A thread that started with the question, “Even though it’s a salary system, do Juice=Juice members and ANGERME members actually get paid the same?” turned into a swirl of speculation about Hello! Project’s pay structure. Posters brought up Tamura’s radio comment that there’s a pay gap between Morning Musume’s 9th/10th generations and S/mileage’s 2nd generation, as well as the story that Nogizaka46 rookies started out on just 50,000 yen a month. The debate centered on whether pay is base salary plus a commission on individual work and merch sales, or whether it’s completely equal across the board. The thread also revisited the old story that Morning Musume’s pay was once rumored to be around 200,000 yen a month, only for the tax disclosure list to later reveal they earned over 40 million yen a year — highlighting just how hard it is to know the real numbers from outside.
That's exactly why incompetent people get to stick around.
and Michishige also said pay varies within a group depending on how much individual work you get.
It's base pay plus commission.
Nogizaka's base pay is 50,000 yen
Someone mentioned that outside gigs can massively bump up your bonus.
but then the tax disclosure list came out showing they made over 40 million yen a year, and otaku were floored.
Ichii said on TV her pay was "80,000 yen," but that's just because she quit before it ever went up.
You can tell from how much her juniors Tsuji and Kago were pulling in.
Even with Kamei, Sanma (the comedian) told her, "You guys are getting paid too much!"
The agency covers dorm fees, utilities, and food, and after about six months you also start getting a cut of your personal goods sales on top of that.
ROSY is more like 3 million yen a year.
Apparently commercials and photobooks are what really pay off.
Groups like ROSY or the newer lineups are at a disadvantage for drawing crowds, so I guess that's unavoidable.
back when Hello Project had way fewer people, dividing the total fanbase by headcount meant each member had a pretty solid number of fans.
The unpopular ones might not even have 10.
so the appearance fees for those probably vary a lot too.
For group activity fees it's probably seniority-based pay plus a commission on merch sales.
If you get popular they pay you a ton, and even if you don't, you still get a decent amount,
which is why people called it the "Platinum Era" and joked about "civil servant idols."
I get the feeling Up-Front (the management company) probably just bans part-time jobs outright.
Well, the merch is probably making money at least.
At places like Horipro or Watanabe Production it's brutal if you don't make it big.
That's why even if you can't debut by your late 20s,
you end up unable to quit.
Ise's probably around 8 million, and the lowest-paid in Juice=Juice around 5 million?
How do you even get numbers like that when they don't match her actual sales?
What commission would Ise even be getting? If anything, expenses probably outweigh it and she's running a loss.
At other talent agencies, rookies often get paid something like 50,000 or 30,000 yen a month until they actually make it.
Didn't Sha Ran Q have gigs like a comedy band doing promotional appearances?
I heard they did song parodies and stuff at those events.
so once the commission checks come in, everyone's probably grinning ear to ear.
Well yeah, that'd cure any illness.
and especially the merch sold at venues, must add up to serious money,
but with a gap that big, Ebata and Runo probably can't stay friends anymore…
That's already happened…
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The salary figures thrown around in this thread are almost entirely speculation drawn from members’ own comments on talk shows and rumors dating back to the old 2channel days — there’s no case of an agency ever officially announcing actual numbers. The “Chōja Banzuke” (the public high-income taxpayer disclosure list) was abolished in 2005 following revisions to Japan’s personal information protection law, so the anecdote about Morning Musume’s income turning out to be over 40 million yen a year dates from before that abolition. Talent agency pay structures are generally said to combine a base salary with commissions from individual work and merchandise sales, and it’s not unusual for members within the same group to see differences based on workload and years of experience. Where the thread split was over whether pay is completely equal across the board or varies by individual, and voices favoring a base-plus-commission system won out, citing members’ own on-air comments as evidence. It’s worth keeping in mind that the specific figures thrown around remain pure speculation.
*This article excerpts and summarizes the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “Even though it’s a salary system, do Juice=Juice members and ANGERME members actually get paid the same?“
