TOKYO (Kyodo) — A South Korean pop music scene in Tokyo’s Shin-Okubo district is attracting a younger type of Japanese fan than the previous South Korean television drama boom.
Groups of female fans are often seen waiting on a street in the Shinjuku Ward district for performances at the K-pop music hall Seichi, which has been offering three stages a day of young Korean musicians since it opened in April.
The hall, with a capacity of about 200 people and meaning “sacred place” in Japanese, hosts both South Korean and domestically formed K-pop acts.
It is located in the basement of a multiple-tenant building on a street lined with Korean restaurants in an area known as Korea town.
“I think this place is a culture base to sustain the Korean boom,” said Chu Kwang Ho, 56, manager of Seichi.
When ROTI, a Korean quintet which made its debut in Japan, and ONCE, from South Korea, took the stage, the hall resounded with cheering in Korean.
ROTI and ONCE performed also at a charity event sponsored by local Korean shopkeepers in mid-June at a park in Shinjuku Ward to support the reconstruction of northeastern Japan areas hit by the March quake and tsunami.
A 24-year-old female company worker from Saitama Prefecture who had joined the event said, “K-pop fascinates us with quality songs and dynamic dancing.”
In the early to mid-2000s, “Winter Sonata,” starring Bae Yong Joon, known in Japan as “Yon-sama,” and other South Korean dramas seized the hearts of mainly middle-aged Japanese women.
Korean pop culture fans are younger, said Lee Kun Haeng, 45, manager of a local shop selling goods related to K-pop stars including KARA, Girls’ Generation and Tohoshinki.
“The main customers were in their 50s or older in the past. An increasing number of women in their teens to 30s have been visiting our shop since K-pop got popular in Japan,” he said.
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