SME on SNSD’s Japanese success and future plans

SNSD has certainly taken Japan by storm, garnering over 22,000 fans in their first showcase last month on the 25th. Top broadcasting companies have cast their spotlights on SNSD, who have headlined ‘NHK News Watch 9′ and landed on the pages of various major newspapers such as ‘Yomiuri‘ and ‘Sankei Sports.”

Their first single, “Genie,” even managed to rank in the top 5 of Oricon’s daily chart, competing with other popular stars like Arashi and GLAY. Not only that, but “Genie” showed continued signs of success, steadily climbing the charts into the 4th position on the 2nd day of its release, and reaching 2nd by the 11th day. The single has managed to sell 45,000 copies as of last week, making it the most debut singles a foreign female artist group has ever sold in Japan.

Representatives of Oricon commented, “With many K-pop girl groups entering the Japanese market this year, the true stars of the phenomenon have been leading a good start.”

There’s also been talk in the Japanese media about SNSD making a possible appearance at “NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen,” a music program run by NHK every year on December 31st, inviting only those that best represent that year. SNSD is even a nominee for the ‘Excellent Pop Artist 2010′ award at the ‘Billboard Japan Music Awards.’

Pop culture critic Lee Moonwon reasoned, “It’s because SNSD is expensive. The Japanese recognize the high quality of Korean music and SNSD has managed to capitalize on that.” He continued, “SNSD entered Japan with high quality marketing tactics used by other Hollywood top stars such as Mariah Carey and Madonna.”

The representative of SM Entertainment Japan, Nam Soyoung, revealed, “The majority of Japan’s mass public considers SNSD as artists. They are not just figures of interest but of admiration. Standard Japanese girl groups target the male otaku fanbase and focus on cute concepts. SNSD, on the other hand, has gone for the more luxurious image. About 80% of their Japanese fans are female, and Japanese females stand at the center of their mass culture. Because of such reason, the popularity of SNSD will continue to rise.”

Meanwhile Kim Youngmin, a representative of SME, stated, “We were able to make such a decision because we knew that SNSD’s popularity had reached Japan through internet sites such as Youtube.”

Regardless, there’s also been talk that SNSD was taken over to Japan because their image was already exhausted in Korea. Regarding this, representative Nam Soyoung stated, “No, we waited for the right time. Korea was used as the base in order to form that luxurious image out of their popularity. We waited for it to ripen before we took them overseas.”

She concluded by hinting, “Should everything go accordingly, SNSD will be able to start a country-wide tour in Japan next year.”

If SNSD are able to appear on Kōhaku Uta Gassen and win an award at Japan’s Music Awards, a tour concert seems like a reasonable long-term goal. The girls are set to release “Gee” in Japan on October 20th.