When Namie Amuro announced that she would be retiring in 2018, even those who weren¡¯t hard-core fans were shocked to hear that the pop star who had been an influential part of their seishun jidai (coming-of-age) would be leaving the music industry.
The news came less than a year after SMAP¡¯s official retirement and as the idols that have dominated the entertainment industry for the past 10 to 20 years start to bow out of the limelight, television is looking for a way to attract its target audience.
Several networks appear to be using nostalgia to woo an older crowd, rebooting shows that were once popular in the 1990s and 2000s. ¡°Tokyo Friend Park II,¡± a popular variety show on TBS that ran from 1994 to 2011, returned to the airwaves with a three-hour special on July 3. What¡¯s more, ¡°Amazing Animals,¡± another variety show on TBS that aired from 1993 to 2009, was revived for a three-hour special in 2016 and returned to regular programming from July 1 this year.
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