An idol's salary

Now that the tension of guessing who got in the senbatsu for the 14th single is finally over, please allow me to ask a newbie question about an idol's salary.

Until now, my assumption is that a Nogizaka46 member will get a (relatively) modest base salary from the company (Sony? AKS?). In order to get more income, a member must be able to take advantage of her position as a member to get "side jobs" (appearing in CM, drama, etc). Therefore, a member should strive to be as popular as possible to attract such jobs. This is also something that will prepare her for the time when she decide to graduate.

Is this correct? Or is it too simplistic? Does a member get some royalties from the sale of HS tickets? From the sale of singles?

Further, how does a potential employer judge popularity? HS? A

 

I think you are correct but I am a newbie too .
I don't know about royalties but I think they have received more based on their sale.
I think Ikoma and Shiraishi are the best two who earned most money in Nogizaka46.
Softbank CM is really big and MC of TV weekly show has very big income.

Potential employer maybe base on Nikkei Female Idol's Talent Power Ranking or Nikkei Group Ranking.
I think the top 5 maybe like this.

1. Ikoma Rina.
2. Shiraishi Mai.
3. Nishino Nanase.
4. Hashimoto Nanamin.
   
5. Takayama Kazumin.

But again, I am a newbie too.

 

My guess is most income comes from outside jobs, & that there are some royalties from handshake if not huge. So if one have official modeling contract it would help quite a bit, CM deals too of course. These are guesses & assumptions tho, as we rly can't know for sure lol

Here's two mag pages on it, altho I'd suggest caution over these figures. There may have been other figures published before too iirc.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CaI8N-nUkAIq67m.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CaI8N7UUsAA4ODd.jpg

 

@rust

Wow, that's not as much as I had expected. Though, I guess with the number of members it's still impressive the top tier idols are pulling almost $400k.

 

According to Ohori Megumi, they were paid about $400 in the early days.
http://www.tokyohive.com/article/2014/10/ohori-megumi-reveals-her-salary-during-her-days-in-akb48
But that's probably changed.

 

Thanks, guys. It makes me feel sorry for the likes of Himetan or Rotti, since being in the senbatsu is not only a matter of recognition of your hard work and talent but directly translates to yen numbers.

 

Wow~ the interesting thing is that the numbers across the board are much lower than the last estimated income ranking that I saw, which was this one http://aramajapan.com/news/gossip/female-idol-estimated-annual-income-ranking/2303/

I wonder if one of the estimates (or both lol) were just really far off or if it's a sign that idols are really in decline?

 

wow Kaotan ranked 45th place with 5 mil yen yearly income . with today exchange rate thats equal to $41363.35 (USD).

six members tied at 45th place (Ikoma, Kitarie, Kaotan, Ashurin and two others) with 5 mil yen

 

How could maiyan isn'n there?? Its post 1 year ago but if member like suzuran in there why maiyan isn't?? I think that list just for fun..

 

Well this is for 2014 and Nogizaka was just getting their break then, no? With kidzuitara kataomoi. It was after this list that she put out mai style and seijun na otona so maybe that's why Ikoma is the only Nogi rep then.
As for Ranran, she have a powerful agency that gets her outside work; I'm not sure what she had at that time but I know she's had her own golf show and the like.

But ofc its just an estimate and likely to be off. Kaotan had said she makes nowhere near as much as it claimed lol

 

That must definitely have changed, back then AKB was barely selling anything at all. Those were the days of them really struggling (actually a lot of AKB fans think that is why that group (1-3rd gen) were so strong, I think so too). Nowadays with much higher sales, the members for sure get paid more (even though there are more members to pay). Of course as with in any job or sport, the top members will get paid more by their team/company.

Having said that, the most salary will definitely come from one of three things (non-46/48 group salary):

1. cm
2. drama/variety show (not just appearance in variety show, but hosting/regular gig)
3. gravure and/or fashion magazine

While I'd guess that the magazine is the lowest paying of the three, nobody is actually able to accurately estimate how much they actually make. So those two magazines estimates should be taken with a grain of salt.

I personally would estimate the top tier idols (lots of senbatsu appearances/magazines/tv shows/cm's) to be making in the range of 500k+ (like a sasshi/mayuyu/kojiharu), while the lowest end are probably making around 20k/year. Of course that is just my opinion, no facts in there at all. I don't think it is unfair at all though. In any walk of life, the top tier of worker/member will get a much higher salary than the middle/lower tier (for example, Cristiano Ronaldo will make a ton of more money than real madrid's backup keeper, not just salary but also in endorsements). But hey, that is how life works lol, whether you're a salesman or a banker or a footballer or a celebrity, the higher level people will get the (usually much) higher level salary, because they bring in more money.

Either way, they are making much more than any normal high school student ever would, so I would never go as far to say that they are being shafted or screwed over. Plus imo the benefits of being in a famous group also extend past just salary alone.

 

I hope everyone of them does find their jobs fulfilling, both in terms of income and otherwise.

Listening to how Nanamin described her early days in Tokyo in the documentary is heart breaking. I hope now she's found what she's looking for.

 

it's a bit awkward that knowing sashi make 500k/year and cristiano ronaldo earns the same amount of money for only a week playing or not...
anyway I think the sums is fair enough, they still got more money than most of other jobs, especially the top tier ones...

 

You would be surprised to find University teachers, holding advanced degrees, making less than 500k a year...

C'est la vie, man...

 

wow...maybe I should start making an idol group someday. Jeez, their salaries can cover my 1 decade expenses.
People who appear in CMs usually earn the most, followed by variety shows, dramas e.t.c. (starting from prime time slot to midnight slots), then magazines.

 

Exactly man
How can these little girls are making moreee money than me

By the way, tell me if you want to make an idol group, i want to join

 

Akimoto Yasushi sensei, with his age...I think he can retire without any stress now...haha, I think his net worth is close to some VCs and entrepreneurs in the world.

 

I don't think they earn enough, even the popular ones.
Regarding how much some of them work, its not a 9 hour workday. Its every single day, every hour, 7 days a week.

Then again the culture in Japan is that get married and stop working, so I guess they do what they can now when they are young so they have savings for their 30s.

 

Haha, true. But he also brings in a lot more money than she does

That's what its like in Japan though, even for high school students that aren't idols, almost all of them are doing after school activities/tutoring until pretty late every day, and they don't get paid for that. And for working people there? Wow, you'd kill yourself lol. My friends or gf would leave their house for work at 6:30 am and get home around 8pm-midnight, 5 days a week. Once in a while they'd get back home 7pm or so, but that's still 12 hrs/day. And half the time weekends they had to go into office too lol
So I don't think it's too out of the ordinary what idols do, plus they get paid much more than a regular person of their age, and they become somewhat famous, so all in all I'd say its a pretty good gig if you can get into it lol