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The story
A post on X read: “I don’t go to concerts, I don’t buy merch, and I don’t spend money on the idol I support. But I watch livestreams and leave comments on social media — I cheer them on as much as I can, in whatever way I’m able to.” A thread on 5ch’s Hello! Project board quoted the post and set off a heated for-and-against debate. Since idol events earn most of their revenue from face-to-face spending — things like cheki photo sessions and merchandise — the thread’s central question became whether “supporting without spending money” counts as real support at all. Posters split along the usual line between “genba wota” (fans who pay to physically attend events) and “zaitaku wota” (fans who engage only through streams and social media), with some arguing “just by showing up to a venue, you’ve already spent money” and others countering “everyone’s entitled to support in their own way.”
What people said
I don't even go to concerts. I don't buy merch. I don't spend money on the idol I support!
But I watch livestreams, comment on social media posts, and cheer them on as much as I can, in whatever way I'm able to.
@4dr8ijREZCnf4Q3
🌻My wife and I both support SOPHIA together! My wife's been a SOPHIAns (SOPHIA fan) for maybe 30 years now!
I got hooked because of her influence!
After I met her, I studied up hard on SOPHIA to win her attention — and got her! Ever since then we've been SOPHIAns together!
🌻I'm a fan of Sakura Yamakawa! Met Sakura on TikTok back in November 2021, and I've been supporting her ever since
If everyone ends up like this, the idol they support won't be able to keep working as one.
It's not exactly wrong, but keep it quiet — you don't get a vote in this.
Hardcore otaku call this kind of fan a 'freeloading beggar otaku' (musen — someone who never pays a cent), but this is exactly what being popular with the general public looks like.
Though I guess it'd be fine if the group got big enough that sponsors foot the bill even without your spending.
But if you're going to call it 'supporting' them, I think you should actually pay up.
it's not something the customer needs to worry about.
Sure, that's fine —
just know the idol you support won't think of you as a paying customer.
Horse-racing otaku really do exist, huh.
That's a terrible comparison.
Being a longtime fan, or someone who travels far and wide to every show, has nothing to do with being 'amazing.' The person who's truly amazing and admirable is the one enduring the situation of wanting to go to a concert but not being able to.
How many concerts you've been to, how many years you've been a fan, how many cheki photos (instant meet-and-greet photos) you've taken — none of that matters at all. That goes for every kind of fan.
@
I'm a former idol‼
None of that makes you admirable in the slightest — depending on the situation, it's actually just a nuisance‼
As far as that scene's concerned, you don't exist.
Yeah, exactly.
I don't spend any money, but I'm watching them and supporting them, so I really want to keep loudly insisting on that!
Someone who brags about NOT spending money gets a silent 'what is this guy even talking about?'
Nobody says it to their face, but that's what everyone's thinking.
There's such a thing as a 'support bet' in horse racing — I wonder what that's actually about.
Don't spend any money, but sure want to keep showing off that I'm 'supporting' them!
Though being a stay-at-home fan is out of the question.
And on Ookami (the Hello! Project fan BBS) and social media, I act real high-and-mighty like some kind of old-timer.
Though the only events I actually go to are the release events held near me, and even then only once in a blue moon.
People who never show up to events get found out instantly.
All they can talk about is the thin, secondhand or thirdhand info anyone could pick up while picking their nose — in other words, all they can do is copy-paste other people.
I don't get stay-at-home fans who have zero firsthand experience but still want to be treated as equals to actual otaku.
That's the fundamental difference from being a stay-at-home fan.
It's always the stay-at-home fans and the newbies who talk like they've got it all figured out.
Someone who pays money to support them — that's a 'fan.'
Let's crack a window and air this place out (5ch slang implying the post above reeks).
Don't need the merch either.
But I do like Hello! Project's shows and the members, so sometimes I end up criticizing stuff too.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Revenue at idol events tends to center on “in-person spending” — things like cheki photo sessions and merchandise — while watching livestreams or leaving comments on social media doesn’t translate directly into revenue. Because of this, whether “supporting without spending money” counts as being a real fan is a theme that has come up again and again across the idol world, not just within Hello! Project, and this thread is just the latest example. What split the thread was whether to measure support by “money” or by “feelings”: fans who physically attend events are conscious of the time and physical cost they’re paying, which creates a structure where they tend to push back against people claiming to “support” the idol without spending anything. On the other hand, view counts and social media reactions do sometimes factor into promotion and how songs get evaluated, so it’s not entirely fair to say non-monetary support is meaningless. Since this backdrop isn’t spelled out in the quoted replies themselves, it helps readers to know going in that the divide between “genba wota” (fans who attend in person) and “zaitaku wota” (fans who engage only from home) is itself a long-standing, customary line drawn within the idol industry — understanding that makes the thread’s temperature easier to read.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “A post on X (Twitter): “I don’t go to concerts. I don’t buy merch. I don’t spend money on the idol I support. But I watch the livestreams and comment on social media — I support them plenty!”“.
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