So what does this mean for me? It only means that while those 1.49 million fans registered with the official fan club have a chance of winning the lottery for any of their concerts, mine is none. Nil. Nada. Zilch. News zero.

Here’s the fan club membersip  for the various Johnny’s groups:

ARASHI: 1.49 MILLION
SMAP: 930,000
KINKI KIDS: 475,000
KANJANI 8: 320,000
V6: 240,000
KIS-MY-FT2: 170,000
HEY SAY JUMP: 160,000
KAT-TUN: 135,000
TACKEY & TSUBASA: 120,000
TOKIO: 110,000
NEWS: 110,000
SEXY ZONE: 60,000

Source

Consider that, there’s more than half a million difference between Arashi and SMAP, which is already an institution in Japan and I’m sure their FC numbers also went more than 1 million at their peak. With Arashi’s LOVE tour and the much anticipated 5×15 celebrations, I am pretty sure the numbers will go even higher. No wonder Arashi is not even thinking of doing a tour overseas because they’ve got their hands full in Japan alone, and if they just do a tour the entire year, what happens to their acting and hosting careers?

(My screengrab from Arashi’s 5×10 tour)

I am not a fan of math that’s why I became a journalist but for the sake of fun, let’s calculate the probability. Let’s consider I’m one of those 1.49 million (granted everyone ballots) and I want to ballot for a concert at Kokuritsu, which has an estimated seating of 70,000.

winning the ballot = 70,000 seats  / 1,490,000 fans

The answer (granted I got my formula correct but don’t trust me since I’m a journalist, not a rocket scientist): 0.04.

That means not even a fraction of a chance to win the lottery so lucky indeed are those fans who do. Yes, winning an Arashi concert ticket is like winning the sweepstakes.

Whether those 1.49 million are all legit fans or some enterprising scalpers who want to take advantage of overseas fans like me, that’s beside the point. Because the point is? Unless Arashi do an Asian tour, I will never stand a chance of watching their concerts in Japan.

I have studied how to be a member of the FC thanks to @VyLeTtE070111. The most important requirement is a Japanese address and email because they would need that to confirm. I could ask one of my Japanese friends to register on my behalf but the trouble that I will subject them to is more than enough for me to decide against it. My friends know Arashi and I’m sure they won’t mind. They’d be amused more than anything else but they have other things to attend to than a friend pestering them to go to the post office to make payments, asking them every now and then if they got the latest Arashi pamphlet in the mail or if they can ballot for the coming tour. Woe is my fangirl life and I’m sure many out there share this story.

So yeah, the point of this post really is… it sucks to be an international fan. But just like Arashi’s latest song, P.A.R.A.D.O.X., it’s complicated to be an Arashi fan but it’s one of life’s simplest joys.

© Yasminka Lee (blogging since 2001). Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the contents in Orange Jasmine Purple Yam without permission from the author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Yasminka Lee/Orange Jasmine Purple Yam with appropriate link to the original content.