Several weeks ago we wrote an article about the female idol collective AKB48 and later received a message from a friend who told us he was in Tokyo's Akihabara district, which the group calls home. He was in a shop that sells various used goods and reported that there were hundreds of "used" copies of AKB's latest single on sale for only ¥100 each, even though the single had just been released.

The reason for the surplus was AKB's famous premium system: if you buy a CD you get the chance to meet the young women in the group or, in this case, a chance to vote in one of AKB's popularity contests, which are called "general elections." The most recent of these, No. 6, was held June 7, where Mayu Watanabe received the most votes. "Tickets" that allowed fans to cast votes in that election were included in the group's newest single, "Labrador Retriever." The more singles you buy, the more opportunities you have to vote, which explains all the used CDs. The fans only need one copy of the song, but they bought multiple copies so that they could stuff the ballot box with votes for their favorite members.

Each voting ticket is printed with a special URL and a unique serial number. The holder of the ticket goes online, logs on to the election website, and casts one ballot by registering the serial number. After voting, that serial number cannot be used again.