But the dating rule won't stop the old men who are actually in the business and have some power or connections -- they're the ones who
make the rules, and I'm quite sure that as far as they're concerned, what goes on behind the scenes or behind closed office doors isn't subject to the rules, as long as it benefits them.
But I'm just cynical about power, and about the entertainment industry in general -- I can't bring myself to believe that things like the dating rule serve to do anything other than make the girls more marketable to wota, and I think that the industry has more than its share of predatory older men who don't consider themselves to be bound by any rules.
This is, however, one of those debates that's been going on among Jpop idol fans for as long as I've been involved in any of this. I think that the only way that we'll get any clear answers (if we ever do) will be if enough former idols write tell-all memoirs or talk openly about what it was like -- which would probably reveal a lot of things that will surprise us all, one way or another, and which might or might not be a good thing.
(I recall reading some of Kudo Shizuka's comments about what it was like behind the scenes with the Onyanko Club -- she said that there were a lot of things going on that she just stayed very far away from.
)