Feature: K-Pop stardom lures Japanese youth to Korea despite diplomatic chill

JYP Entertainment

02/05/2019 24:00

(Repeats item first published on Wednesday; no change to text)
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    By Ju-min Park
    SEOUL, May 1 (Reuters) - 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.
    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.     
    "They're nuts about BTS over there in Japan," said Lee
Soo-chul, board member of Seoul-Tokyo Forum, a private
foundation with members of diplomats and business executives
from both countries. 
    K-pop groups, and veteran Korean musicians, are selling out
concert halls throughout Japan, said Lee, a former head of
Samsung Group's Japanese operations. "There is no Korea-Japan
animosity there."
    
    DEEP FREEZE
    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.
    "It will be good if Japan and South Korea will get along
through music," Hasumi told Reuters during a break from her
Korean language class. 
    Some Japanese transplants have already made it big. The
three Japanese members of the girl band Twice helped make the
group the second most popular act in Japan, after BTS.
    Their success has prompted JYP Entertainment  035900.KQ ,
the South Korean agency backing Twice, to plan the launch of an
idol group comprising only Japanese girls.   
    JYP declined to comment for this story. 
    Agency officials are reluctant to discuss their success in
Japan and the infusion of Japanese talent, wary of fuelling a
politically charged backlash, industry sources said. 
    
    HARD ROAD TO STARDOM
    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.
    During a visit to Seoul paid for by her mother, herself a
die-hard BTS fan, Niitsu auditioned for 10 agencies and was
accepted by five.    
    Debut is elusive, unlike in Japan where it is easier for
idols to get a start and then can hone their skills and work on
their appeal with the fans. 
    Miyu Takeuchi said it wasn't a difficult decision to leave a
10-year career with a top idol band AKB48 back home in Japan to
sign with the K-pop agency Mystic Entertainment in March as a
trainee. 
    Even with her experience, she has seven hours of vocal
training a day and two-hour dance lessons twice a week, plus
early morning Korean lessons.
    She is not allowed to have a boyfriend but she says she has
no regrets, despite the fact there is no guarantee she will make
it.    
    "I don't know how long my training period will be, but it
has to reach a point where my coaches and management company say
'Miyu, you are a professional!'"
    ($1 = 111.1600 yen)

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 (Reporting by Ju-min Park; additional reporting by Kwiyeon Ha
in TOKYO and Minwoo Park in SEOUL; Editing by Jack Kim and
Lincoln Feast.)
 ((ju-min.park@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5650; Reuters
Messaging: ju-min.park.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))