From the past few years it has been evident that more and more Korean Idol Groups are targeting the Japanese market. Before, only BoA, TVXQ and BIG BANG have established their names in the industry but the trend now in the Korean Market is exporting Idol Groups to foreign countries. The primary location of this trend is Japan. Japan, much like Korea is the home of many home grown idol groups but what is the edge of Korean Groups in the Japanese Market?
BoA, TVXQ and BIG BANG are not strangers to the Japanese Music Industry, these three have led and given way for Korean Artists to promote and debut in Japan. The successors of these three are Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, KARA, SHINee, 2PM, After School and recently BEAST, T-ARA and MBLAQ. The success of these groups vary from each other but there is one factor that binds their success, the promotional song. Roughly all these artists have debuted or promoted a remake of their previous hits from Korea like Girls’ Generation’s ‘Gee’ and ‘Genie’, KARA’s ‘MISTER’, SHINee’s ‘Lucifer’, ‘Replay’ and ‘Juliette’ and more Korean hits like ‘BANG!’, ‘Bad Girl’ and many others. Another factor of which is despite having a remake song, these artist strive to prove that they can take on the Japanese market with original Japanese songs of their own. KARA’s ‘Jumping’, Girls’ Generations’ ‘Mr.Taxi’ and 2PM’s ‘Take Off’ are some of the songs that marked the Japanese Music industry.
Although many of the Korean Groups in Japan have achieved quite a lot of attention, sales, praise and respect, it does not apply to all groups. Some of the lesser known Korean groups in Japan are Rainbow, Brown Eyed Girls and The BOSS whom despite had good promotional cycles received less attention from Japanese fans.
With the trend of entering the Global market still intact, more groups are set to debut in Japan. Infinite and B1A4 are no exceptions as they are set to promote in Japan around the end of the year and early next year respectively.
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