Day6 was treated like a forgotten stepchild by JYPE, but it has become JYP's new darling.
Although they have all re-signed on 2022 so it won't make as much money to JYP as other acts since the members will get a greater share of their earnings, it will make JYP kind of proud that only he has a band who is worth anything, while other acts are all stuck with idol acts.
Day6 did not have a concert at the KSPO dome, aka the Gymnastics Arena, which is kinda mandatory for acts trying to advance to the higher stages . It had a stage at the Seoul Jazz Festival (which is not really about Jazz but anything which is not part of KPop or IU style of music) held at that location.
But it now jumps to the Gochuck, to be held near the end of the year.
I think the entrance of Fujii Kaze to the Gochuck, before any Korean bands could do that, alarmed them and they felt the need to go there before Japanese bands entered it first.
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Taylor Swift has her own band accompanying them, and although her name is the name which is billed, her band did contributed to a great deal of her return to power after BTS and Hybe foolishly gave up their world domination.
And her successes appears to have turned the music trends in favor of the band style of music.
Since Korea does not have a band worth its name, the Korean listeners of 20s and 30s , jaded with idol music which ruled Korea 2007-2024, turned into Japanese bands, just like Japanese listeners, jaded by a long domination of Johnny's male idols and various flavors of AKB female idols, turned into KPop.
Until last year, Japanese acts rarely performed in Korea because they had little demand. When Jpop was popular they were not allowed to perform in Korea, until Kusanagi Tsuyoshi , using the moniker Chonan Gang (which is how the Chinese characters forming his name is read in Korean), of SMAP released a song in Korean, written by Tsunku.
That led to a couple concerts of Arashi in Korea in 2006 and 2008, but since KPop exploded around that time, Japanese acts did not perform in Korea since it was not profitable.
Yoasobi had the first concert in Korea by a Japanese act for quite a long time late in 2023, which opened the floodgate for Japanese bands to operate in there. Convinced that there are enough demand for Japanese band music in Korea, they began to include Korea as one of their stops in their Asian tours (Japanese bands are strong in Taiwan and Southeast Asia).
Yoasobi will have a 2 day concert at the Inspire Arena in Incheon, where Day6 will have a concert next week at the same time the Senior Singer has a concert in the Soccer Stadium. The Senior Singer, if not traveling to Japan with an actor (2022), usually guest stars in one of the year end concerts (last year she guested in a concert by Crush), and since she is not available in Day6's concert at Incheon because of her own concerts , she is likely to guest star in the year-end Gochuck concert of Day6.
Still there is only a single Day6, against a huge squad of Japanese bands all eager to make money in the heart of KPop.
On the battle of bands, the Japanese certainly has an advantage, something which is unlikely to be redressed soon since all the vocals went into idol or trot.
Sooner or later, there will be a Japanese act performing in the highest performing fields of Korea, completely reversing the KPop boom and Japan having the last laugh after all.
