Takarazuka Music School Applicant Numbers Continue to Decline; Low Birthrate, Anxiety about Overwork, Power Harassment Suspected as Causes

By Sayaka Aoki and Aki Ikeuchi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

6:00 JST, April 20, 2025

Each year, around 40 teenage girls will be accepted to study at Takarazuka Music School in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, where these special few will be taught everything they need to know to eventually become “Takarasiennes” — performers with the famous all-female theater troupe the Takarazuka Revue Company. Yet, for decades now, the number of girls taking the exam to enter this school has been declining, and it shows no signs of turning around.

The continuing drop in applicants is believed to be attributable to factors such as Japan’s declining birthrate, as well as to harsh working conditions within the Takarazuka Revue Company, which came to light in the wake of the death of a member in 2023. The school has been struggling to increase the number of applicants again.

At 10 a.m. on March 30, the website revealed the 40 applicants who passed the test to enroll in the music school.

The successful applicants traveled to the school, where rows of cherry trees stand like crowds of well-wishers, to complete the procedures for enrollment and receive their tickets to join the adored ranks of the Takarasiennes.

Starting in April, Takarazuka students spend two years learning the arts of singing, dancing and etiquette, all with an eye toward their stage debut.

Takarazuka Music School was established in 1913, but it was in the 1970s that the number of applicants shot up, after the Takarazuka Revue Company’s stage drama “The Rose of Versailles” became a big hit.

The number of exam takers peaked at 1,930 in 1994, during the time when stars like Yuki Amami were active in the troupe. At this time, the school had an acceptance rate of just one in 48.

Last year, however, Takarazuka Revue was shaken by issues of performers being overworked and power harassment of junior members by senior ones.

The number of entrance exam takers that year fell to 480, less than a quarter of what it was at its height, and the acceptance rate became one in 12.

This year, the number dropped by another 10 to 470, bringing the acceptance rate to one in 11.75.

Stage art critic Ai Ito said, “Prospective students do not get the opportunity to, for example, observe classes in advance, and so [the falling number of applicants] may indicate that this makes many exam takers and their guardians uneasy.”

The trend toward falling application numbers is not a new one. It has continued steadily for the past 30 years, spurred on by factors like the Great Hanshin Earthquake, low birthrates and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some concerned officials say one reason for the decline is the difficulty performers face in establishing post-Takarazuka careers.

Takarasiennes enroll in the school between ages 15 and 18, and they spend the entirety of the ensuing decade doing nothing but performing with Takarazuka Revue.

However, only a handful of star members of the troupe manage to become active on the front lines of the entertainment industry after leaving the company.

Unlike in eras when women were generally expected to orient their lives around marrying and starting a family, many of today’s former Takarazuka Revue Company members work part-time while continuing to perform on non-Takarazuka stages, or they just get ordinary company jobs.

There have also been cases of former members retiring from the Takarazuka Revue Company and enrolling in universities.

Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., which operates the Takarazuka Revue Company, in 2020 established Takarazuka Live Next, a firm that plans and produces public performances by former Takarazuka Revue members. However, it does not provide broader support for ex-members.

In the wake of a series of problems, Takarazuka Music School is now working to provide anti-harassment education.

The music school has made attempts to be more reflective of modern sensitivities, such as removing physical attractiveness as a requirement for applicants.

Koji Murakami, who serves as both the chair of the Takarazuka Revue Company and the chair of the board of Takarazuka Music School, said he hopes that “Our efforts to improve the environment will be recognized as being sufficient, and as a result, the number of entrance exam takers will increase again.”

Ito said, “With an increasing number of women now attaining higher levels of schooling, [Takarazuka Music School students] will surely need career-oriented education that gives consideration to the long portion of their lives that will come after they leave the theater company.”