Any young artist would be thrilled at seeing one of their songs go viral. It has to feel even better, though, when your track’s success is emblematic of warming relations between two countries with a contentious history.
Twenty-two-year-old artist imase released his fifth single, a shuffling dance track titled “Night Dancer,” in August, and quickly found an audience on TikTok in his native Japan. It was not long after that it began gaining momentum in South Korea, too.
“Night Dancer” then morphed into something bigger: It entered South Korea’s Melon Top 100 Song Chart in late February, becoming the first Japanese song to ever break into a ranking comparable to the Oricon Charts. This achievement led imase on a goodwill trip of sorts to the neighboring country, where he made a special bus-top live video for his hit, chatted with GQ Korea and put on a free show for fans in Seoul.
The song’s success has played out against the ongoing detente of Japan and South Korea — neighbors with a tense geopolitical history owing to the prior’s colonization of the latter. Entertainment choices shouldn’t be the only criteria used for deciphering diplomatic ties — go read the News section, too! — but they do offer clues on how relations shift. Over the past year, South Koreans have embraced Japanese pop culture in revealing new ways.
For decades following the end of Japanese rule on the Korean Peninsula, Japanese media was banned in the country outright. Laws began to soften in the 1990s, with rules against selling all Japanese pop culture creations lifted by 2006. Still, broadcast standards remain that make it near impossible to share Japanese TV shows, movies or songs on Korean airwaves, while featuring references to Japan in your work can prove detrimental. Songs simply including Japanese are banned by certain channels.
The situation has changed drastically in recent years, though, accelerated social media networks unbeholden to broadcast regulations. Older J-pop songs such as Ai Otsuka’s “Sakuranbo” connected with Korean TikTok users, while the ever-powerful popularity of anime grew even stronger. The success of animated films like “Suzume” and “The First Slam Dunk” with South Korean audiences propelled supporting theme songs by rockers Radwimps and 10-Feet, respectively, into streaming viral charts.
The growing fondness goes beyond anime tie-ups as Spotify’s South Korean viral chart is full of stand-alone tracks finding an audience with budding content creators (current breakthrough: a lovey-dovey number from fledgling Japanese band ChoQMay called “I Want to Be Your Lover”).
It goes both ways, too. While South Korean entertainment broke through to Japanese audiences in the 2000s thanks to K-pop acts such as BoA and TV dramas like “Winter Sonata,” there’s long been tension. People held protests outside of Fuji TV’s Odaiba office due to the network having what was perceived as too much Korean content, while the BTS shirt flap of 2018 upset many. It’s far smoother sailing in the Japan of 2023, where newer acts from across the Sea of Japan like Ive and Le Sserafim — groups featuring Japanese members — enjoy sold-out shows and general popularity in Japan without any political-born hiccups.
After a decade defined by unhealed historical wounds and a sense of constant competition on the pop battlefield, the situation between Japan and South Korea has cooled on both fronts. The governments of both have linked closer in recent months (thanks, shared threat China), while both nations have proven in the 2020s to be leading forces in global entertainment — Korea with music and drama, Japan with anime and video games. As imase shows, now is the time for both sides to get to know each other better — be it on the dance floor or otherwise.
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