YG Entertainment's artists at the launching ceremony for YGEX in Japan on July 21, 2011. [YG Entertainment]

Yesterday was probably a memorable day for YG Entertainment's chief Yang Hyun-suk. He stood next to Avex Group Holdings CEO Masato Matsuura for the launching ceremony of YGEX, a label by major record label Avex and YG, which was attended by around 400 media outlets. In some 20 years since visiting Japan to appear on a TV show as a member of his own band Seo Taiji & Boys, Yang established an important starting point for the activities of his agency's artists in Japan.

YGEX is the result of Avex's needs being in line with those of YG's. Avex had been slow with its cooperative relationships after three members of quintet TVXQ left its Korean agency and cooperating with YG, managing the top talents in Korea such as Big Bang and 2NE1, will be a good card for them to not miss out on the recent boom of Korean idol groups in Japan. On the other hand, YG's Se7en and Big Bang had promoted themselves in Japan in the past but not for extended time periods like other agencies. Hence it could be said that by cooperating with Avex, YG has set up a bridgehead which would stabilize its artists' activities in Japan. For YGEX, what will be important is not the fact that YG has established a label in Japan solely for its artists but whether the synergy between the two companies will bring about actual change in the Japanese music market.

YG Entertainment's artists Se7en and 2NE1 [YG Entertainment]

Nonetheless, it is still interesting that YG and Avex chose to set up a separate label for YG's activities in Korea. And this is not because this proves the high marketability of K-pop in Japan. Yoshimi Wataname, head of management and A&R of musicians under Avex, called YG's music 'YG-POP' and said of it, "Their music is original and Avex is an agency which made dance music popular and so is YG. I think the music YG will produce when collaborating with Avex will be fun." This means that rather than changing YG's music to suit the Japanese market, the new label will allow YG's artists to emphasize on the characteristics of YG's music. And actually, the first single that YGEX will release will be 2NE1's "I am the Best," their single recently released in Korea with just the lyrics changed to Japanese. Yang explained, "Instead of making songs that'll suit the Japanese music industry, we'll pursue our activities focusing on our original songs." In the past, BoA topped the Oricon chart with a song by a Japanese composer and Se7en too mostly promoted music made by songs made in Japan so this is almost the complete opposite method. It proves that in ten years, Korean music, not Korean singers, has come to have a market of its own in the Japanese market.

That is why it seems that the launching of YGEX will be sort of an experiment on the new generation of the Hallyu. Yang will not only have his artists promote themselves in Japan with music made by YG but plans to have them continue to "focus their activities on Korea." It means that they will create content in Korea, make it known through YouTube and not have his artists stay overseas for extended periods of time. This would not be possible if he did not have the confidence that Korean pop music will be able to spread overseas. There used to be a time when it was thought that even the most popular Korean singer would not be able to make it big in the Japanese market. Ten years ago, great Korean singers came about in Japanese systems. And now, they will try to see success with their K-pop identity, in exactly the same way they are seen in Korea. Will Korean popular music be able to see eye to eye in cooperating with Japanese agencies?

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