Clearly, many of the housemates on Terrace House are on the show to promote themselves as a brand in their chosen profession. I suspect that the production company could easily fill the house entirely with performing artists and models, and in many ways it would be advantageous to the show to do so: it creates synergies with large talent and modeling agencies, allows access for the show and housemates to attend larger events, and leverages the promotional power of these other groups to promote Terrace House. That being the case, it is remarkable that the show has since day one on B&GND generally always included housemates for whom being on the show will do nothing in particular to promote their chosen career. Consistent with the other hidden agendas within the production, the show seems interested in exploring the idea that a wide variety of people can live together in harmony, and that everyone can add value to each other's lives when there is a forum to get to know each other as individuals.
Japanese culture is unusually homogeneous and there are societal pressures to conform which are unimaginable in the US. For instance, last month a student sued her prefecture after being repeatedly required by her schools to dye her naturally brown hair black under a policy that is meant to deter students from dying their hair. Terrace House presents an opposite ideal to Japan's more traditional values around conformity: people with widely varying backgrounds, aspirations and looks can all live together, help each other and even find romance.
In fact, the show goes out of its way to source housemates outside of the agencies which provide the models, actors, performing artists and professional sportspeople which have been the majority of the cast. Mizuki, for instance, reports that she was scouted for the show. Arman had done some production work on other shows, and was approached through those connections. And the show has also has accepted online applications for anyone who might be interested in joining the cast although it is unclear to me if anyone on the show was cast from those applications.
Of course, the distinction between which housemates are there to promote their personal brand and those who have no such agenda is a bit blurry and can change. It is hard to see how being on Terrace House can particularly help a realtor, an architect or someone who wants to launch a coffee shop. I'm sure Eric appreciates the fans who seek out The Punchbowl, but their patronage alone cannot sustain his business. On the other hand, Tecchan from B&GND came to the show legitimately training to be a fireman, but then used his presence on the show to create a successful personal brand.
The danger of including only people who are there to enhance their personal brand is that it can lead to inauthentic interactions and even outright deception. In US reality shows the casting for hyperbolic personalities creates an ecosystem of famewhores who see it as a route to become that perverse idea of someone who is famous for being famous. Terrace House cuts through that miasma by casting people who have genuine talents and by largely screening out the overly dramatic.
However, this approach is not perfect. Wez is clearly only on the show to present DOPE favorably on camera, and Cheri has issues that would seem perfectly normal on US reality TV. However, the other unbranded members of the cast like Anna and Chikako ground the show and create resistance against the imperative of the others to protect their brand by only presenting themselves in a favorable light.
Terrace House's formula of including people with no personal brand has generally been successful at avoiding some of the insidious tropes of Western reality TV. By doing so, it presents a vision of inclusiveness as alternative to the traditional conformity of Japanese. The show supports the ideal that people can find and love each other because of their variety and not despite their differences.
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