The Korean Wave has taken a new turn, with K-pop singers inviting their foreign fans to Korea rather than just heading overseas to stage concerts. Spearheading the new trend is the three-member boy band JYJ.

The group met 7,000 Japanese fans at Seoul Trade Exhibition and Convention Center in southern Seoul as part of an event dubbed “JYJ Membership Week,” which also featured photographic and video-based exhibitions of the band.


It was the first time that a Korean singer — solo or group — has met such a large number of foreign fans in the capital. As the venue was not a concert hall and had no seating facilities, the attendants had to stand during the two-hour show.

C-Jes Entertainment, the band’s agency, booked over 3,500 hotel rooms in Seoul, Incheon and Suwon, and arranged 250 buses to accommodate the Japanese fans. “[JYJ] organized the event to repay fans’ love,” Baek Chang-hoo, the agency’s president, said. “We’ll keep coming up with plans to create fond memories for fans.”


Credit: English Chosun