Saito Eisuke on spreading Asian entertainment to a global market (2 of 2)
(This is part 2 of a Finders magazine article series. Please check my translation of part 1 for the full context. )
In this part of the series, music industry insider Mr. Saito Eisuke lays out his theories of why K-Pop has been able to attack the global music market and how Japan could reach the same heights. I agree with some of what he says and think he misses the mark in other places but it’s an interesting perspective and one that we don’t often get to see in English when it comes to K-Pop, J-Pop, and the global market.
There are two important things that I think K-Pop has done to reach the global market that I do not think it’s possible for a country like Japan to accomplish in the same way. Mr. Saito highlights the first 1) which is having a corporate monopoly structure in place that allows for the easy sharing of best practices among talent agencies as well as providing funding, access to distribution platforms, and other things.
The second is something that I’ve been poking at for a long time but rarely see discussed in other places, which is 2) the creation of “K-Pop” as a closed entertainment bubble. (Mr. Saito references this in part 1.) The bubble is facilitated by the corporate monopoly but goes far beyond business practices to myth-making and the creation of dedicated fan practices across the industry. This closed ecosystem operates with a highly evolved kayfabe that encourages fans to consider themselves “industry experts” and to put real money into things like chart positions, sales numbers, and “brand rankings” like hundreds of thousands of mini-talent managers across the globe. These fans are the target audience of oblique public relations articles like this one from The Korea Times.
What Mr. Saito never hits on is the fact that what “K-Pop” is selling is not music… or idols. “K-Pop” is selling Korea as a brand and it’s selling itself as entertainment--professional wrestling for people who prefer dancing to choke holds. (Which is not to say that Korean idols and the Korean idol industry don’t also produce great artists and great music, because they very much do. It’s not just not the main focus of the people pushing “K-Pop” as a brand and, to be honest, as “K-Pop” has exploded, the quality of the art being sold has really tanked. Again see part one for more discussion.)
Japan has had great success in exporting genre specific acts like Sigh (heavy metal), Perfume (dance pop), and the Pizzicato Five (alternative/indie) using the method he describes below of slow growth via word-of-mouth. (And we’re now seeing companies like the venerable Johnny’s & Associates reaching out to their existing global audience with things like concert videos on demand). This is something that my guest on Episode 42, Patrick St. Michel, has also discussed at length on his excellent newsletter. Success on the mainstream American pop charts for Japanese artists may be out of reach but should that really matter? As Mr. Saito says, Japanese artists have won Grammy awards and they have gotten critical recognition and built loyal fan bases both in America and around the world. Does it matter that they aren’t competing with Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga on the Billboard charts?
Do the Billboard charts even matter outside of the gamified “K-Pop” pro-wrestling ring?
One final thing to note is that Mr. Saito points to the emergence of the Chinese entertainment industry as something to keep an eye on. I agree completely and would direct you to episode 43 for more information.
As always, this is meant for personal entertainment purposes only. Do not copy or reproduce in any way. I am not a professional translator and do this for language practice and for fun. Please click through to the original article (linked up top) to see the charts and graphs, which are worth a look!
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Looking back at the struggle of Korean record companies to successfully launch BTS globally, furthermore the “biggest difference” with Japan [Serialized] Methods of introducing Asian entertainment to the world (2)
In this article, we’ll look back at how SM, YG, and JYP (Korea’s “Big Three Companies”) and Big Hit (who launched BTS) created contemporary Korean pop history and look into “what is the record industry in Japan today lacking.”
In general, there’s the assumption that “advancing to the global market by Japanese artists” fundamentally only refers to the American market, on the other hand it’s thought that in most cases business success can’t be limited to Japan. But in part one, looking at the example of K-Pop gaining popularity in South America, we see that America and Europe aren’t the only foreign markets.
Interviewer: Yoneda Tomohiko; Jinbo Yuki
Article: Jinbo Yuki
Saito Eisuke
After working for the Western music division of Victor Music Company (today’s Victor Entertainment) he was transferred to the Japanese music promotions department. He worked with the Southern Allstars, Takahashi Mariko, Agawa Yasuko, Hamada Mari, and others. He also worked planning EZO’s American debut, TBS show Ikasubanndo Tengoku, Nippon Cultural Broadcasting’s “Miss DJ”, Fuji Television’s All Night Fuji, among other things. He worked as assistant director of the promotional department, business planning, Taishita Label Music Company (Southern Allstars’ label), commercial cross marketing and so on. In 1991, he joined the board of Amuse Inc. as the head of the international division. He launched “AMUSE Hong Kong”, “AMUSE Taiwan”, “AMUSE Beijing”, “AMUSE Seoul”, and so on and signed Kaneshiro Takeshi, BEYOND, Sandy Lam, Karen Mok to management contracts. He helped plan and produce things like the Shanghai Television co-production with AMUSE “Chinese Star Search” and so on.
In 2001, he became a board member of e-License (today’s NexTone) and director of the House of Culture of Japan in Paris. In 2005 he founded entax. He participated as a producer for the Asia Content Center and opened the Korean division. He worked on dramas like the Jang Geun Suk vehicle Mary Stayed Out All Night and the Kim Nam Gil vehicle Red and Black.
In 2013, he established the Copyright Protection company “ONE ASIA MUSIC” in Taiwan (e-Lisence and SPACESHOWER contributed financing) and at the same time founded “Beijing China Sixth Vision Company'' in Beijing, China. He then worked as a producer for BTS in Japan.
In 2020, he joined Fortune Investment Company as a deputy general manager and today works as an advisor to several Chinese companies.
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Building the foundation for K-Pop’s global expansion, the historic Great Transformation of the 1990s
This time, we’ll begin with Korean popular music history. What I mean is that I think readers will want to know the history of: “How did K-Pop conquer the world?” So while at the same time that BTS are an excellent group we need to pin down this point: “How did the Korean entertainment industry business model succeed?”
Until a certain point in Korea, a type of music similar to enka or kayoukyoku called “trot” was very strong [note: the most similar music in an American context would be from songwriters like Burt Bacharach, Dolly Parton, or Carole King]. In 1992 a three-person R&B~Hip Hop group debuted called “Seo Taiji & Boys” who took the country by storm and changed the substance of Korean popular music.
There’s one more important figure: music producer Kim Chang-Hwan. He can be seen as something like “Korea’s Komuro Tetsuya” [note: in an American context think maybe somebody like Nile Rodgers]. When they were active at the beginning of the 1990s, there were many more American military bases than there are today and American R&B and Eurobeat were a big hit at clubs. Out of the acts that Kim Chang-Hwan produced, the biggest hit was a male duo called CLON (클론), then there was a singer-songwriter who became a national icon, Kim Gun-Mo.
Following on from this, there’s the man called the “President of Culture”, a singer-songwriter, variety show host, producer, businessman: Lee Soo-Man. In 1995, he founded SM Entertainment (he also had a previous SM project founded in 1989). The artists from this agency are famous in Japan like TVXQ, BoA, Girls Generation, Super Junior, and so on.
He had hits with boy group H.O.T and girl group S.E.S. and then in 1998 he tried to bring S.E.S. to the Japanese market but unfortunately it was a big miss. Then they decided, “Let’s properly work with Japanese entertainment companies.” So they linked up with AVEX and Yoshimoto Kogyo and started a Japanese affiliate (SM Japan). Then at the beginning of the 2000s, they had their first Japanese hit with BoA and following her was TVXQ.
On the other hand, in 1996 YG Entertainment, the famous agency of artists like BIGBANG and BLACKPINK, was founded. The founder was Yang Hyun-Suk, a former member of Seo Taiji and Boys. From their early era they were known for the strong influence of American R&B and Hip-Hop.
Furthermore, the same year, JYP Entertainment, the agency that would be later known for acts like NiziU, 2PM, and TWICE, was founded. These three companies (SM/YG/JYP) would become the driving force of Korean entertainment. Looking at Japan, it’s kind of like Johnny’s & Associates, Horipro, and Amuse.
Compared to SM and YG, JYP has comparatively more old school artists. In their early years, they had artists like the girl group Wonder Girls and male solo artist Rain ( 비) who both debuted even in Japan. The Wonder Girls and Rain both had American tours but unfortunately neither hit it big. But they didn’t say, “Oh darn we failed.” Instead it was, “A hit will come from accepting the challenge and not giving up.”
Even today, when YG debuts a new artist or when J.Y. Park makes a move, Japanese record companies are in the position of begging, “Please let us get in on it!” but unfortunately most of them only learned Japanese systems of project management. As a Japanese person myself, I’m saddened at this state of affairs.
Then at last BTS’s agency Big Hit Entertainment (in 2021 they changed the name to HYBE) enters the scene. Established in 2005, founder Bang Si-Hyuk had worked as a songwriter and producer for JYP. At the beginning, Big Hit provided music production for JYP artists. The story from before and after BTS’s debut is told in the previous installment.
Finally, this isn’t limited to HYPE but is something that the Korean entertainment world does completely differently to Japan. Generally speaking, they place importance on “growing their business via the Internet.” For example, even new artists will spend ¥15 million on a single music video (MV). Today in Japan that’s unthinkable. You can understand the importance of MVs with only that.
In addition, they also proactively appear on music shows on Japanese television and use the live video application “VLIVE” (in partnership with NAVER). HYBE has also launched the platform “Weverse” in partnership with NAVER, which contains a paid fan club function as well as e-commerce function. HYBE also joined with the entertainment company CJ E&M to form a new record label (BELIFT LAB). In recent years they’ve also acquired groups beyond their own company’s artists from SOURCE MUSIC came the six member girl group GFRIEND and PLEDIS Entertainment provided the 13 member boy group SEVENTEEN.
For Japan’s entertainment agencies, things tend to end with “it’s amazing just to be listed (on the stock exchange)” but developing also means actively accepting investment and developing joint ventures. All of these things layered together form the monster company called “HYPE”.
Until now, when speaking of a “giant platform and entertainment company” that’s Amazon and Yoshimoto Kogyo in Japan, where each have created a stir. But entertainment companies have the advantage over platform companies because they have content prepared by the artists and talents but HYBE may be able to achieve both.
Still, in Japan, even if we wanted to do the same thing and begin to solicit investment there are too few people who are able to do it. To put it bluntly, nothing has changed in the Japanese entertainment world in 40 years. BTS videos have been played 500 million times on VLIVE, which I touched on a bit previously. For Japanese record companies and talent agencies, how many people are able to craft a strategy like, “in A country we expect this many fans and in B country we’ll do this.” This being the case, it’s natural that other countries will want to work with Korean entertainment companies rather than Japanese ones.
What the Japanese Music Industry is Lacking
I strongly feel that the Japanese music industry has fallen into a certain type of authoritarianism. There is no end to the people who don’t want to sign a contract with an artist unless they are at a well known record company or talent agency. But even at those record companies and talent agencies, the number of directors who can tell big artists, “Isn’t it better to do more of this?” or, rather, the number of powerful directors who are “more distinguished than the artists” is steadily decreasing.
At the end of the day, this leads to a lack of responsibility like, “It’s not my fault I didn’t get a hit” or “I brought in a well known producer from outside the company and it was still no good.” Unless these circumstances change, I don’t think Japanese companies can compete with Korea.
Additionally, there’s a large possibility that Chinese entertainment companies, which have been steadily advancing, will surpass Korea. They have financial power and the domestic market is massive. Furthermore, there are people around the world with Chinese roots.
But, I would like you to think back once again on something. BTS and the many other K-Pop idols have the strategy, “the first foreign success is Japan”. For everybody working in the Japanese music industry, don’t treat BTS and HYBE as a special case. I’d like you to be inspired to believe that we can do it too.
Big Hit’s founder Bang Si-Hyuk thoroughly discussed, “Why didn’t Wonder Girls and Rain make it big on the global stage?” with his older brother figure J.Y. Park. On the other hand, in Japan we kept the secrets of “Why did Perfume and BABYMETAL make it big overseas?” under lock and key. This is completely different from Korea.
Of course, rather than going abroad yourself, I think there’s also the idea that you can do your best in Japan and be discovered by the world market. Japanese anime and anime songs have been able to grow this way. However, it’s necessary to research the best ways to develop distribution and other business practices. Something to be aware of is that you cannot deal with every country in the entire world at the same time in the same way. Whether it’s America, Europe, Asia, or somewhere else, you must carefully check your strategy.
There have been many Japanese artists who have tried to make it on the global market but unfortunately most of them were unable to find success beyond the borders of Japan. Artists that I was in charge of like heavy metal band E.Z.O. and Hamada Mari also attempted it but as far as what you could call success, there was just a Grammy award (for New Age album) for the synthesizer player Kitaro.
To begin with, in America, which we could call the “home” of R&B, pop, and rock, it’s very difficult to win. You can easily find amateur performers and singers who are better than our Japanese exports and it takes a lot of money to get played on the radio.
Speaking from my own experience, my examples are a little old but personally I think we should look again at, “Japanese musicians expanding to the European market.” Previously, English producer Chris Thomas, who worked with the Beatles and Pink Floyd, took notice of the Sadistic Mika Band and there’s the Plastics who had released an album with London-based label Rough Trade before they’d signed to a Japanese record company. I was associated with the Plastics in my Victor records days.
To expand on the discussion of Perfume’s overseas expansion, they aren’t a group that was suddenly thrust on the general public. Instead, a club hit would grow into increased YouTube or Spotify streaming numbers and I think there are parts of this method of success in reaching the global markets that are still valid today. The Korean method of success is not the only one. There may be a more Japanese method of doing things.
In any event, horizontal collaborations between musicians and record company staff alike are extremely important. From here on out I’ll be anticipating the challenges of a new era and the birth of new hits.