The difference between Japanese and Korean music shows

We all know that the goal for some groups is to perform their newest songs on as many music shows as possible in Korea and sometimes they even went to the show twice with the same song. A lot of the time people wondered compared to this why many Japanese artists don't perform on Japanese shows that much and even wonder why a lot of the time Japanese music shows don't even award artists like in Korea.

Here are the main differences between Japanese and Korean music shows:

What music shows do exist?

• Korea has M Countdown, Music Bank, Show Champion, Pops In Seoul, Show! Music Core, The Show and Inkigayo
• Japan has Music Station, CDTV, Melodix! Premium, Hey Hey Neo, Love Music, Shibuya Note, Buzz Rythm, Music Blood, Kanjam Kanzennen Show

How do these shows work?

• Most likly on a Korean show you will have an MC who introduces to the viewers and most likly also explains which artists to expect performing on the show. Sometimes the artists get a few seconds in the show to tell the people that they are thankfull for having the chance to perform on the show.
• On Japanese shows the MC explains to the viewers what artists are performing. In most shows the MCs are also interviewing the artists on for example what they think about the people listening to their music or when they charted well what they the artist thinks on that etc. A few times the MC on a Japanese show can also ask personal stuff as for example when a female singer got pregnant and stoped performing for a year and the MC wants to know how she feels being back on stage and maybe even asks her on how life is going since she got a child.
• Another thing that a few Japanese music show do is talking a look at the curent charts, introducing a new musicvideo or looking back at artists from the past 30 years and so on.

How does the set looks like?

• Of cause each music show has their own place to film. Outside of Pops in Seoul every Korean show tries to customies the set for each artists and even brings a theme to the decoration that might suits the song that is going to be performed wich means you most likly won't see a set being used twice or for other artists.
• On Japanese shows its most likly to only have 1 set wich will be used for an entire year or even sometimes longer than that. Depending on the show you will also either see darkish stages like black floors and walls with a pink logo of the show or everything is bright and very colorfull. Many set's don't even use much decorations and don't customies it for the performing artists.

Show-wins?

• Besides I think Pops in Soul every show in Korea has a kind of winning-system that lets a artist that performed in the show win. On M Countdown for example a few points for the endresult to win are also coming trought online-voting.
• Japanese music shows don't do music-show wins. One or two shows pic at the end of the year from all artists who performed people and give them awards selected by the categhory sorted as for example by boygroup, girlgroup, band,... and so on

Who are you going to see on these shows?

• Korean music shows mainly focus on showing boygroups or girlgroups. Secendary most are soloists on these shows but a lot of the soloists don't go to music shows since they arn't dancing and tend to sing more indie or ballad stuff wich often tends to be not suitably enough to perform on a show. Many people who are soloists and tend to sind indie or ballad stuff still get a lot chanced to be on TV trought other types of TV-shows. The least most seen are bands on music shows. Also you will see a lot artists apearing on most or even all music shows and sometimes they even perform twice on the same show.
• On Japanese music shows you get to see a big variety of different artists. No mather if a soloist, a band or a boygroup, everyone gets a chance to perform and since many soloists don't dance in Japan the shows can go from someone standing on stage singing all by themself to a band who plays with 6 instruments ending in a dancing girlgroup and going back to a soloist who is just standing on stage. But that dosn't means anything since there are also a ton of soloists who dance (for example Misako Uno, Nissy, Daichi Miura, NOA, Shinjiro Atae,...). Different to Korea many Japanese artists and idols don't atend every music show, wich can cause the confusion for oversea fans that their fave artist isn't promoted enough or thinking their agency might got beef with the production company that makes these shows. That's not true. The fact is just that there are so many artists and idols in Japan who constantly release new music, so shows want a big variety to not bore the viewers by showing the same people over and over again. But there is also cause of this a slighty problem, that often causes that many underrated artists can't even get on those shows sometimes and many agencies don't even try to get their artists on stage when they arn't popular in Japan.

Foreign artists apearing on these shows?

• Yes in both countries you can see foreign artists on music shows but it's not that comon to have that many foreign artists apearing on Korean shows. The most foreign artists you will see on Korean shows are Japanese groups and bands as for example JO1 on M Countdown in 2021 or GENERATIONS on Show Champion in 2018. It's more rare to see artists from other countries. The amount on how many foreign artists apear on Korean shows is not that high, you can excpect 1 or 2 foreign artists perform every year on Korean music shows.
• On Japanese shows the amount of foreign artists is a bit higher but you also don't see foreign artists that often. The chances for a foreign artist to apear on these shows is especially high for Korean artists apearing followed by US-American artists. It's not that high but you can expect around 5 or 6 foreign artists performing each year on Japanese music shows.

Fan-chants?

• Before Covid hit us the Korean music shows had a audience of people watching them. Most of the time people specificly came for a artist they love and so they invented a kind of fan-chant where they say specific things or the member-names in a specific order. The more popular, the louder the fan-chant
• Japanese people tend to be a bit more reserved on music show. You won't see that many lightsticks, not much people taking pictures, not many people waving their hands in the air, not many people shouting and applauding the artists during their performances and the least you expect is them going very crazy for their most favourite artist on stage. Fan-chants are also kinda rare in Japan. You won't hear it when you watch a Japanese group or artist performing on stage. Someone yelling "Kazuki, Juji, Kai, Masato" is not a thing like when people in Korea yell "Junji, Jae, Dowoon, Hyujin" etc. for the performing artist (Although rare events happen where people freak out like crazy, see the live performance of DA PUMP-U.S.A where people fan-chant for the group)

If you have any questions (most likly about Japanese music shows) than feel free to leave a coment