Girls’ Generation Contributes to the Success of K-pop in Japan


On February 16th, Oricon, a company which reports music sales in Japan, announced that Korean music CD and DVD products have seen the largest market scale increase in Japan yet. Though sales in the music disc marketplace have been continually decreasing the past five years, sales of Japanese music discs by Korean artists rapidly increased in 2011 and reached a record high of 24,470,000,000 yen.

The total sales from Girls’ Generation’s album, “Girls’ Generation” (sales in 2011: 2,960,000,000 yen), and KARA’s album, “Super Girl” (sales in 2011: 2,080,000,000 yen), were a drastic 22.3% increase compared to last year’s sales during the same months. Since the survey began in 2008, sales by Korean artists have increased each year. From 2009 (before the advance of KARA and Girls’ Generation to Japan) to 2011, the sales share of Korean artists in the Japanese market rose by 4.8% and increased the sales base by 2.3 times. In 2010 alone, the market share grew from 6% to 7.8%.

After 2010′s whirlwind Japan debuts by Korean girl groups KARA and Girls’ Generation, 2011 saw many male artists making their Japan debut. These artists included 2PM, Jang Geunsuk, SHINee, Beast, and others. A total of ten singles and albums from Tohoshinki, Big Bang, Girls’ Generation, KARA, Jang Geunsuk, T-ara, 2NE1, and more reached number one on 2011′s weekly rankings for music sales. This was the highest number of first place rankings by Korean artists since the beginning of album rankings in 1970, exceeding the previous record of five in 2008.

Furthermore, in the ranking for yearly album sales, Girls’ Generation’s “Girls’ Generation” (642,000 copies sold) and KARA’s “Super Girl” (451,000 copies sold) both entered the top ten. Sales by artists also reached a new high, with KARA (4,930,000,000 yen, 4th), Girls’ Generation (4,050,000,000 yen, 5th), and Tohoshinki (2,660,000,000 yen, 9th) in the top ten of total yearly sales.

2011 Korean Artist Album Ranking Top Five

Rank

Copies Sold

Album Name

Artist

Sale Date

1

642,054

Girls’ Generation

Girls’ Generation

6/1/2011

2

450,595

Super Girl

KARA

11/23/2011

3

293,674

Tone

Tohoshinki

9/28/2011

4

277,306

Girl’s Talk

KARA

11/24/2010

5

148,761

Hoot

Girls’ Generation

12/22/2010

Source: Oricon, Soshified

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