Why don't kpop groups saturate Japan the way they used to? (1 Viewer)

[centen]

Actual question. I remember in second and third gen, there were some kpop groups that spent way more time in Japan than they ever did in Korea, and smaller groups often stayed afloat by the strength of their Japanese releases. It felt like every group had at least one Japanese album, even if it was a (tbh) half-assed one of just a clumsy translation of their Korean songs into Japanese.

JYPE still seems interested in that market, with Stray Kids, Itzy, and Twice getting semi-regular releases there. And SME has NCT Wish, but as a company, doesn't seem interested any longer to the extent of how Super Junior, TVXQ, and SNSD had long promotional cycles in Japan. And smaller groups especially, like B1A4 and FT Island have more Japanese albums than Korean. DGNA (The Boss) had more Japanese singles than Korean. And then just picking some random newer groups, but like AMPERS&ONE is from the same company as FT Island and hasn't had a single Japanese release. JYPE has largely ignored Japan for NMIXX and Xdinary Heroes, who have both been around long enough to have a big enough Korean fanbase to tolerate a release cycle away from Korea. Gfriend had a few Japanese releases, but Viviz hasn't had any.

 

[athenaaa]

More companies are focused on the American market. Many companies see that as “hitting big”. Or if they know they don’t have the funds to push towards the American market, they focus on domestic growth

 

[Ahsoka]

Why go to Japan when you can go to the US?

 

[centen]

Why go to Japan when you can go to the US?

Is Japan as unreliable these days as the US is (for anyone who is not BTS)?

Because, if yes, I could see that. If both places are risky, US is the bigger music market and non-Americans follow releases from there as well. (Total aside, but when I was in Russia a decade ago, I heard so many old songs; they felt like the American music scene, just lagging a decade behind.)

 

[Ahsoka]

Is Japan as unreliable these days as the US is (for anyone who is not BTS)?

Because, if yes, I could see that. If both places are risky, US is the bigger music market and non-Americans follow releases from there as well. (Total aside, but when I was in Russia a decade ago, I heard so many old songs; they felt like the American music scene, just lagging a decade behind.)

I kind of doubt that Japan was the main market because it was necessarily the perfect market, but more likely because there weren’t many potentially lucrative markets available even when you take into account to account the difficulties. It was nearby, populous, and has some similarities in culture. But South Korea and Japan politically have been very rocky for over a century now. At times opinions have been more positive than other times, especially the last couple of years due to the China and Russian threat, but many in South Korea don’t look well on Japan and vice versa.

The main points of contention are the Japanese colonization of Korea and especially the crimes committed there in World War Two. Some Japanese politicians have admitted fault, but others retracted those apologies. Whereas the US has been looked at very favorably by South Koreans since the Korean War. Japan has a large population, a similar idol system, and there are absolutely many people who love kpop there. But the US market is bigger, politically has less baggage, and while there are racist people in the US who dislike Asians, a smaller portion of the population actively dislikes Korea that way a lot of Japanese people do. Japan didn’t actively prevent kpop groups from promoting in Japan the way China did, but I’m anti Korean sentiment definitely makes Japan a less lucrative market per capita than it would seem at first glance. So while the US market has its own difficulties, Japan has a lot of difficulties of its own that make it a potentially risky place to try to gain a stable fan base.

TLDR: due to history, politics, potential expansion, and other factors I think the Japanese market is not as lucrative as it would originally seem, I think the original expansion into Japan was because it was still the most lucrative at the time. But that doesn’t mean it’s still the case now with the US being an option, and being a more positive market in politics, population, and overall more potential for expansion.

 

[centen]

I kind of doubt that Japan was the main market because it was necessarily the perfect market, but more likely because there weren’t many potentially lucrative markets available even when you take into account to account the difficulties. It was nearby, populous, and has some similarities in culture. But South Korea and Japan politically have been very rocky for over a century now. At times opinions have been more positive than other times, especially the last couple of years due to the China and Russian threat, but many in South Korea don’t look well on Japan and vice versa.

The main points of contention are the Japanese colonization of Korea and especially the crimes committed there in World War Two. Some Japanese politicians have admitted fault, but others retracted those apologies. Whereas the US has been looked at very favorably by South Koreans since the Korean War. Japan has a large population, a similar idol system, and there are absolutely many people who love kpop there. But the US market is bigger, politically has less baggage, and while there are racist people in the US who dislike Asians, a smaller portion of the population actively dislikes Korea that way a lot of Japanese people do. Japan didn’t actively prevent kpop groups from promoting in Japan the way China did, but I’m anti Korean sentiment definitely makes Japan a less lucrative market per capita than it would seem at first glance. So while the US market has its own difficulties, Japan has a lot of difficulties of its own that make it a potentially risky place to try to gain a stable fan base.

TLDR: due to history, politics, potential expansion, and other factors I think the Japanese market is not as lucrative as it would originally seem, I think the original expansion into Japan was because it was still the most lucrative at the time. But that doesn’t mean it’s still the case now with the US being an option, and being a more positive market in politics, population, and overall more potential for expansion.

Interesting! You've given me a lot to think about. The whole question came up when I was mindlessly scrolling reddit, and came across a new Japanese release and realized it's been ages; like it used to be that any mildly successful group was guaranteed to debut in Japan.

But you're right that it comes with a lot of potential missteps that would anger their main fan base, whereas tbh, Americans are pretty lousy at holding grudges and missteps that might offend Americans don't normally make many ripples back in Korea anyway. I mean, look at Kiss of Life's recent controversy with them going "oh our bad" and then immediately dropping a new release. I guess we'll find out, but I'll be surprised if it impacts their sales when the album drops in June in any noticeable way. Pissed off Korean fandoms, though...

 

[SnowWhite]

Actually I always wondered why they do it or is there any money in it, aside from very few like Kara who was known for a crazy huge dedicated fanbase in Japan others seemed to be performing very poorly. Apink was for a while called Apinj by their fans for not returning to Korea from Japan. Their performance was very poor tho and the concert attendence was something they could pull any east/southeast Asian country.

 

[centen]

Actually I always wondered why they do it or is there any money in it, aside from very few like Kara who was known for a crazy huge dedicated fanbase in Japan others seemed to be performing very poorly. Apink was for a while called Apinj by their fans for not returning to Korea from Japan. Their performance was very poor tho and the concert attendence was something they could pull any east/southeast Asian country.

Right! Some acts were HUGE in Japan with mid k-fanbases.

 

[mysteric]

the domestic market in japan has shifted a lot too, I've even see japanese (theater) fans complain about the idolification of the music industry so they've become much more saturated and harder to complete in

the idol landscape changed a lot too imo, I don't follow the scene but have oomfs who do and chika idols seem to have filled in much of that niche, and even the 48g have lagged in popularity to the sakamichi series

I think it's a combo of we have it at home + changing idol consumer tastes + jfans being more casual in general

have one japanese friend who's a big kpop idol whale but ticketing rules and such don't reward whale spending as much