Why SM stopped focusing on JAPAN's music market for their artists after the success of BoA, SNSD and TVXQ?

Lee Soo Man wants to make China the Hollywood of Asia. That's why. Said so himself.

If I had to guess, changes in Japanese preferences, differences in group concepts and groups not hitting in Japan. I find it a bit weird that they seem to have simply given up.

Lee Soo Man has always been obsessed with China. H.O.T. released a Chinese album in 1997. His infamous phrase "to make China number one" date as far back as a 2007 Harvard MBA talk.

Quote from KaiRismatic

For real??

EXO were for example focused on China with their Chinese album versions but they even stopped doing that after a few years

https://www.allkpop.com/article/2021/02/sm-entertainments-founder-lee-soo-man-states-that-the-k-pop-industry-needs-to-target-the-chinese-market-to-grow-bigger

Yep. Although, if the Kpop ban in China never happened it would be somewhat understandable. But putting your eggs in one basket is never a good idea. He should have kept the push in Japan as well, but I guess in his mind China was the future of Kpop and so he probably had less interest in Japan. I guess for the album sales but to be honest, Japan is the world's 2nd largest music market so I really don't understand the logic behind it either.

BTS happened and everyone wanted a piece of the cake in the new market

Quote from KaiRismatic

For real??

EXO were for example focused on China with their Chinese album versions but they even stopped doing that after a few years

It's not china, it's america

Sm don't even promote their idols in china

Quote from tetetete

what

Well, he wasn't completely off. Just look at how China surpassed the US and is now the biggest market for both gaming and movies. I believe it's only time until their music market become as big as Japan's.

i guess they found the china market more profitable???which is not wrong....the nct units sell so well in china

I think nowadays SM is focusing on the america/western market since that the only market they haven't been successful yet (China already with exo and Japan already been said by OP). Maybe they are curious since afaik they already trying with Boa but the reaction was lukewarm. And knowing that they only can focusing on one market at a time therefore japan market become sacrificial lamb aka half ass promotion.

Quote from killingtime1934

It's not china, it's america

Sm don't even promote their idols in china

EXO had a Mandarin unit until half of it left, and even then, they established a studio to promote Lay in China. And with NCT, they created the WayV unit to focus on that market.

Quote from tetetete

what

He had a group called H.O.T. from 1996-2001 and distributed their Korean music to the Chinese market.

Quote from omnimorphism

Well, he wasn't completely off. Just look at how China surpassed the US and is now the biggest market for both gaming and movies. I believe it's only time until their music market become as big as Japan's.

The problem is China is so unpredictable. Just last year they dropped the bomb by banning Korean idols from promoting there and making lots of restrictions for kpop. It's more of only time until they banning kpop completely from their country including albums to merch.

Quote from centen

EXO had a Mandarin unit until half of it left, and even then, they established a studio to promote Lay in China. And with NCT, they created the WayV unit to focus on that market.

exo m dont exist year ago like lay and his relationship with the group

also wayv drop more english songs than chinese lately

shinee are still active in japan though.

their last release was last year.

and taemin and key have released albums too.

I mean, they still sell out tokyo dome when having a concert or fanmeet.

LSM saw the us market being 3 times bigger than the Japanese market and couldn't resist invading America

It’s so stupid because it’s not like his groups are able to get into the Chinese market due to the hallyu ban so I don’t know what his obsession with it is.

Quote from KaiRismatic

Neither in America tbh

SM is only promoting nct in the west and super m as a project but they are just all nct members but 3 anyway

With the other artists SM is not even trying there

SM has only promoted NCT 127 here and there from Regular-Irregular to Neo Zone but not only the rest of the units haven't promoted on America at all but 127 themselves only really promoted there for like 1 year and a half (3 comebacks) out of their almost 6 years of existence, and with Kick It because of the pandemic they only promoted once there, so they never promoted on America that much to begin with.

yuta is promoting a lot in japan, changmin and boa were on his radio show

Quote from KaiRismatic

Right I forgot sm focused also on Japan with shinee but not with the artists I mentioned

with nct, sm wants to launch a japanese subunit in the future, so they might hold back on the other units.

After 2012 ish Japan was less open to Korean idols on public at least, it was basically a soft ban. They could still tour but the days of kpop groups regularly on tv and music shows was done and overall appealing to public was pretty much over. So they wanted a new cash cow - China. And for the short term it worked. Sm dropped Japan like ex gf and chased after a new girl.

tbh I dont think SM ever really focused on any market despite saying it much

They were always all over the place with no real focus

Quote from KaiRismatic

And then we have jyp focusing like crazy on Japan with twice and it worked well lol

Yup JYP basically took over usually SM turf and never looked back lol.

The thing is SM tried to get a foothold back but they were so half assed about it. RV did a basic promo and left. RV could've become their next big Japanese group because of their quirky concept and music.

Now I think Aespa won't even bother with Japan. Japan is a legacy for SM rather than a market they could focus on, probably might never go full in like they did with Boa TVXQ or SNSD.

SM can do half ass and still sell well in Japan, so maybe they feel it’s not worth it to put more effort and $$ in it? NCT 127’s Japanese release had the usual half assed Avex treatment and still finished #22 on the year end Oricon chart. And they seem to be doing well enough to have a dome tour (altho that got postponed due to COVID restrictions.) They certainly still do a lot of special and targeted content for Japanese fans.

I think it’s very interesting because they haven’t walked away from the market, because they continue to pencil in Japanese releases (Baekhyun, Shinee and NCT 127 last year with an RV on the way and it seems like a missed opportunity to not so NCT Dream..)

Quote from KaiRismatic

Even exo had potential in Japan but SM gave up just like that

Do you think aespa won't get any Japanese album in the future?

I think they will but it will bea quick cash grab mini album with little promo, more of a formality than an actual push to enter the market from the days of SNSD and TVXQ

Quote from TheBotter

They didn't. They just followed the money and for the most part their current crop of groups from 3rd gen had poor sales and digital performance in Japan.

Why invest further after say Cookie Jar? Or whatever? They weren't successful, their views aren't really good from Japan and none of them perform well on any Japan charts so its like flushing money away.

This is untrue. Unless you promote you’re not gonna see better results. Exodus, then the LMR Japanese single they released was actually some of the best results for a kpop debut single for that time plus being the youngest group to have a dome tour without a single Japanese album they had everything going for them in 2015.

It was lack of proper exposure in Japan NOT interest.

Maybe they decided to spread out their business instead of focusing on only one market. But it's pretty weird, I reckon.

TVXQ didn't hit it big in Japan from the get-go, but they were consistently releasing singles in the country and touring until the success eventually happened. In 2007 alone, they released 10 singles + 1 full album. So saying they are not investing in Japan because their current groups are flopping there is kind of a stretch IMO.

They might start focusing on Japan again with RV JPN comeback + potential/rumored aespa & NCT Dream debuts.

Quote from NEO

Maybe they decided to spread out their business instead of focusing on only one market. But it's pretty weird, I reckon.

TVXQ didn't hit it big in Japan from the get-go, but they were consistently releasing singles in the country and touring until the success eventually happened. In 2007 alone, they released 10 singles + 1 full album.

They might start focusing on Japan again with RV JPN comeback + potential/rumored aespa & NCT Dream debuts.

Super Junior and EXO proved that you don't have to promote non stop in Japan to be able to sell out dome tours. Meanwhile, some of SM's artists that focused too much on Japan ended up losing momentum in korea or at least jeopardising it. So I guess, in a way, it's still better to focus on building your career in Korea which is an easily accessible market internationally and offers better chances at making it in other markets, and then get to have highly lucrative concerts in Japan as an international artist.

Quote from chounim

Super Junior and EXO proved that you don't have to promote non stop in Japan to be able to sell out dome tours. Meanwhile, some of SM's artists that focused too much on Japan ended up losing momentum in korea or at least jeopardising it. So I guess, in a way, it's still better to focus on building your career in Korea which is an easily accessible market internationally and offers better chances at making it in other markets, and then get to have highly lucrative concerts in Japan as an international artist.

Until 2014, TVXQ had more consistent releases in Japan because it was always their most lucrative market. Hell, they even had a concert in the Nissan Stadium. In their case, I think they were never able to focus more heavily on Korea ever again because their momentum got heavily affected by that huge scandal and everything was always on lock in Japan for them.

But given SM's method of giving one Korean comeback a year to their acts, they definitely should be able to give their groups more promotions in Japan.

Quote from KaiRismatic

Just look at how jyp gave to twice and Itzy, Korean and Japanese comebacks in the same year

SM has been giving only one Korean comeback for years now. It's not something new.

It's interesting to think that after Yunho's enlistment, not even TVXQ has been promoting or releasing singles as much anymore.

Granted, they've been affected by the pandemic and their main power was touring in the country, but SM's strategy has def changed.