K-Pop Goes The Neighborhood

The neighborhood known as Shin Okubo has long been the main home to Tokyo’s foreign community, particularly for people from other Asian countries.

In the past several years it has also become a mecca for aspiring pop stars from South Korea trying to cash in on the Korean Wave sweeping Japan.

A number of small clubs and other venues host K-pop concerts, usually in front of Japanese women who later line up for autographs.

Japanese residents of the area have become more vocal in their opposition to the businesses that have sprung up as a result of the interest in K-pop, according to the Yomiuri newspaper.

Mainly at issue is the practice of K-pop singers standing in the street in front of venues soliciting passersby to come to their performances.

To fans of K-pop, this is simply another facet of what Japanese call “fan service.” A major part of being a pop music fan in Japan is being able to meet artists face-to-face. However, to non-fans it is a nuisance because the young K-pop artists can be very persistent.

The director of a local merchants association told Yomiuri that the streets now are packed with women in their teens and 20s, making it difficult for local residents to go about their normal everyday business. Moreover, K-pop venues place large signs in the middle of the district’s narrow streets and there is more garbage and litter.

About one-third of the merchants association’s member establishments are operated by South Koreans, and the director says that these members follow the rules but many new businesses have not joined.

The local government has stepped up surprise inspections of these new venues in order to instruct their operators in the proper way of conducting business, but the main problem is that the operators seem to change hands quite frequently.