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Korean Pop Music Concert Draws Thousands of Japanese Fans


K-Pop group SISTAR members attend a press conference prior to performing at the "M Countdown" show in the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, April 22, 2015.
K-Pop group SISTAR members attend a press conference prior to performing at the "M Countdown" show in the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, April 22, 2015.

Thousands of fans turned out near Tokyo to see their favorite "K-pop" stars in a display of how popular South Korean pop music is in Japan despite years of chilled relations between the two countries.

Groups such as INFINITE, Block B, GOT7, Supernova and SISTAR were among those performing at the indoor Saitama Super Arena at the "M Countdown" concert.

Organizers expanded the musical event into a cultural and economic exhibition, with dozens of South Korean companies setting up booths to showcase food and other products outside the concert venue Wednesday evening.

"I think they really care about us. I can feel it," Supernova fan Koyori Watanabe, 30, said of the K-pop stars.

Korean pop has made major strides in the Japanese music market, the world's second largest after the United States, in the last five years.

The structure of South Korea's relatively small music market means the singers, known for their young, cool image and distinct dance choreography, search for success abroad.

FILE - South Korean rapper Psy performs during a public screening before the 2014 World Cup Group H soccer match between South Korea and Russia, in Seoul June 18, 2014.
FILE - South Korean rapper Psy performs during a public screening before the 2014 World Cup Group H soccer match between South Korea and Russia, in Seoul June 18, 2014.

Rapper Psy's "Gangnam Style," which became a global YouTube hit in 2012, fueled international interest in other Korean singers, who want to follow him onto the mainstream pop scene.

"We've been since our debut conveying a very clear character that is energetic, healthy and relentlessly vigorous. We want to stick to that," Dasom, of the dancing SISTAR girl group, told Reuters.

Relations between Seoul and Tokyo have cooled over what South Korea sees as Japanese leaders' reluctance to atone fully for their country's colonial wartime past.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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