Spend even a day in a major Japanese city like Tokyo or Osaka and you won't be able to ignore them: 'idols,' or heavily produced and promoted men and women who perform across media genres and platforms. They appear in magazines and advertisements, perform on TV and on stage, recorded and live. Though central to the workings and experience of media in Japan, idols have unfortunately had only a marginal place in the scholarship. This collection offers the most complete and compelling account of one of the most fascinating and least understood aspects of Japanese media culture today. It brings together a group of interdisciplinary scholars who engage the study of media, gender and celebrity. Sensitive to history and the contemporary scene, essays cover male and female idols, production and consumption, industrial structures and fan movements.