Hallyu Wave in Japan

Korea’s Hallyu Wave has spread all over the world, especially in South East Asia. This is no coincidence and is part of the Korean’s government attempt to deploy their own soft power. As such, it is no surprise that K-pop has grown to be part of Japanese popular culture in current times.

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\This was evident upon entering any Tower Records store in Japan. In my few weeks here, I’ve visited Tower Records in Shibuya, Shinjuku and Hiroshima and in each one of these stores, there has always been at least a single floor or section dedicated for K-pop. These sections were also usually pretty crowded, especially when I visited the Tower Records in Shibuya when Twice, a K-pop group, were releasing new songs. There were many people there buying multiple copies of albums, buying Twice related merchandise or collecting preorders for the extra goodies that are included such as a plush for your bag and IC card stickers. Most of the people in line seemed to be high school students and young adults, as there were some people still in uniform. Outside of the building, there were multiple people selling or trading photocards of each member from the group, further showing how much K-pop is ingrained in Japanese popular culture.

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In my two weeks in Tokyo, I spent an afternoon in Shin-Okubo, the Koreatown of Japan. The fact that a Koreatown exists is already a sign that the Hallyu Wave has entered Japan and the number of people visiting this short street signals the immense popularity of Hallyu Wave in Japan and Asia. Just on this short street alone, there were countless idol stores, Korean Fried Chicken stores, Korean snack stores, Korean street food stores and Korean cosmetic stores. Similar to Tower Records, most of the people on this street were students and young adults, but there was a larger amount of older people in their 50’s and higher, although this may just be due to the fact that stores other than K-pop stores exist on this street.

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Given that both places above were designed to showcase K-pop, it is no surprise a lot of K-pop fans will flock to said locations. As such, it was surprising to see evidence of the Hallyu Wave in places such as Harajuku and especially Miyajima. Harajuku is the less surprising of the two, as it is catered to an audience of middle school girls, who are part of the K-pop audience as well. Within Harajuku, stores selling BTS and Twice merchandise can be found, as well as a shop that sold specifically photos of idols both in J-pop and K-pop, which I found very interesting. The biggest surprise was in Miyajima, which was when I found capsule machines that sold Twice related merchandise as seen in the picture above. Miyajima is most definitely not a K-pop focused tourist destination, as such I was shocked and had to get a picture of these machines in Miyajima. The fact that these machines exist suggests that there is an audience for Twice and potentially K-pop. As Miyajima is a popular tourist destination not only among international tourists but also for Japanese tourists, it suggests that there is a Japanese audience for these machines and as such a Japanese audience for Twice and potentially K-pop in Japan, evidence of Korea’s success in deploying their own soft power in Japan.

Atkins, E. Taylor. “Millennial Japan as dream factory.” A History of Popular Culture in Japan: from the Seventeenth Century to the Present, Bloomsbury Academic, 2017, pp. 203-223.

Jung, Eun-Young. “ Korean Pop Music in Japan: Understanding the Complex Relationship Between Japan and Korea in the Popular Culture Realm.” Introducing Japanese Popular Culture, edited by Alisa Freedman and Toby Slade, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018, pp. 180-191.