How to be a Japanese idol or performer as a non-japanese

Quote from scottykins

Hii! First post to the Tokyohive forum!!

So, I was wondering, how can I become a Japanese performer if I’m not Japanese? It’s my dream.

Based on the non Japanese people I know in JPop you have to do one of these

• Be born in Japan
• Yeet your home country and than apear in a survival show where you than constantly confuse JPop with KPop
• Be a former KPop idol and than say you see no other chance than just re-debuting in JPop
• Be friends to a Japanese idol-trainee and run after him so you end up in the same agency as him
• Be a weaboo and say that your love to anime made you audition at a Japanese music company
• Be a former CPop-idol that thinks their live got ruined after their group disbanded 4 months after debut so you belive your last hope was re-debuting in Japan
• Have your parents move to Japan
• Run away from home after getting bullied and than secretly fly to Japan where you later on join a rockband wich makes you international famous for a few years but after that nobody will remember you if you go back to your homecountry
• Get scoutet by an East European guy who is also the CEO of a Japanese company

I hope this could help 😁

Quote from scottykins

Do you happen to know what companies are accepting auditions right now or where I can find updates and news on new auditions or survival shows

nope

Quote from JiminieKookie

Based on the non Japanese people I know in JPop you have to do one of these

• Be born in Japan
• Yeet your home country and than apear in a survival show where you than constantly confuse JPop with KPop
• Be a former KPop idol and than say you see no other chance than just re-debuting in JPop
• Be friends to a Japanese idol-trainee and run after him so you end up in the same agency as him
• Be a weaboo and say that your love to anime made you audition at a Japanese music company
• Be a former CPop-idol that thinks their live got ruined after their group disbanded 4 months after debut so you belive your last hope was re-debuting in Japan
• Have your parents move to Japan
• Run away from home after getting bullied and than secretly fly to Japan where you later on join a rockband wich makes you international famous for a few years but after that nobody will remember you if you go back to your homecountry
• Get scoutet by an East European guy who is also the CEO of a Japanese company

I hope this could help 😁

Display Spoiler

Just kidding, but this are really the reasons how some fully non Japanese people ended up in JPop

I really want to know who each of these people are especially the before the last one

Quote from nana18

I really want to know who each of these people are especially the before the last one

• The first one is well ... there are a lot foreign JPop-acts who were born in Japan. One example that comes to my mind right now as an fully foreign person would be Weesa from PSYCHIC FEVER. He is half Moroccan and half Korean
• The 2nd one is Xu Fengfan from INI. He yeeted China as exchange student after he realised that he likes Japan more since of all the things he didn't got to experience in China. He stated he should've went back to China after 6 months but than decided to stay in Japan and lives there now since around 2016. One of the big reasons was cause he could openly use the internet and cause he had joined a Kop-dance cover group in his Japanese university. On Produce he really said a few times that he likes KPop so much that he would find it cool to work in that direction. Well he didn't become a KPop-artist but his group is in a Korean-owned company in Japan, he was in Korea with his group, he can speak Korean and his group collabed on a song with a KPop-artist and he is in a tiktok with one of the members of TXT so he somehow got his wish I guess, even tho he is in a JPop group lol
• There are a few who are a former KPop-idol as for example Parkha, Gunmin, Hyeonsu, Yunsol, Taehoon and Kogun of NIK are Korean and most of them were KPop-idols before (Ok, Gunmin is still ina KPop-group besides a JPop-one) and Yoondong, Heecheon and Younghoon from Orbit are also former KPop-idols but the member of Orbit really said they see no other way. The Orbit-member apeard on Produce 101 Japan and opend up that after their KPop-group had disbanded they went to Japan cause "... and than we realised we just had more Japanese fans anyways back with our KPop-group..."
• Thats Guno of BUGVEL. He became friends to his group-member Mahiro back as they were trainees under YG and after Mahiro left YG Guno decided to leave YG too and followed Mahiro. Guno really even said he wouldn't like to lose Mahiro so he wanted to be with him and thats why both first ended up on Produce 101 X and than in a Japanese boygroup together.
• A former trainee of the company LDH who's name is Sam. He is half American and half Polish and in pre-debut songs of the group he was suposed to debut with he got to sing only English lines since he can't really speak Japanese. People said back as he was announced as trainee that he was in Japan cause he openly announced him beeing a weeb made him visit Japan and than he oneday randomly decided to become an musician and so he auditioned. Sam wasn't really liked so many people were quit happy at the end as he announced leaving. The problem on it was that he sung songs on TikTok that contained the N-word, fans asksed him to apologize and he just acted up as if nothing ever had happend. He should've known that this was a bad idea since hes from America, but apparently he gave no fucks
• The moving to Japan thing happend to a lot JPop-idols who arn't Japanese. Examples are people like Win Morisaki (he is from Myanmar but in Japan since he was 12 years old trought his parents. He used to be member in a JPop group for some years but now works as actor and solo-artist) and another one I can think of is Hau from Buzz-er. (IDK when he came to Japan but Hau only ever mentioned that he was born in Vietnam and came to Japan whe he still was quit young but nobody knows when he exactly came to Japan)
• This one here was a rumor over a long time before this guy got his own Wikipedia-article and so people allways had rumored how he even ended up in Japan without having his parents with him cause he was underaged when he came to Japan. But some people still think this rumor might be true but not mentioned on his Wikipedia for maybe some personal reasons, nobody knows. That guy is from Sweden and his name is Yohio, he was quit popular for a while but someday went back to Sweden where he opend up a company and a band he made where he sung Japanese metalsongs but it went very quiet around this dude in the past few years now
• LDH has 3 CEOs, one of them is the East European producer AfroJack who works with LDH for some years now and is the CEO of the European branch now. He scoutet some girls for a new girlgroup and decided to take girls who apeared in different countries on "The Voice". He also put a girl to the group who was in another group of LDH before, but she disliked the idea since the girls are going into a training and she was like not willing to re-do the same procedure of training again and so left the company to redebut as solist somewhere else. I think these girls are curently 3 non Japanese girls where one is white, one asian and one black

Quote from JiminieKookie

• The first one is well ... there are a lot foreign JPop-acts who were born in Japan. One example that comes to my mind right now as an fully foreign person would be Weesa from PSYCHIC FEVER. He is half Moroccan and half Korean
• The 2nd one is Xu Fengfan from INI. He yeeted China as exchange student after he realised that he likes Japan more since of all the things he didn't got to experience in China. He stated he should've went back to China after 6 months but than decided to stay in Japan and lives there now since around 2016. One of the big reasons was cause he could openly use the internet and cause he had joined a Kop-dance cover group in his Japanese university. On Produce he really said a few times that he likes KPop so much that he would find it cool to work in that direction. Well he didn't become a KPop-artist but his group is in a Korean-owned company in Japan, he was in Korea with his group, he can speak Korean and his group collabed on a song with a KPop-artist and he is in a tiktok with one of the members of TXT so he somehow got his wish I guess, even tho he is in a JPop group lol
• There are a few who are a former KPop-idol as for example Parkha, Gunmin, Hyeonsu, Yunsol, Taehoon and Kogun of NIK are Korean and most of them were KPop-idols before (Ok, Gunmin is still ina KPop-group besides a JPop-one) and Yoondong, Heecheon and Younghoon from Orbit are also former KPop-idols but the member of Orbit really said they see no other way. The Orbit-member apeard on Produce 101 Japan and opend up that after their KPop-group had disbanded they went to Japan cause "... and than we realised we just had more Japanese fans anyways back with our KPop-group..."
• Thats Guno of BUGVEL. He became friends to his group-member Mahiro back as they were trainees under YG and after Mahiro left YG Guno decided to leave YG too and followed Mahiro. Guno really even said he wouldn't like to lose Mahiro so he wanted to be with him and thats why both first ended up on Produce 101 X and than in a Japanese boygroup together.
• A former trainee of the company LDH who's name is Sam. He is half American and half Polish and in pre-debut songs of the group he was suposed to debut with he got to sing only English lines since he can't really speak Japanese. People said back as he was announced as trainee that he was in Japan cause he openly announced him beeing a weeb made him visit Japan and than he oneday randomly decided to become an musician and so he auditioned. Sam wasn't really liked so many people were quit happy at the end as he announced leaving. The problem on it was that he sung songs on TikTok that contained the N-word, fans asksed him to apologize and he just acted up as if nothing ever had happend. He should've known that this was a bad idea since hes from America, but apparently he gave no fucks
• The moving to Japan thing happend to a lot JPop-idols who arn't Japanese. Examples are people like Win Morisaki (he is from Myanmar but in Japan since he was 12 years old trought his parents. He used to be member in a JPop group for some years but now works as actor and solo-artist) and another one I can think of is Hau from Buzz-er. (IDK when he came to Japan but Hau only ever mentioned that he was born in Vietnam and came to Japan whe he still was quit young but nobody knows when he exactly came to Japan)
• This one here was a rumor over a long time before this guy got his own Wikipedia-article and so people allways had rumored how he even ended up in Japan without having his parents with him cause he was underaged when he came to Japan. But some people still think this rumor might be true but not mentioned on his Wikipedia for maybe some personal reasons, nobody knows. That guy is from Sweden and his name is Yohio, he was quit popular for a while but someday went back to Sweden where he opend up a company and a band he made where he sung Japanese metalsongs but it went very quiet around this dude in the past few years now
• LDH has 3 CEOs, one of them is the East European producer AfroJack who works with LDH for some years now and is the CEO of the European branch now. He scoutet some girls for a new girlgroup and decided to take girls who apeared in different countries on "The Voice". He also put a girl to the group who was in another group of LDH before, but she disliked the idea since the girls are going into a training and she was like not willing to re-do the same procedure of training again and so left the company to redebut as solist somewhere else. I think these girls are curently 3 non Japanese girls where one is white, one asian and one black

Thank you for your efforts, the Jpop industry semms interesting

Quote from nana18

Thank you for your efforts, the Jpop industry semms interesting

IDK, but Japan compared to Korea is just way more open to have mixed or foreign artists. Most groups in Korea often say their "Non Korean" artists were from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand or Japan and sometimes half American and than there are those who grew up outside of Korea but are Korean where most of them were born and/or raised in an English Speaking country or just had lived for a bit outside of Korea in an English speaking country etc.

Japan is quit different since the amount of foreigner in a group can be quit a lot. Korea for example could make groups like this: 10 member, 2 are Japanese, 1 is Thai, the other 7 are Korean. Another group of the same company could have also 10 member, 9 are Korean but 1 of them grew up in Australia and the other one is a Chinese. Thats how most KPop groups look like. But for Japan a company could have groups like this: 10 members, 8 of them are Japanese, 1 is Korean, 1 is half Indonesian and a quater Fillipino. Another group of the same company could also be 10 members where 7 of them are Japanese, 1 is Fillipino, 1 is half US-American and grew up in the US and the last one is half German, quater French and was born and raised in France till the age of 3.

Some Japanese companies, especially underground girl-idol companies may tend to hide some nationalities to make fans feel more connected. A girl who is half Russian and half Korean and grew up in Germany said in an interview her Japanese company made her come off as half Russian and half Japanese instead of Korean so that her fans would think she was one of them and she didn't quit understood why they did so.

From seeing the Big 3 in KPop, the majority of the foreign members are Thai, Taiwanese, Chinese, Hong Kong or Japanese and some of the Koreans grew up outside of Korea as for example Mark Lee who is from Canada, John Su who is from the US, Mark Tuan who is from the US, Christopher Bang who is from Australia, Felix Lee who is from Australia,... and so on

In Japan there is no such a thing as a top 3 but seeing the artists of some companies you see a big difference

Some Example people:

• Mandy Sekiguchi (GENERATIONS) is born as an American citizen since he was born in New Jersey but he is actually half Nigerian and half Japanese, he came to Japan when he was still a baby
• Alan Shirahama is half Fillipino (GENERATIONS)
• Hayato Komori is half Korean (GENERATIONS)
• Weesa Saiki is half Moroccan and half Korean (PSYCHIC FEVER)
• Rui Yonamine (THE RAMPAGE) is quater Japanese, quater Fillipino, quater Hispanic and quater American
• Likiya Elliot (THE RAMPAGE) is half African-American
• Ryusei Kainuma (BALLISTIK BOYZ) is half Brazilian
• Jesse Masaya Lewis (SixTONES) is half American
• Maito Raul Murakami (Snow Man) is half Venezuelan
• Koji Mukai (Snow Man) is half Thai
• Marius Julius Seriyu Schmidt Yo (ex. Sexy Zone) is half German, quater Japanese, quater Taiwanese. He was born in Germany but grew up in Japan
• Jean Kaito (SUPER DRAGON) is half Turkish
• Yusei Tekoe (Maison B) is half Nigerian
• Hikaru Vasayegh (Maison B) is half Iranian
• Fengfan Xu (INI) is Chinese and grew up in China
• Langyi Deng (WARPs UP) is Chinese and grew up in China
• Mingjun Yu (WARPs UP) is Chinese and grew up in China
• Akina Johnson (FAKY) is half American and grew up in the US
• Taki Saito (FAKY) is quater Japanese, quater Fillipino, quater Spanish and quater Brazilian and grew up in the Philippines
• Guno, realname Jyunhao Wang (BUGVEL) is Taiwanese and grew up in Taiwan but also spend time in Korea before
• NESMITH, realname Ryuta Karim Nesmith (EXILE / EXILE THE SECOND) is half African-American
• Toma, realname Wayan Toma Laksana Nakamura or just known as Toma Nakamura in Japan (OCTPATH) is half Indonesian and was born there aswell and has the Indoensian citizenship but he also has a permanent right to stay in Japan, it's unclear at what age he came to Japan but he seems to stayed long enough in Indonesia so he had fans from there before he joined OCTPATH
• Caelan Moriarty (former member of INTERSECTION) who is half Irish, but was born as a Cuban citizen and lived in many different countries before he came to Japan
• Hau, realname unknown (BUZZ-ER.) is half Vietnamese, has the Vietnamese citizenship and it's unclear when exactly he came to Japan but he mentioned he was young when he came to Japan
• Chanmina, realname Mina Otomai is half Korean, she was born in Korea and grew up in Korea and the US before she came to Japan as a teenager, no clue wich citizenship she got tho but it must be most likly the Korean once since she was born there unless you can have multiple citizenships in Korea
• ...

Than there are also some fully Japanese people who used to live outside of Japan, but I don't remember many cases just a few as like

• Ryoki Miyama (BE:FIRST) who was born in Japan but than spend most of his childhood living in Australia and the US and even as he was back in Japan finished his school by visiting an English school
• Rihito Ikezaki (INI) used to spend some time in Thailand, no idea how long he had been there and if he even knows Thai but he most likly went to an English school there since it's said he knows English but than again many Thai people can speak English too so IDK man