JYP, Sony Music Japan join hands to launch a boy band in Japan

JYP Entertainment has joined hands with Sony Music Entertainment Japan to create a boy band in Japan. This will be the JYP’s second collaboration project with a Japanese entertainment company following the launch of Japanese girl group NiziU last year. Unlike NiziU, a nine-member group composed of all Japanese girls, the new boy band will be a multinational one.

Participating virtually in a press conference in Tokyo, Japan on Monday, Park Jin-young, head of JYP Entertainment, expressed his expectation for the new group, saying he will head to Japan to find new talent. JYP and Sony Japan agreed to debut a new boy band in March 2023 after discovering aspiring talent not only in eight Japanese cities, including Tokyo, Sapporo, and Okinawa, but also in Seoul and New York.

NiziU’s two singles released after their debut topped the Oricon singles chart. JO1, 11-member idol group debuted in Japan last year through an audition program titled “Produce 101” by CJ E&M, is also gaining huge popularity in Japan.

Idol groups from Johnny & Associates, which is dominating the Japanese boy band market, have released songs written by Korean composers or danced choreographies by Korean choreographers. Considering the trend, there will likely be more collaboration projects between the Korean and Japanese pop music industries.


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