Lights out at International Wota

Momoko of Japanese idol group Berryz Kobo, July 2007. She is a sentimental favorite on the outstanding Web sites American Wota and International Wota.

Important note: International Wota is back up at this hour, but I still think it's important to tell this party of the story.

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Most concerts by the Japanese singing and dancing troupe, AKB48, often end with the singers coming out for an “encore” song after their “last number” is performed. The crowd chants, “En-cor-Ray! En-cor-Ray!” which is simply the word “encore,” only with full phonetic pronunciation.

Well, it’s time for an “En-cor-Ray!” from a popular and vital shrine on the World Wide Web.

As of this writing, the revolutionary Japanese pop music hub site International Wota remains dark – grounded this week because it appears rhetoric on the site took on a tone that site management felt was inappropriate.

Details have not been confirmed, and I don’t want to talk out of turn on this, but it must be said that International Wota, and its parent, American Wota, have revolutionized the way bloggers exchange ideas and explore concepts surrounding the huge, growing and highly eclectic Japanese popular music business – especially idol music, which carries a low public profile and cult status in Japan, but whose amazing musical products have drawn a large and growing following in the West, especially in the US.

International Wota has assembled a stellar array of experts whose major role is to scour the Internet for new and interesting J-pop blogs, critique those efforts and provide comments and links in a central location for the benefit of all. No matter how obscure or new, these voices are brought to the forefront and welcomed openly into the J-pop blogosphere.

Now the downside in engaging in any discourse about the world of Japanese pop music is that not everyone is going to agree about certain aspects of it. Factions include those who want to see a full-scale export of J-pop, specifically Morning Musume and Hello Project, from Japan into the US, including such logistically complex projects as replicating concerts in Japan on US soil. There is an opposing faction that feels this is simply not possible, given the turf-minded US pop music business, and that any incursion could lead to the deterioration and even shutdown of a rare, hugely important musical art form.

This debate has surfaced from time to time on International Wota, and each time the rhetoric has become more intense. Further, many subscribers to IW are not really impressed with all this politicking and would rather just ogle the idols or chat about the latest Hello Project unit or scandal.

International Wota keeps these controversies under control, like a nuclear-plant operator who knows when to insert control rods into the reactor. Without such oversight, the debates disintegrate, and valid information dissipates.

Whatever the subject matter, the cultural importance of International Wota and its courageous role as gatekeeper into the Land of Oz known as Japanese idol music cannot be overstated. IW is a bridge, a portal, between two universes, East and West. The educational value alone of this work is incalculable. It is irreplaceable, a unique creation that deserves preservation and protection.

It needs to come back, for the good of us all.

“En-cor-Ray! En-cor-Ray! Enco-Ray! En-cor-Ray! …”

This is Radicalipton signing off – for now