there`s nothing different between them but sadly there are some people always mad when someone called their faves as idols instead of artist,. They keep insisted idols have lack of talent while artist don`t meanwhile shonen, akina nakamori, pink ladies introduced themselves as idol and they are really talented. The system recruitment itself from all agencies are also similar. be it Johnnys, LDH, Hello Project!

Sometimes I wonder what makes the difference between an idol and just an artist. IMO it’s the promo and the relationship between the celeb and the fans. Many idol fans have this cern image imprinted on their fav and that is kinda encouraged by the artist and company to mainn that image.