K-Pop stardom lures Japanese youth to South Korea

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BTS is Google’s most-searched boy band in 2019

SEOUL, May 1, (RTRS): Yuuka Hasumi put high school in Japan on hold and flew to South Korea in February to try her chances at becoming a K-pop star, even if that means long hours of vocal and dance training, no privacy, no boyfriend, and even no phone.

Hasumi, 17, joined Acopia School in Seoul, a prep school offering young Japanese a shot at K-pop stardom, teaching them the dance moves, the songs and also the language.

She is one of an estimated one million other K-pop star wannabes, from South Korea and abroad, hoping to get a shot at super competitive auditions by major talent agencies that will take on just a select few as “trainees”.

“It is tough,” Hasumi said in Japanese, drenched in sweat from a dance lesson she attended with 15-year-old friend Yuho Wakamatsu, also from Japan.

“Going through a strict training and taking my skill to a higher level to a perfect stage, I think that’s when it is good to make a debut,” she said.

Hasumi is one of 500 or so young Japanese who join Acopia each year, paying up to $3,000 a month for training and board.

The school also fixes auditions for its candidates with talent management companies that have been the driving force behind the “Korean-wave” pop culture that exploded onto the world stage in the past decade with acts such as global chart topping boy band BTS.

The influx of Japanese talent that is reshaping the K-pop industry comes at a time of increasingly bitter political acrimony between the two countries that has damaged diplomatic ties.

Craze

That the tension has done little to dent the K-pop craze among Japanese youth, and the willingness by Korean agencies to take on Japanese talent, speak to the strength of the ties between their people, according to one long-time observer.

Tensions rooted in Japan’s 1910-1945 colonisation of Korea have risen after South Korean court rulings against Japanese firms for forced labour, and amid a perception in Korea that Japan’s leadership has not adequately atoned for its colonial past.

But the popularity of Korean culture and K-pop music is on the rise in Japan, with many fans and artists saying they are not bothered by the diplomatic tension.

“I might get criticized for being Japanese, but I want to stand on a stage and make (South Koreans) know Japanese can be this cool,” said Rikuya Kawasaki, a 16-year-old Japanese K-pop star hopeful who auditioned unsuccessfully in Tokyo for Acopia School.

For schools and agencies, Japan’s music market – the second largest after the United States and bigger than China – is a big prize and many have been on a campaign to recruit Japanese talent.

There’s no shortage of Japanese hopefuls willing to train under talent agencies’ watchful eye, some having left successful careers back home in search of K-pop fame.

“I’ve heard stories about no free time or not being able to do what I want. But, I think all of K-pop stars who are now performing have gone down the same road,” said Nao Niitsu, a 19-year-old college freshman from Tokyo.

Also:

LOS ANGELES: Google has released its ranking of the most searched boy bands so far in 2019. Why now, when barely a quarter of the year has passed? Because, as *NSYNC made famous back in 2000, it’s gonna be May.

So where does the group that just performed at Coachella with Ariana Grande land on Google’s list? At No. 8 – though should they reunite to tour (the jury’s still out on whether a Justin Timberlake-less version would be embraced by fans at large), expect the guys to rise.

Topping the list? K-Pop kings BTS. Their latest album, “Map of the Soul: Persona”, is already among the year’s biggest movers and the guys also made history as the first-ever K-Pop act to be a musical guest on “Saturday Night Live”. On YouTube, their song ‘Boy With Luv’ (featuring Halsey) racked up over 78 million views within 24 hours of release.

In second place: those lovable mop-tops of the 1960s, The Beatles; followed by The Jonas Brothers, Backstreet Boys (who just wrapped a successful Las Vegas residency), “X Factor” alums One Direction and New Kids on the Block. Chinese-Korean boy band EXO comes in at No. 7 while 5 Seconds of Summer round out the Top 10.

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