Changmin Talks About TVXQ's Approach To The Japanese Market And Performing At Tokyo Dome

During his recent appearance on tvN’s “Life Bar” with EXO’s Xiumin and NCT’s Mark, TVXQ’s Changmin opened up about performing at Tokyo Dome and how TVXQ approach to the Japanese market differed from other groups.

While talking about a variety of topics, Shin Dong Yup asked Changmin how it felt to perform at Tokyo Dome. He replied, “It sits about 55,000 people and is normally used as a baseball stadium. Seeing all those seats filled with people who are there to see us and enjoy our performances fills me with delight and pride every time.”

NCT’s Mark shared that he had attended one of TVXQ’s Tokyo Dome concerts as a member of SMROOKIES before he made his debut and said, “Because the concert was in Japan, TVXQ was speaking to their fans in Japanese and Changmin’s words really stuck with me.” He explained, “He talked about going from a regular kid to someone who could stand on such a stage and perform, and those words were so memorable.”

Super Junior’s Kim Heechul then brought up that TVXQ had not entered the Japanese market on the Hallyu Wave and had instead taken a different approach. He said, “They had a strategy of localization, and in the beginning, they even held performances where only five people would show up to see them. That makes their achievements even more amazing.” Changmin explained, “At first, we did try the approach of entering through the Hallyu Wave. Our song ‘Hug’ had been popular in Korea, so our Japanese staff invested a lot of money into a Japanese version but it completely failed. It didn’t do well, so we turned to a localization strategy.”

Kim Heechul expressed pride for his fellow labelmates as he added, “So even when the Hallyu Wave receded, TVXQ was not affected at all [because of their localization strategy].”

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