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Koreans singing in Japanese?


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heuno3030



Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Posts: 13
PostPosted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:28 pm Reply with quote
The first time I heard about a korean singing in japanese was BoA. She sang one of the ending themes to Inuyasha, I looked her up and there it was - Nationality: Korean.

This doesn't seem to be anything new though, it's been going on for quite some time. I still don't understand why many Korean artists choose to release singles in Japanese but not Japanese to Korean.

Would someone care to clarify?
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holangjai



Joined: 02 Aug 2008
Posts: 60
PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 11:42 pm Reply with quote
maybe it's because singing in Japanese would make money? I do believe that when Korean singers make it in Korea, there's a limit to how much money they can make. To expand and start singing overseas, in the case of Boa and Tohoshinki (DBSK) they decided to sing in Japanese, not just because it makes money, but it just sounds right. I'm assuming many japanese artists who try to release something in Korea are left with a low profit, if any due to the lack of exposure and the small amount of sales in general. In Korea they sell albums at a small amount, with Big starts like Shojo Jidai (Girls Generation), Big Bang and DBSK being the only ones who sell over 100k. The majority of other artists from Korea see sales in the lower thousands. It would be smart for them to expand and try to break into the Japanese industry for music. Not much profit can be made in reverse I suppose.
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nerriesantra



Joined: 14 Sep 2011
Posts: 19
PostPosted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 5:52 am Reply with quote
Most Korean artists are expanding their market to japan so they learn to sing Japanese songs as well.. It's just a matter of marketing really
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m0x



Joined: 20 Oct 2011
Posts: 37
PostPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2011 1:57 am Reply with quote
It's not just Koreans going for Japanese. A lot of Southeast Asian artists perform in multiple languages. That is, of course, after their fame peaks out in their home countries.

The one Korean→Japanese singer I can think of is Lena Park, who performed the OP for Romeo X Juliet. Born in Los Angeles, California... performs in English, Korean and Japanese, signed to American, Korean, Japanese and even Taiwanese labels.
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SamuraiSx



Joined: 04 Jun 2011
Posts: 12
Location: Serbia
PostPosted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 3:04 am Reply with quote
I only love a few of korean artists when they sing on japanese.
among them is MBLAQ.
their speaking is the best ~and feel ~ great ^^
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belalaner



Joined: 13 Jun 2013
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 7:23 am Reply with quote
yeah you are right.. most korean sings in japanese
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6248
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 11:05 am Reply with quote
I do know Younha, BoA, TVXQ/DBSK aka Tohoshinki, and JYJ can sing in Japanese.

There are other K-pop artists/group that can sing in Japanese:

-Beast/B2ST if you watch the Japanese version of Shock. 4minute has also sang in Japanese too.

-Girls Generation (SNSD) can sing in Japanese too, I watch some of their Japanese version of their songs on Youtube.

-FT Island

-CNBlue

-Infinite

-2NE1

-BigBang

-IU

-SS501 and Kim Hyun-joong I believed a few days ago topped the Oricon chart

Lee Min Ho is another Korean singers that can sing in Japanese and his first Japanese album also topped the Oricon chart.

There are others like After School, SECRET, KARA all have sang in Japanese.
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Lost_Shy_One



Joined: 26 Jun 2013
Posts: 26
Location: Nowhere
PostPosted: Thu Jun 27, 2013 9:42 pm Reply with quote
Well 2PM's song Take Off was used as the first Blue Exorcist ending and since I like K-POP, I was into the song. [Take Off is in Japanese]
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6248
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Mon Jul 15, 2013 9:30 pm Reply with quote
I almost forgot U-KISS, they can also sing in Japanese too. Would love to see one of their Japanese song end up being use for anime intro or closing.
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fishiiie



Joined: 17 Jul 2013
Posts: 6
PostPosted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 3:12 am Reply with quote
Actually, from the above, as you can tell, quite a few Korean artists have songs in Japanese.

HOWEVER, I'd like to note that you don't get a lot vice versa -- that is, Japanese singing Korean. In fact, you get quite a lot of non-native artists singing in Japanese -- but not Korean. WHY, you might ask? Simply because Japanese is an easy language to learn. Its intonations, sounds, syllables, etc makes it really simple. ^^

Korean, on the other hand... not so much. Same thing for any other Asian language - ESPECIALLY Cantonese. They're rather hard languages.

Japanese = one of the most, if not the, easiest language to learn. Razz

I might've gone off topic, but hope ya'll find this helpful Anime hyper
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RichardFromMarple



Joined: 10 Feb 2013
Posts: 38
PostPosted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 2:54 pm Reply with quote
I had thought Korean was fairly easy as far as Asian languages went, not having tones & a phonetic writing system.
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6248
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 11:15 pm Reply with quote
Sorry to go a bit off topic. Well, we've seen Korean singing in Japanese (and have seen Korean singing in Chinese and English). But what about when a non-Koreans/foreigners sing in Korean. For the first time in history, a western pop group from UK, Little Mix became the first western/UK pop artists to sang in Korean. Little Mix did also record a Japanese language version of the same song BTW. Now the question is: Will we ever see a J-pop artists sing in Korean or doing a Korean-language album (or a Chinese language album) since K-pop is now getting more popular worldwide and Little Mix doing a Korean language version of one of their song could probably inspire J-pop artists to try doing a Korean debut? Because I recalled Crystal Kay has said she wants to debut in Korea as a K-pop singer. I would love to see her do that like how BoA had a strong debut in Japan, I want to see a J-pop artists debut in Korea. I would love to see Yuna Ito, and Sonim both Zanichi Korean to try singing/debuting in Korea. Both Sonim and Yuna Ito could get more global exposure if they do a Korean debut since Japan doesn't want J-pop artists to go global, so how can J-pop artists can get global recognition and get more fans, do a Korean debut. It would be awesome to see EXILE, Arashi, Hey! Say! Jump!, AKB48, Morning Musume, Buono!, C-ute to sing in Korean and see them on music shows like Inkigaiyo, Music Bank, M! Countdown, MBC Music Core, and Simply K-pop showing off their singing talent and they get more exposure outside of Japan and Asia since K-pop is now getting popular outside of Asia more then J-pop. For the J-pop singer Kylee, I'm certain that her US album may not do well just like her Japanese songs didn't do well and I'm not sure about Europe, so maybe IMO she should debut in Korea, who knows maybe the Korean would like her more then the Japanese and she could collaborate with K-pop artists like Ailee. Maybe Sony Music Korea or SM Entertainment give Kylee a strong Korean debut. I like to add we do have non-korean singers in K-pop like we have Zhang Liyin. the K-pop group, F(X) has Victoria and Amber both Chinese. Miss A has Fei and Jia also both of them are Chinese. 2PM have Nichkhun, a Thai-Chinese American. Super Junior-M, Chinese subunit of Super Junior has Henry Lau and Zhou-Mi both of Chinese descent and last but not least, Kris, Lay, Luhan, and Tao of EXO-M all Chinese. There's also Cross Gene which has a Japanese and a Chinese member.

We've already seen K-pop singers singing in Japanese and Chinese, when will we see a J-pop singers do a Korean-language album or debut in Korea? When will we see a J-pop group or singer doing a Chinese language album?
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6248
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 10:26 pm Reply with quote
stephen12 wrote:
Hmmm.. as far as I know.. some Koreans singing in Japanese is DBSK.. I don't know if Suju and EXO.


EXO doesn't sing in Japanese, but Super Junior definitely sing in Japanese. Their full-length album, Hero was #1 on the oricon chart.
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6248
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Thu Feb 20, 2014 9:50 am Reply with quote
sandracollin1985 wrote:
As we know there is a big market for entertainers in Japan. Koreans are famous today in terms of performing that is why in order for them to expand their market and earn more most of their agency would require them to learn songs in Japanese so Japanese fans would patronize them.


Well there are K-pop band that aimed at Chinese market like EXO and Miss A and they don't target the Japanese market at all. I want to remind people that the Chinese/Taiwanese music market is smaller then Japan and Korea. I wonder why is that?

Anyway, I would love to see J-pop group try doing a Korean and Chinese-language album. I mean K-pop idols/artists can sing in Chinese and Japanese, I wonder when we will see J-pop doing a Korean and Chinese language album.
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poonk



Joined: 05 Jun 2008
Posts: 1490
Location: In the Library with Philip
PostPosted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 1:33 am Reply with quote
mdo7 wrote:
Anyway, I would love to see J-pop group try doing a Korean and Chinese-language album. I mean K-pop idols/artists can sing in Chinese and Japanese, I wonder when we will see J-pop doing a Korean and Chinese language album.
Not to come off as offensive, but I get the impression that they don't "need" to break into the Korean market. The Japanese market is big enough to support Japanese artists, it seems.

Quite honestly I always prefer to hear artists sing in their original language. I never find myself listening to Japanese versions of the K-pop hits I love. So I can't imagine I'd like it the other way around either.

P.S. An interesting footnote: J-pop idol Gackt released Jūnigatsu no Love Song (December Love Song) in Japanese, English, Korean, and Mandarin, the last being a really beautiful duet with Wang Lee Hom. Best version of the song in my opinion. Their harmonizing at the end is amazing-- Lee Hom really brings it. And Johnny's J-pop duo Tackey & Tsubasa released their single Venus in Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, and Thai.
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