Japan Supergroup Arashi Believes Their Founder Paved The Way For K-Pop Becoming Global

One of Japan’s longest-running groups Arashi sat down with Variety magazine for an interview on going global and working with Bruno Mars.

| AP

They revealed that they would be making the move to go global before taking a long-awaited hiatus.

Japan’s music industry has been an exclusively local market unlike the K-Pop industry, with the group having absolutely no online presence until recently.

After creating their first social media accounts, they released a documentary series through Netflix as well as three English singles.

Jun revealed that they would be going on this hiatus at the end of 2020 as the leader Satoshi Ohno wanted to take a break from the industry.

They wanted to do something different as way to give back to the legacy of their founder, Johnny Kitagawa.

The deadline of the impending hiatus was what really pushed us to keep focused on doing new things, and held our feet to the first, so to speak, with regards to challenges we can still undertake.

— Jun

They also felt that it was Kitagawa that founded the roots of the global standard that is seen in Asian pop culture.

What you’re currently seeing now with non-Japanese groups as well all really found its roots in the foundational work that Johnny did back in the 1960s.

— Jun

They felt that the standard Kitawaga started years ago have finally started to cross borders in other cultures and countries.

I feel no sense of the kind of tribalism that some people might imagine, but rather a sense of pride that the architecture that Johnny laid the foundations for decades ago is now finally starting to cross borders. Even if it’s not being done by Johnny, per se, the legacy still continues and is alive and well. You can see the flowers taking root in other cultures and countries.

— Jun

He also added that he’s heard BTS’s “Dynamite” quite a few times. While “Dynamite” became the first Korean group to hit No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Arashi’s “Whenever You call” unfortunately did not reach those chart peaks.