That's old story. She evolved since then. I actually thought using the sm formula nj would have debuted far sooner in japan. Like at last in novembre / january period but like even sonner with the success of ditto/omg and promote the japanese versions in japan in the spring of 2023 but nah. She focused on Billboard and on Lollapaloza but indeed she also got the Summersonic show so i guess she didn’t completely neglected the japanese marker which is pretty smart but still. She barely promoted NJ there on tv shows or smth in japan.
So cleary i think she wants NJ to be perceived more as international artists and world stars who would then visit japan and establish a solid base there but not as a korean kpop group trying to focus primarly on breaking into the japanese market. She knows that with international success NJ status will be higher in JAPAN.
That's why I think her move in japan before the full album release is probably because Hybe prefered to push LSF first in march and get them coachella etc. I don’t think it's because MHJ scheduled so. The girls were already training hard during the winter for their upcoming project. Why would they be training so hard for 2 single release 5/6 month later. Of course they were training for a full album comback and then probably a world tour. But for whatever reason the plans were changed.
