<figure id="attachment_220761" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 3077px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-220761"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="fa97bdaa"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/12/IMG-0034.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-220761" class="wp-caption-text">Chikako works at a megabank. She earns over 10 million yen a year, but cuts back on her life for the sake of her guess.</figcaption></figure>
She wears her hair in curls and a mini-skirt even in the middle of winter. She wears her hair in curls and wears a mini-skirt even in the middle of winter.　The square in front of Nakano Sunplaza (Nakano Ward) was filled with beautiful women who were ready to go to a blind date.
FRIDAY spotted a girl crying alone in a corner and called out to her.
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 What&#8217;s wrong?　What&#8217;s going on here?&#8221;
The nineteen-year-old girl, who introduced herself as Anna, quietly replied, &#8220;I&#8217;m &#8216;Leah&#8217; today.
 Today there was a break-up concert of a men&#8217;s underground idol that I was &#8216;reacquainted&#8217; with. My guess is that he will quit the idol when it breaks up, but I can&#8217;t accept the reality. &#8230;&#8230;
Riako&#8221; is an abbreviation for &#8220;falling in love in real life. The term &#8220;riako&#8221; is an abbreviation for &#8220;falling in love in real life,&#8221; and is used by men&#8217;s underground idol fans to refer to girls who really want to have a relationship with an idol. The women who gathered in the square were these &#8220;riako,&#8221; and Anna was one of them.
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One after another, a large group of riako came out of the venue and headed for Nakano station. They were headed to a party in Kabukicho, Shinjuku. &#8220;Oh my God! That&#8217;s too bad! The screams of the girls echoed around them. When I took a peek, I found idols and girls hugging and wall-donning each other all over the place. What the heck is this &#8230;&#8230;? I talked to Chikako (pseudonym, 25) who was at the event.
<figure id="attachment_220756" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 3657px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-220756"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="4a12d83f"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/12/EM100012.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-220756" class="wp-caption-text">The women were leaving the concert venue and heading for the special event. They were all dressed up, with their hair curled and ribbons attached.</figcaption></figure>
 It&#8217;s a special event. For the girls, this is the main event, not the concert. You can take a picture with your favorite for 1,000 yen with a time limit of one minute. While the photo is being taken, we tell them what we want them to do for us. For example, you can whisper your love to your guess from a back hug, ham ham on the arms (lightly bite the arms of the idol), or finger kiss (put your finger between your lips and kiss). As long as the mucous membranes don&#8217;t touch each other, basically anything is OK. So rather than taking a Polaroid, it&#8217;s more like you&#8217;re buying a minute of your favorite&#8217;s time for 100 yen.
 Also, there is an invitation system. Five people can take a 20-second video, and ten people can bury their face in the band&#8217;s chest for 10 seconds. This is how many people get hooked. I was one of them. I took 20 to 30 pictures with my favorite girl every time. I love the smell of my guess&#8217;s sweat so much that I&#8217;ve hugged him five times, finger kissed him five times, and put my head inside his clothes seven times. I still have some time left, so I&#8217;d like to do three more rounds.&#8221;
On this day, Chikako spent a total of 600,000 yen. For Riako, the amount of money she spent on her guess is an expression of her &#8220;love. When a person&#8217;s guess is covered, a &#8220;tribute competition&#8221; begins. Miki (21), who was waiting to be photographed for a Polaroid, said, &#8220;I want to love her more than anyone else.
 I want to love and be loved more than anyone else, so I want to spend more money on them than anyone else. I&#8217;m not paying him back, but I&#8217;m helping him increase his bank balance. It&#8217;s very inexpensive, considering that it will one day pay for my marriage. Today, I gave him 20 Polaroids, 50,000 yen worth of goods and 300,000 yen worth of gifts for his guesses.&#8221;
<h2>Six million yen in debt from four companies</h2>
Riako&#8217;s age range is young, between 16 and 25, and many of them are underage. Hundreds of thousands of yen are exchanged every week at each live concert. How do these young girls manage to finance themselves?
 I work at a megabank, but I spend most of my salary on my charity work. Except for rent and utilities, 50,000 yen a month is enough to cover my living expenses. I don&#8217;t want to live a lavish life, and I don&#8217;t have many friends, so I hardly spend any money on entertainment. I lied to my parents that I wanted to buy a car and borrowed 4 million yen and over 6 million yen from four financial institutions. I haven&#8217;t used up my limit yet at Sarakane, and it looks like I can borrow from one more company, so I&#8217;m okay. When my parents found out about my lies and guesswork, they didn&#8217;t understand me at all, so I moved out of my parents&#8217; house a year ago,&#8221; said Chikako.
In Anna&#8217;s case, she cut herself even further, paying tribute to her guess.
 I&#8217;ve been a riako since I was sixteen. When I was in high school, I held out for just one Polaroid, but in May of the year I entered university, a two-hour date ticket with my guess went on sale for 30,000 yen. I couldn&#8217;t afford it because my family was complicated and I didn&#8217;t have any money, so I had to borrow money for a scholarship and I didn&#8217;t have a gung-ho part-time job. But I definitely wanted it, and I thought the only way to make money quickly was through the sex industry, so I started working at a deli-help store in Ikebukuro.
 It was for a guess, and my parents, who were single mothers, were also in the water business, so I didn&#8217;t have much resistance. Now I work at a deli-hero shop three to four times a week after classes. When I still don&#8217;t have enough money, I go to work for my dad!　I often ask my friends, &#8220;Isn&#8217;t it hard?　Isn&#8217;t that too hard a schedule? But it&#8217;s not too hard at all. But I don&#8217;t have a hard schedule at all. Because I&#8217;m only real when I&#8217;m with my girlfriends. When I&#8217;m with my girlfriends or spending time with other people, I&#8217;m just my fake self. I think I have a double personality.
The special event was over just before the date changed. Some of the reacos leaving the venue waved their hands to their guesses and looked satisfied, while others were sad and crying over the breakup. Thinking that this would be the end of their &#8230;&#8230; trip home, the reacos moved to a nearby park. They laid out blue sheets and began to show off the goods and Polaroids they had purchased.
They said, &#8220;This is so sexy! and so on, ignoring the policemen who came to look around. The party of the girls continued until 3:00 am.
Hitomi (20), who works at a concept café in Akihabara and saves up money by doing papa-katsukas, says, &#8220;I&#8217;d die for my guess.
 My guess retired as an idol today. When I first heard about her retirement, it was so hard that I refused to eat for about three days. 18 years old, I met her at a live concert my friend took me to, and she was the one who inspired me to become a riako. I really loved her and I think I spent more money on her than anyone else. I didn&#8217;t like seeing her taking checkers with other fans, and there were times when I would go home and cut my wrist. But even those scars are treasures to me. I only have one other fan, but I&#8217;ve decided that if she quits too, there&#8217;s no point in me living, so I&#8217;m going to die.
The love of Riako and her friends is so deep and dangerous. We mustn&#8217;t forget that idols are just idols.
<figure id="attachment_220757" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 3905px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-220757"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="851759f8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/12/EM100322.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-220757" class="wp-caption-text">A scene from the special event. The idols lined up side by side and gave fan service. The women have their own photo albums in their hands.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_220758" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1965px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-220758"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b288333e"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/12/IMG_2839.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-220758" class="wp-caption-text">Anna&#8217;s monthly schedule. She says she leads a hard life with her schoolwork, deli work, and attending her favorite idols&#8217; concerts.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_220759" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 3150px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-220759"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a59f3f05"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/12/IMG_2840.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-220759" class="wp-caption-text">Anna has more than 500 checkers, and she keeps her favorites on her wall. She says she can look at them for the rest of her life.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_220760" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 3579px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-220760"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="7339ed9b"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/12/IMG_2847.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-220760" class="wp-caption-text">Chikako has cards from four different financial institutions. She is confident that she will be fine for another year because she can still increase her credit limit. &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
From &#8220;FRIDAY&#8221; December 31, 2021 issue
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 Fans who fall in love with men's idols in real life, known as "riako". There is no limit to the amount of money they will pay to their idols. Some go into debt, work as dads, or work in the sex industry in order to pay for fan services... This film follows the dangerous daily lives of riako.

 If my favorite idol quits, I'll die." They are addicted to extreme fan services such as finger kissing, back hugging, and close up shots, and they pay their dues.

Confessions of women in love with men’s underground idols, even with debts of 6 million yen

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