Currently in Japan and was in the famous Tower Records the other day.
Was looking in the J-pop section and saw a whole area dedicated to various girl groups and -48 groups... including a whole section dedicated to photo books of various J-pop idols... many of which are bikini/lingerie books. Even in the boy group section there are photobooks on sale.
In most conbinis and book shops can also get weekly/monthly manga magazines with bikini pictorials, many of which are idols
These photobooks and magazines sometimes feature idols who are under 18.
There was news in Japan last week about how an idol caught dating had to promise to post a "goodnight picture" every night for a year to prove she's going to bed alone.
Then there's Johnny's.
Super over sexualisation of idols including underage.
Over the top strict dating rules and reactions to dating that make K-pop fans look tame.
Parasocialness from male and female fans that goes way beyond what happens in K-pop (you haven't lived until you've seen a middle aged man dress head to toe in photo shirts of a young idol, his jacket and bag covered in hundreds of the same photo badge of her).
There's always talk that K-pop borrowed heavily from the J-pop model (with a much stronger mix in of western pop).
So how did K-pop, while still having many of its own problematic issues, manage to avoid a lot of the worst of J-pop?
Like... Why are K-pop photobooks tame and not bikini/lingerie nonsense as one example?