A translation of the article from the September issue of GQ magazine.

GQ September Issue ‘The Real TVXQ Was In Japan’ CRITIQUES

TVXQ sings “I got you~ooo, Under my skin,” and dances. When the buttons on the shirts that cling onto their bodies cannot handle their powerful moves and burst, U-Know Yunho’s well-developed and chiseled pectoral muscles are shown. Fans from all over Korea, who may have had ill feelings towards the long stretch of Japanese activities, act as though the group had never left and stare at their TV and even go up to the TV screen and stroke it. I’m talking about the comeback stage of <Spell-MIROTIC> that happened after the album’s release last December. Fans found something a little odd about TVXQ during this stage. Although the five members’ faces were the same, it was as though their faces had been stuck on someone else’s body. This was because of their ‘muscles’.

TVXQ’s thin and muscular bodies are completely different from SM Entertainment’s preceding idol groups. The direction that the members of TVXQ are headed is being influenced by the Japanese activities they have been carefully and diligently doing. In Japan these days, their is a ‘Hosomacho’ or ‘thin muscle’ trend blazing through the nation. The biggest reason for this trend is because the majority of young Japanese women prefers the thin muscled hosomacho look over the heavily muscled gorimacho (gorilla macho) look.

What am I talking about? There are probably going to be some people who tell me that this trend has been around for a while with the majority of singers in Johnny’s Entertainment and with the majority of males in Tokyo having a thin muscle body structure. But what they are talking more about skinny guys who look as though they have muscles because they are skinny, not the ‘thin muscle’ look. But to think that TVXQ is just one of the many hosomacho groups is a big mistake. This is because the popularity of Tohoshinki, as they call themselves in Japan, is so great and out of this world that it cannot be fully comprehended or understood in Korea.

If we divide the dominating Japanese male idol groups into three categories, the first would be ‘role Lolita’, groups comprised of pretty boys, the second would be ‘Yankees’, groups comprised of members who have a bad boy vibe to them, and the third would be the TVXQ style. The TVXQ style’s popularity can be properly felt in Japan’s host clubs. Koreans may connect the words host or hostess with adult clubs and see these words with a negative outlook, but to many young, handsome and popular college students in Japan, it is the most preferred part-time job.

Different from Korea’s hosts, Japan’s hosts serve only alcohol and there is a different term for those who provide sexual intercourse and they are called ‘Urisen’. In these host clubs that can easily be found in Shinjuku’s Gabukicho area, the pictures of the hosts in the clubs tell women what kind of style each host is. Before, most of the people in the pictures copied the style of Johnny’s Entertainment’s idol groups. But now, at least one or two hosts in every club very conspicuously copies the style of one of the members of TVXQ.

In this area, there was once a time where the most manly people were nabe (a girl dressed up as a guy or a trans gender female). with their thin, pretty bodies. But now many Japanese women are asking for the hosomacho style, men who are not only pretty, but are also manly, and who are not only skinny, but has muscles. The TVXQ wind is blowing through the clubs of Gabukicho.

Since many Korean idol groups are popular not only in Korea but all of Asia, many Koreans may think that TVXQ’s popularity is similar to that of other celebrities. Shall we delve deeper to see just how popular TVXQ is in Japan? TVXQ’s most recent Japanese single sold almost 200K copies in one week. This sets TVXQ with the second highest first week sales in their agency, Japan’s biggest company Avex.

The only group above TVXQ is the 14-member group Exile, the group that received the highest award from the Japanese Record Association and the group that even creates big changes in society with their raging popularity. This means that TVXQ’s first album sales beats that of the female leaders of Japanese pop, ‘Amuro Namie’. ‘Hamasaki Ayumi’ and ‘Koda Kumi’. This is a feat that not even popular star ‘BoA’ has achieved. These are the kind of top singers we can compare TVXQ to now.

But I am not basing their popularity on album sales only. TVXQ has set a huge record of being on Japan’s representative music chart ‘Oricon Chart’ as 1st on weekly single sales six times already. Since the year 2000, the number of stars who have attempted to enter the Japanese market is enormous, with stars such as S.E.S, Sugar, Park Junghyun, Rain, Lee Soo Young, Se7en, SS501, Ryu Siwon, Park Yongha, Lee Byunghun, Yoonha, K, Sunmin, Big Bang and Super Junior.

But the only singers who have reached first on Oricon’s weekly single charts are BoA (once) and TVXQ (six times). TVXQ also succeeded in being invited to hold two concerts in July at the Tokyo Dome which is considered the Dream Stage, even to Japanese singers. This has never been completed by any other Korean singer before.

But the Bible sends a message, “Prophets do not get respect from their homelands.” For some odd reason, TVXQ’s outstanding achievements do not seem to be reported or praised in Korea. Also, it is sad to see that TVXQ’s success of almost selling 200K copies of their single was buried under the dispute between SM Entertainment and three members of TVXQ (Micky Yoochun, Xiah Junsu, YoungWoong Jaejoong) and the disbandment rumors that followed it.

They are not something something ’sama’ (like Yonsama) who were washed ashore by the Hallyu Wave. No, they even asked all Japanese media agencies not to associate the word ‘Hallyu’ with them (even asking for news articles to be pulled down if the word was used in relation to them), to show that they wished to succeed with their own powers and were able to become widely known in Japan. TVXQ had to erase their nationality in order to gain the acceptance from the Japanese population.

The rumors of disbandment at the height of their popularity has become a hot topic of conversation in the Japanese music industry. Japanese media has been created a daily special to update everyone about what’s happening in Korea with regards to TVXQ, and this has caused Avex’s CEO to come forward and give an explanatory statement to clam the Japanese fans. He announced that TVXQ’s Japanese activitees would continue regardless of what was happening in Korea and he decided to announce this himself. This has never happened before.

It seems as though the way Korean agencies set the income division when writing up the contract has surprised the people of Japan who are used to the Japanese agencies’ way of working that gives monthly salaries that may change. Since the first official event TVXQ held after the disbandment rumors came out was in Japan and not Korea, the source of such rumors, with the Fireworks Festival Concert, the Japanese media was more vigilant when it came to reporting the issue than the Korean media.

Therefore, whether they wanted this or not, this case has opened TVXQ up to a wider fan base including the younger generation. YoungWoong Jaejoong, who is the most popular amongst the members in Japan, was even seen in a paparazzi scandal magazine that only extremely famous Japanese celebrities appear in.

Although the situation in Korea is a complete mess, TVXQ might be able to take one step further in their Japanese activities through this happening. But they must once more grab hold of their Korean fans. There are already rumors that the ‘light fanbase’ is ready to embrace the new 6 member male idol group SM Entertainment is preparing.

As faithful as Korean fans are, they are also able to turn their backs on a singer very quickly. If even the fans who used to embrace them turn their backs on TVXQ, the group will become the prophets who are not respected in their homelands.

Source: [GQ Magazine+DNBN]
Translation credits: jeeelim5@tohosomnia.net
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This is indeed an interesting article to read. I somehow agree on some of the points the writer made about DBSK’s popularity in Japan. PERSONALLY, I really think that the kind of recognition they have in Japan is very different from Korea. In Japan, the media highlights the talent and accomplishments they have made to achieve the status they have now whereas in Korea, they are still dubbed merely as an “idol group” by the Korean media. Although they do report about DBSK’s achievements, the media focuses more on how popular they are and how many fans they have and not really much on how talented the boys are.

Regarding the part where the writer talked about DBSK’s Korean fans, I’d have to say that I strongly disagree to his/her opinion. I don’t believe that Cassiopeia can easily turn their backs on DBSK. Yes, there maybe some  DBSK fans who can easily change “idols” but I believe that those are very minimal and thsoe are the fans who only like DBSK because of their looks and their presence in the Korean entertainment industry and not because of who they really are as individuals. Majority of Cassiopeia are not like that. Maybe they started liking DBSK because of their outward appearance (like what most DBSK fans experienced) but have come to love the boys for who they are as persons -loving them desipte their imperfections- through the years. Cassiopeia is the most amazing fanclub I’ve ever known. Yes, some can be crazy at times but their loyalty, support, and love for DBSK is beyond words. There’s no fanclub out there that can match what Cassiopeia had done (and is willing to do) for their favorite artist. I believe that whatever happens to DBSK after this lawsuit, Cassiopeia (together with the rest of DBSK’s fans) will stay beside the boys because their love for DBSK is not only based on seeing them all performing together as a group.

DBSK fandom is very different and distinct from other idol groups’ fandom. The bond we share is not merely that of an artist-fan relationship. Ours is more special and indescribable. What we share is something that people who are not part of this fandom would never understand. DBSK possesses some magic that sucks us, their fans, in and we are unable to escape forever. I believe that we – Cassiopeia, Bigeast, and International Fans – will always remain as DBSK fans even when we grow old because all five members have captured us and left a mark in our lives that no one and nothing can ever erase.

ALWAYS KEEP THE FAITH. HOPE TO THE END.