Male solo J-pop singers?

[Masato]

I've been wondering why it seems that almost all of the current solo J-pop singers I've heard of are female. The only solo male singer I've heard of is Ken Hirai. On the other hand, for K-pop and C-pop you do have many popular male solo singers (one of the most popular C-pop singers is a male). Can someone explain to me why it seems as if almost every solo J-pop singer is female?

 

[Nekusagi]

Try Hyde and Gackt.

Also, I'd imagine it has a lot to do with the idol singer phenomenon in Japan. Women are idols more often than men.

 

[I Started A Cult]

Well, there's Dokaka, but I don't think he counts...

 

[Rellik]

Try Hyde and Gackt.

Also, I'd imagine it has a lot to do with the idol singer phenomenon in Japan. Women are idols more often than men.

This. It really doesn't take much to be an idol in Japan, so there's a new one every other week.

 

[SSJ_Jup81]

You know, I don't know of too many solo male J-artists either. Mostly all-male groups, a duo, or maybe not as mainstream. That aside, here are some male artists that I know of..

Gackt (Former member of the group, Malice Mizer (which is still, technically, in a hiatus); currently a part of S.K.I.N and still does his solo works)

Hyde (Member of L'Arc~en~Ciel, but does solo works occasionally, but not as much since L'Arc came out of its hiatus years ago)

TETSU (Former member of Malice Mizer; Active member in L'Arc~en~Ciel; has a few solo works, but not much since L'Arc came out of its hiatus years ago).

Rain (Korean, but he sings in English, Japanese, and Korean)

Takashi Matsunaga (I'm not sure he really counts, due to the type of music he does. He's a pianist who does specialize a bit in jazz, despite his young age. Was first introduced to his works after watching Pop Japan TV years ago, and managed to buy most of his cds).

Akeboshi

Hirai Ken

T.M. Revolution

Kawaguchi Kyogo

Shikao Suga (Probably best known for that 19sai song)

Yamamoto Ryohei

Now, here are some that I know of or have seen the names of, but don't know much about or never actually listened to their music...

Masafumi Akikawa (I guess he sorta counts...)

Maekawa Hiroki

John-Hoon (I'm slightly interested in this singer)

Masayoshi Yamazaki (I'm interested in this artist. He has a lot of acoustic works, to my knowledge)

Inoue Joe

Moriyama Naotaro

Okano Hironori

Maeken (His full name is Maeda Ken)

Tamaki Hiroshi

Kyohei Kaneko (Former member of the group, FLAME)

Fukuyama Masaharu

Kiyokiba Shunsuke

TAKACHA

Shuuhei Kita

Naojiro Hayashi (Also part of the duo Hirakawachi Icchoume)

JONTE (Former member of the group Exile)

Shimizu Shota

Toshiyuki Machida (I'm interested in this artist)

Mamoru Miyano

Saito Kazuyoshi

Toshinori Yonekura

Leo Imai (Well...he's half Japanese, if that counts) ^^

Jero (Sorta. Okay, so he's not Japanese and was born in America, but he has a Japanese grandmother [so he is part], attended University in Japan, fluent in Japanese, and lives/sings enka in Japan very well, apparently, and his releases rank decently on Oricon, to my knowledge. The fact that a non-native Japanese can pull off enka singing so well is amazing to me. Especially since he's "African American". To be honest, I've never heard a male enka singer before.)

 

[bell02+]

I think it depends on the genre to be honest I don't think having female idols really has much to do about anything. Just think of how many male solo pop singers you can think of verses female ones in western music. It's kinda similar. Most male solo singers tend to be in R&B, Rap/Hip-hop, and Rock, which seems to be true in both Japanese music and American music. (For example, Hirai Ken is more an R&B singer than a pop singer, and Hyde and Gackt are probably considered more as Rock Stars to Pop stars instead as well)

 

[Akito]

I guess Gackt could be considered pop, but hyde is much more rock & is with L'arc and VAMPS now. Some of Miyavi's songs are pop.
...and the tetsu ssj jup81 mentioned above wasnt in both L'arc and Malice mizer. They were different people. Ken (l'arc guitarist) has more recent solo work, because of last years hiatus. I think that is a bit more poppish