely broadcasted on many TV channels and published in many books (Wikipedia, 2549). There are many types of Japanese cartoons, for example – kodomo (kid’s cartoon), josei (women’s cartoon), seinen (men’s cartoon), shoujo (girl’s cartoon) and shounen (boy’s cartoon) which are categorized from the reader groups. When categorized by the plot and story, there are Bishoujo (story of beautiful girls), Bishounen (story of beautiful boys), Shounen-ai (love story between men), Shoujo-ai (love story between girls) for example (สยามเสวนา, 2548).

Japanese cartoons are very popular among Thai girls, for example, the interviewees read a lot of Japanese cartoons and read many types of them. However, this analysis will talk about the influence of feminine male characteristics in Japanese cartoons which usually appear in cartoons for female readers (Josei and Shoujo) and cartoons of stories about beautiful boys (Bishounen and Shounen-ai).

Japanese girl cartoons are basically romantic comedy stories with girl protagonists and a very good looking boy, or sometimes it is romantic stories between male characters. One interesting point is how smart and protective these male protagonists are, and they are all feminine in appearances. The male protagonists in Japanese girl cartoons have a feminine image – for example they are white, thin, tall with slim figures, feminine faces with big eyes, pointed nose, high cheek bone and long flowing hair. As Mark Mclelland has explained in his article, “Male Homosexuality and Popular Culture in Modern Japan”, the male characters in the girl’s comics are just fantasy for they are not ‘gay men’ and not ‘men’ either. They are drawn to suggest androgynous ideal image; tall, slender bodies, high cheek bones and pointed chins, wide eyes and long flowing hair, and they behave in ‘feminine manners’, expressing the emotion and vulnerability like female characters in male appearance.

The popularity of Japanese girl cartoons in both Japan and Thailand that continuously produces this kind of male protagonist can suggest that the image is admirable and is favored by girls. Accordingly, when they are familiar with a feminine male image in Japanese cartoons, they would not feel opposed to, or dislike the feminine image of Japanese males, and it could help push them to be in favor of this kind of men since they look like the cartoon heroes. In this way, the ideology embedded in Japanese cartoons of how ideal men should be, created the stereotype of men among Thai adolescents and it later made them tend to prefer men with feminine characteristics.

II. The repetition of feminine image in mass media
According to social changes in both Japan and Thailand, men and women’s role have shifted and the gender stereotypes have changed. In Japan, the reason for these changes occurred as a result of the collapse of the bubble economy which increased employment opportunities for women, their ability to choose men and delaying marriage. Women became stronger while men began showing a weaker side. This affects the image of men that was presented through the media to be androgynous; they do not look like men, women or even gay men. For example, the idealized images are hairless bodies and smooth skin called ‘beautiful men’. These images are used in marketing strategies especially with cosmetic products targeted at men by presenting the image through feminized celebrities and idols. Other media such as magazines also expressed this idea. Some recommendations for men in those magazines are manicuring, eyebrow waxing, and facial hair removal and so on (Takizawa).

In Thailand, there are also some influences from the social changes mentioned. These feminine males are appearing repeatedly in mass media such as magazines and TV, and it draws the sampling group’s attention. The interviewees claim that the good-looking appearance of men is a very striking point that attracts them to stop and pay attention to the magazine or TV ads. Even though it was a bit surprising at first to see men who looked so feminized, they thought it was attractive. The interviewees state that after watching the ideal feminine male many times, they got used to the images and can accept the man in mass media as the stereotype and ideal man. In this case, it suggests that the media presented and created this image to be stereotypical among fans and after it was well-accepted, the feminine image is then re-presented again and again, later becoming the ideal among society.

5.3.3 The unique and outstanding characteristics of Japanese male singers
Another factor that caused the interviewees to be interested in Japanese male singers is the unique characteristics that the interviewees seek for something new and outstanding from the ‘boring’ Thai boy bands.

From the interviewees’ point of view, Thai boy bands do not have good performing and presentation skills. Compared to Japanese male singers who can perform on stage better than Thai singers, Thai boy bands look ordinary to the interviewees and are not interesting enough. The interviewees said that Japanese male singers are multi-talented and have far better skills. They can be singers, comedians and an MC for their own variety shows while the performance on stage is very impressive with skillful dances and acrobatic skills. Comparatively, the interviewees think that Thai singers dancing performance is not impressive enough.

This is a technique that Japanese entertainment agencies used to make their singers more attractive and cover all entertainment genres. The good example is Johnny’s entertainment music agency whose singers once became less popular, and therefore struggled to achieve real success as just a singing group. So Johnny turned them into multimedia talents. Within a couple of years, they were simply everywhere, in their TV and radio shows, commercials, having best-selling albums, playing dramatic roles, appearing on magazine covers and in the spotlight at the top of the popularity rankings (Japanzone, 2005). It can be said that the Johnny’s artists are more like ‘talents’ than purely musicians or singers because they perform in a wide range of entertainment categories; for example live theater, TV drama, movies, commercial ads, cooking shows and comedies (Nippop, 2005). In this case, Japanese idols can remain popular longer than Thai singers who are too simplistic and not multi-talented. However, there is a criticism according to the high success of its boy bands, that the members do not have to be particularly good singers, dancers or actors, and that they are “merely famous for being famous” (Nippop, 2005).

Moreover, the physical appearance of Japanese male singers can draw the interviewee’s attention more than Thai singers. It does not mean that Japanese male singers have more handsome faces than Thais. But what the interviewees see is the whole image of the singers; including their faces, hair style and costumes. It is very obvious and noticeable that Japanese singers’ costumes on stage are very outstanding and perhaps strange from some Thais’ point of view. However, it has become the uniqueness of Japanese male singers that their costume must be striking and outstanding. Compared to Thai singers, who try to use simple street fashion for stage costumes, it may be suitable for Thai culture or society, but the interviewees said it is too simple. The Japanese male singers can dress ordinarily in street fashion style as Thai singers in some fashion shootings or TV shows, but when they are on stage or in concerts, they must dress in their stage uniform. Moreover, the stage costumes for one band are within the same concept, but differ in detail for each singer and the interviewees think that it is quite attractive for them.

Besides, each of the Japanese boy bands possesses its own characteristics while Thai boy bands or male singers are almost the same. For example, among many Japanese boy bands, one band focuses on pop music, the others could be hip-hop, pop rock or country pop. In Thailand, if they are boy bands of good looking male singers, they must be a pop band. And for rock and hip-hop bands in Thailand, the interviewees think that the music and songs may be good but the singers’ appearance is not attractive enough. They may like the songs but not the singers. It is different in Japanese male singer groups, which are made up of good-looking boys and can be pop, rock, hip-hop and many other kinds of music styles.

This is the marketing strategy of Japanese agencies, to cover the entire target group. One of the obvious examples is the technique of Johnny’s Entertainment of tapping into whatever the current music trend is and manufacturing a group which reflects it. For example, Ninja reflected the heavy metal boom and SMAP were originally intended to be a pseudo-rap group. With this fact, Johnny’s Entertainment can cover almost all pop music in the market (Metropolis, 2005).

The last reason that the interviewees gave is that they have never seen feminine male singers in Thai society before so that it drew their attentions quickly and effectively. Generally, Thai male singers have a masculine look to attract women. But later when Japanese feminine male singers entered Thailand, the interviewees said that they were even more attractive and it was new to them and many other Thai fans.

5.4 Attitudes and behaviors towards feminine male singers of other countries
After the popularity of Japanese feminine male singers, it is likely that other countries will produce more and more feminine male singers into the market as well. Many countries in Asia are producing numbers of boy bands with the “new concept of men” - a feminine male singer. Even Thailand, there are many singers nowadays that look more feminine rather than masculine. Therefore, it is questionable whether the interviewees will be interested in the feminine male singers of other countries or not.

From the interviews, the responses indicated that the interviewees are strict at keeping Japanese singers as their highest priority. This may be due to the fact that Japanese trends and culture have influenced and become popular among Thai adolescents during a time when other countries only had limited influence. The most obvious evidence of the spreading of Japanese popular cultural trends in Thailand is the popularity of Japanese cartoons among Thai teens as mentioned before. At that time, there were also many cartoons from other countries such as America and Europe. However, cartoons from other countries did not receive such positive feedback as Japanese cartoons (สยามเสวนา, 2548). Japanese music has come together with Japanese cartoons as theme songs or original soundtracks. Later, Japanese singers and music became popular in Thailand, around the year 1985 which was really the beginning of Japanese music in Thailand and it reached the high point of its success among wider groups in 1993 (วิภารัตน์, 2544).

Moreover, according to the interviewees’ point of view, Japan is the pioneer for producing feminine male singers and they regard any male singers from other countries who have similar styles or feminine image like Japanese singers as ‘imitation’. Though some of them may like some feminine male singers from other countries such as Thailand and Korea, they still regard Japanese male singers as the highest priority and their most favorite one. Some of them admire the singing and dancing skill of Korean singers but concerning the appearance, they prefer Japanese more than Korean. In their point of views, Thai and Korean males are sometimes not appropriately or suitably presented with a feminine image. Some of them think that Korean male singers, though their faces look female, have too strong and tough muscle and figure. It is different to Japanese male singers who have slim and small figures. For Thai singers, the interviewees said that some of them do not have feminine faces, and they are not suitable at all to be presented with a feminine image.

Furthermore, the interviewees also think that Thai feminine male singers try to imitate Japanese styles but they do not have equal quality to Japanese feminine male singers. The interviewees said that Thai male singers who imitate Japanese style do not have good performing skills and talents. It may be because Japanese male singers had gone through a strict training since they were young and so they became skillful in dancing and other performing talents on stage such as talking, acting and acrobatics. One obvious example could be Japanese male singers from Johnny’s Entertainment; the agency scouts for young boys with looks and character, then puts them through intensive training that includes grooming, public speaking, dancing, singing, acting, gymnastics and sometimes more special skills such as skating. The Johnny’s idols will be trained for many years before they can have their singles or album released or what is called ‘debut’ in their terms (Nippop, 2005).The Japanese male singers were trained to be idols especially, compared with Thai male singers who did not have much training, therefore the quality is different in the interviewees’ point of view.

The researcher also found that the interviewees do not like the idea that Thai male singers imitate Japanese male singers. They think that if they have to be in a fan club of Thai singers who look like Japanese, they would rather be in a fan club of Japanese singers instead. They want Thai singers to have their own style and do not have to be exactly like Japanese male singers.

One of the examples can be seen when Thai agencies are promoting a new feminine boy band, and exports its own feminine male singers to Japan to cooperate with Japanese music agencies. Thai feminine male singers are now making albums with Japanese feminine male singers. This situation creates a lot of arguments and criticisms amongst fans.

According to the interview and observation, only two of the interviewees agree with and have positive attitudes towards the collaboration between Thai and Japanese singers. The rest of them, eight among ten, strongly disagree, while some of them even dislike and cannot bear this news. Since they have negative attitudes towards Thai male singers who imitate Japanese styles in the beginning, they do not like this kind of arrangement at all. For the eight interviewees who disagree with this idea, they state that they do not discriminate against Thai singers. The feminine Thai singers who imitate Japanese styles are interesting in some aspects, such as their appearances, but they do not like the way they imitate Japanese styles and tend to be opposed to any Thai feminine male singers who possess this style. Therefore, they do not want the mix between Thai and Japanese singers. It is quite interesting because the researcher has found that this band and these two Thai singers are quite well accepted among other group of fans who are not the strict fans of Japanese male singers. Many of Thai female fans think it is a good idea and like this band while the strict fans of Japanese male singer mostly do not like it.

5.5 Impact and influences towards society
The impact on society as a whole from this phenomenon may not be obviously seen by the majority. However, there are still some influences. The first one is that the favor of Thai female adolescents towards Japanese male singers has created a commercial line in society. One obvious example could be the evidence that some Thai music agencies have imported lots of Japanese albums to sell in Thailand as well as having their concerts in Thailand. Many of Thailand’s major music agencies such as GMM Grammy and SONY music have imported many singles and albums from Japan, most of them are albums of Japanese feminine male singers, to sell in Thailand – such as Tackey & Tsubasa, V6, Arashi, WAT and W-inds with copy right. And Arashi’s concert in Thailand called ‘Jet Storm Concert’ was planned to be on the 7th October this year, with some Thai feminine male singers featuring in it. Moreover, Thai music agencies also export Thai feminine male singers to Japan to cooperate with Japanese music agencies. So, Thai feminine male singers are now making albums with Japanese feminine male singers.

Besides the commercial lines for the major music agencies in Thailand, there are also other commercial lines for shops and some small business too. The most obvious evidence could be in Bangkok since it is where most Japanese music shops are located. With the popularity of Japanese music and singers, it gives a chance for many shops to open and make revenue. For example, at Siam Square in Bangkok there are many shops which sell Japanese music albums and products about the famous and popular singers, including posters and concert pamphlets. The researcher has been to Bangkok to make observation with some interviewees and visited some Japanese music shops and found that there are lots of customers and the owners can make quite good incomes. The Japanese music shops mostly sell imported products that did not pass to them from a music agency. They usually order from someone who lives or goes to Japan to buy the albums or CDs and sell them back in Thailand.

It is not only Japanese feminine male singers that have been imported for promoting in Thailand. In the past few years, many feminine boy bands from other Asian countries such as Korea, China and Taiwan have also been imported to be sold in Thailand because their image and appearances are popular among Thai female adolescents. As a result of the popularity and fever in relation to Japanese feminine male singers, teenagers are now more open to any feminine male singers from any countries. From observation, almost all of Korean, Chinese and Taiwanese boy bands, for example, are showing a similar image to Japanese male singers and they can attract adolescents’ attention. These singers are young boys, slim and have female faces.

With this situation of the coming of many Asian boy bands and their acceptance among Thai adolescents, it has created a trend of feminine male singers in Thai society. Now, more and more Thai male singers are also adopting this type of image. Since the old style of Thai boy bands are no longer favored by teens, Thai singers need to imitate what teenagers currently like, such as Japanese styles. Then, however, Thai singers are unable to create their own style because they have to imitate Japanese trends in order to be favored by teens. The results of this imitation can be both negative and positive. As mentioned before, some Thai adolescents have positive attitudes towards this imitation, while some don’t really agree or perhaps have negative attitudes with this idea instead. Moreover, there could be another bad side of the spreading of other countries’ singers. For example, Thai adolescents may prefer the singers from other countries more than Thai singers and it might lead to the decrease in popularity of Thai singers.

The last impact is that Thai adolescents’ identities are changing according to the influences of other countries’ cultures and trend. In the past when American pop culture and trend influenced Thai youths, their identities were changed to be what America did. After that, when Japanese trend and pop culture reached Thailand, Thai adolescents’ identities were changed to be more Japanese-like. Nowadays, Korean trends are becoming more and more popular among Thai people. From the favor in Japanese cartoons, dramas and singers, now, little by little, Thai people turn to favoring Korean trends in movies, drama series and singers. In this case, the identities of Thai teens are changing again and again according to the influences of foreign countries. From the research and interview, it might be said that the interviewees or the female fans of Japanese male singers are just a minority and marginal of mainstream society. However, this research has helped suggest that foreign culture has much influence among some teenagers and in the future it may spread to a wider group.