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 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 colonization of Korea have
risen after South Korean court rulings against Japanese firms
for forced labor, 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.
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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, 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!'"
(Reporting by Ju-min Park; additional reporting by Kwiyeon Ha in
TOKYO and Minwoo Park in SEOUL; Editing by Jack Kim and Lincoln
Feast.)
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