Rookie boy groups including TREASURE, TXT, and ENHYPEN are accelerating their activities in Japan.
First, YG Entertainment’s new boy group TREASURE has announced their official Japanese debut in March. With 4 out of 12 members being Japanese, the local popularity of TREASURE is high even before the group’s official debut.
The team has been owning a first place in mainstream Japanese music charts with title songs from their series of THE FIRST STEP albums, which are “BOY”, “I LOVE YOU”, “MMM”, and “MY TREASURE.” Their first full-length album released on the 12th THE FIRST STEP : TREASURE EFFECT also entered second place on the daily chart.
It is noteworthy that out of 1 million copies of THE FIRST STEP series sold, 26% of the sales were from Japan, which is equal to those from Korea. With an already established fandom in Japan, the group is expected to be even more popular after their official debut.
The brother group of BTS has also begun gaining popularity in Japan. TOMORROW X TOGETHER (TXT) has remained at the top of the Oricon Daily Album Chart for four consecutive days with the Japanese full-length album STILL DREAMING which was released on the 20th. The cumulative sales so far totaled more than 80 thousand copies.
TXT also received great attention from the theme song of the TV animations series World Trigger Season 2, “Force,” as they pre-released it on the 10th. The group will continue with their active promo activities on TV Asahi’s popular music program MUSIC STATION which will air at 9 p.m. KST on the 29th.
ENHYPEN is also garnering a fandom even before their official debut in Japan. A high percentage of voters from Mnet’s survival program i-Land were Japanese and the group also has a Japanese member, Niki. Their popularity is something that has already been objectively proven by numbers. The Korean debut album BORDER : DAY ONE has charted the first on the Oricon Daily Album Chart and on the Weekly Chart as the second. Furthermore, it topped iTunes Japan’s top album chart as the title song “Given-Taken” reached the peak of Japan’s LINE Music Real-Time TOP100s.
Their current promotional activities are also rather active. ENHYPEN has announced their appearances in Japan’s local TV shows such as Hayadoki, AsaChan, and CDTV LIVE! LIVE!.
While the popularity of K-Pop in Japan has previously died down, it is once again on fire. Three K-Pop teams, BTS, TWICE, and SEVENTEEN were named in the top 10 sales rankings for artists in Japan. Furthermore, as NiziU was introduced by JYP Entertainment, the power of K-Pop in Japan is taking fans like a syndrome. Hence, large entertainment agencies are expected to continue to strategize for Japanese activities.
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