Have you ever heard of Arashi? It's a Japanese boy band that's so popular, that a poster of the group is drawing crowds, cameras, and grovelling. You might not know Arashi, but perhaps you've seen Letters from Iwo Jima? One of the stars, Kazunari Ninomiya, is a member of Arashi. The group has also appeared in Nintendo commercials, most notably for the 3DS launch, so there's that. Recently, a huge Arashi poster went up in Tokyo's Shinjuku station. It has been drawing quite a crowd and is being a dubbed a "sacred spot" for boy band nerds. Below, you can see a photo taken by Kotaku's own Toshi Nakamura. This particular breed of otaku ("geek") is called "jyani-ota" (ジャニオタ). "Jyani" refers to Johnny's, the group's talent agency. Johnny's also manages pretty much all the other popular boy bands in Japan. Earlier this week, a photo popped up on Twitter of an Arashi fan bowing in front of the giant poster. It was retweeted over three thousand times. People online in Japan seemed to be rather freaked out by the image, writing that it looked "scary" or "like some religion". Others pointed out that hardcore girl group fans seemed just as fervently frightening. (In the West, similar remarks could be made about hardcore Justin Bieber or One Direction fans.) This isn't just a regular old bow. In Japanese, this style of bowing is called "dogeza" (土下座) and it's often translated as "kneeling down on the ground". As previously noted, it can be used for bowing in front of powerful and important people as well as apologizing for huge muck-ups. Various Japanese sites point out that it seems to be a thing to bow in front of Arashi imagery. The vast majority of Arashi fans are not doing this, but a few seem to be. Whether that's at concert venues. Or rather, to concert venues. Or at restaurants. Or bowing to the TV. Or to little D.I.Y. shrines. Or even bowing to cardboard Arashi members selling kitchen appliances. Some of the young people bowing in front of Arashi seem to be doing ironically and for fun, with tongue planted firmly in cheek here. This is like a "We're not worthy" for boy band geeks. If only they knew they were! Photos: AV_RADIX, kz__special, @stri_30px, sakulove21, monster_nnmy, chekkunomafuraa, angelicsts, 2038sgak, joshi_trend, Matome, Maki To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.