Former CoCo Star Maki Miyamae Reveals Why She’s Producing a Classic Idol Group Inspired by the ’80s and ’90s

Why she was forced to keep her hair short

“One of the members hasn’t been feeling well. I’m going to stop by her home and check on her after this.”

Maki Miyamae (53) politely bowed her head as soon as she sat down with the reporter.

The first record she ever bought was Seiko Matsuda’s “Shiroi Parasol.” Miyamae had dreamed of becoming an idol for as long as she could remember, but as a first-year high school student, she still hadn’t taken any concrete steps toward pursuing that dream. Then, one weekend, while she was filling out a résumé for a part-time job interview, she heard an announcement that would change her life:

“We’re forming a new group called Otome Juku.”

Miyamae auditioned for Otome Juku, a group formed as an in-program unit on Fuji TV’s “Paradise GoGo!!,” and successfully became one of its first-generation members. After surviving the fierce competition, she made her debut in 1989 as a member of the popular idol group CoCo, making her way through the golden age of Japanese idols in the 1980s and ’90s.

Although her look has been given a more mature touch, Miyamae has retained the short haircut that was once her trademark. The former idol now works on the other side of the industry, producing idols herself.

“I don’t go to every single event, but I’m constantly in touch with the members. New songs, choreography, costumes, rehearsal locations. We’re constantly exchanging messages about all the little details from around 8 a.m. until about 10 p.m. every day. There are eight members, and I also have to stay in contact with the staff, so it’s a lot of work.”

Even so, she laughed and added, “But back in our day, it was normal to work past midnight, so this is nothing compared with that.”

The idol group Miyamae produces is called “&chocolamie (Shokolamie).” There might not seem to be much in common between idols from an era when the slogan “Are you ready to work 24 hours a day?” was popular and idols working in today’s age of strict compliance—but Miyamae says there “definitely is.”

“Take the allocation of vocal parts, for example. I think each member has parts they want to sing. I handle the vocal-part assignments for almost all of &chocolamie’s songs, and just by watching them, I can tell, ‘Ah, this is the part this girl probably wants to sing. She looks like she’s having fun singing it.’ But I choose the parts where each girl looks her best and where her voice is the best fit. I understand how they feel, though.

It’s the same with hairstyles. I always had short hair, but I wanted to grow it out, and I was told, ‘You absolutely cannot grow it out.’ I secretly tried to let it grow, but before a jacket-photo shoot, I was called out and had my hair cut. They were incredibly strict. There was even a time when I was summoned by a senior executive at the record company, who sat me down in the dressing room at a concert venue and painstakingly explained why ‘Miyamae was better off keeping her hair short.’

Young girls have so many hairstyles they want to try. There are so many clothes they want to wear, too. The eight members of &chocolamie are no different. I tell them, ‘For jacket photos and artist photos, please keep the same hairstyle,’ but when I casually go to watch a live show, sometimes they’ve changed their hairstyles (laughs).

‘Why?’
‘We thought this hairstyle looked good.’
‘There’s a reason why this hairstyle is better. First of all, it makes you look the cutest. Second, it makes you easier to remember. We also make sure the eight members don’t have overlapping hairstyles. I understand that you get bored with having the same hairstyle, but the people watching you aren’t bored with it.’

As I have these exchanges with them, I find myself thinking, ‘I was told exactly the same things back then’ (laughs).”

As she explains these things to the members, Miyamae says she also finds herself thinking about the people who created CoCo’s costumes and songs, as well as its producers and staff, and imagining, “They must have thought about us in much the same way.”

A connection to the entertainment industry forged through food

Miyamae says that, surprisingly, it was food that led her to become an idol producer.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, I closed a restaurant called ‘M Nature’ that I had run for 10 years. Around that time, I launched a cake brand called ‘Makyubon,’ and we were going to sell the cakes at an event called ‘Hen’ai Shokudo’ at Seibu Department Store in Shibuya, which was essentially a pop-up store. That’s where the idea came up to create an idol group called ‘Tokyo Foodies’ to support the food and beverage industry. The restaurant industry had been hit extremely hard by COVID.

So, because I had experience as both an idol and someone working in the food industry, I was approached. It wasn’t really producing, but I got involved in the management a little, more as someone helping out. I was able to oversee everything from the auditions onward. A three-member idol group was formed, and I would take them to live venues to perform on joint bills with other acts.”

Miyamae had retired from the entertainment industry and was working as a culinary researcher, but rumors quickly spread that she had returned to the world of idols. She was then approached by “Showa Idol Archives,” an event featuring legendary idols.

The event also featured wqwq, an active idol group affiliated with Sun Music. Through her involvement with them, Miyamae began organizing “Idol Archives,” a talk-and-singing event featuring idols from the ’80s and ’90s. The event eventually caught the attention of the people who would later be involved in managing &chocolamie.

“I received an email from the management team saying, ‘Would you consider producing an idol group?’ So I went to Sun Music to meet them. Of course, my initial reaction was basically, ‘No, no, no, no’ (laughs). I mean, there was no way I could create an idol group.

There are so many idols who have only recently retired, so I turned them down, saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be more appealing and better known if you asked one of those girls instead?’ It had already been quite a while since I retired, and I didn’t understand the idol industry in the Reiwa era. I also felt I was at a disadvantage when it came to name recognition.

Even so, they praised the work I had done with ‘Tokyo Foodies’ and ‘Showa Idol Archives,’ and told me, ‘We thought it was a great event, and we wanted to work with you.’

“I was happy that they sincerely appreciated everything I had done up to that point. More than anything, what pushed me forward was when they said, ‘We want to create a classic, orthodox idol group like the ones from the golden age of television.’”

dols from the Showa era and the early Heisei era. That was exactly what Miyamae herself had admired. Friends tried to dissuade her, telling her, “You absolutely shouldn’t do it,” “It’s bound to be incredibly difficult,” and “What are you trying to accomplish?” But quietly, her passion was burning.

Through repeated meetings with the management team, their vision gradually took shape: “Let’s ask people who have been active since that era to handle the music, costumes, photography, and everything else. Rather than having Reiwa-era creators make something based on their idea of ‘what Showa or early-Heisei idols must have been like,’ let’s commission the real thing.”

And so, a dream team consisting of lyricist Goro Matsui, composer Etsuko Yamakawa, and photographer Yoshinobu Nemoto became supporters of the newly formed &chocolamie.

The paid “FRIDAY subscription” features the full article, “Former CoCo Member Maki Miyamae Confesses: Why I’m Betting My Life on Producing a ‘Classic Idol Group That Oozes Nothing But the Spirit of the ’80s and ’90s,’”along with footage of Miyamae and the members during their lessons, private photos, and exclusive videos.

How did she bring together this dream team? How did the members change after experiencing the work of true professionals? What challenges does Miyamae see? What does she expect from their first solo concert? And what has she gained—and lost—since becoming a producer?