K-Pop in Japanese Music Market Shows Steady Growth In Revenue

On February 16, Oricon released a revenue trends report regarding K-Pop artists’ music softwares and their sales. According to the report, the total revenue of Japanese music market has been steadily decreasing in the past five years, but K-Pop artists’ Japanese music software sales skyrocketed, reaching 24.4 Billion Yen in revenue. 

Girls’ Generation and Kara contributed greatly to such exponential growth in K-Pop artists’ revenue in Japan. Girls’ Generation’s “Girls Generation” and Kara’s “Super Girl” each made about 2.9 Billion Yen and 2 Billion Yen in revenue. K-Pop artists’ revenue in Japanese music market increased for three consecutive years since 2008. Compared to February 2010, K-Pop revenue in Japanese market grew 22.3%

Oricon also reported that Korean artists now consist of about 7.8% of Japanese market, compared to 6% in 2010. This shows that more K-Pop artists made their debut in Japan. In fact, more idols and other artists are heading to Japan. 2PM, Jang Geun Suk, Beast, and SHINee recently made their official debuts in Japan, and IU and Lee Seung Gi will soon join them shortly.

Moreover, 10 K-pop single albums (of artists like TVXQ, Big Bang, Girls’ Generation, Kara, Jang Geun Suk, T-ara, and 2NE1) appeared at the top of Oricon’s Weekly Chart throughout last year. This is the most frequent K-Pop appearance on the chart as no.1 in the history of Oricon.