When Black Tears Fall: image-making and cultural identity in a case study of Japan's hip-hop/enka singer Jero

The shedding of tears over lost love is a common lyrical theme in enka, a genre from Japan that depicts a world of emotion where ?Japanese are at their teariest ¿ and according to some, at their most Japanese? (Yano, 2000: 72). It is sobering, however, to note that beneath the tears, the palpable ties to Japanese cultural identity, and the grand idea that enka represents ?the soul of the Japanese? (nihonjin no kokoro) (Wilson, 1993: 238), enka songs and enka stars are products of a commercialised popular music industry and rely on rigidly formulaic patterns to appeal to the conservative tastes of a predominately middle-aged audience. With this in mind, this paper`s broad aim is to examine the making of a star`s image in enka during the late 2000s.