Korean musicians in Japan

[citation needed] Nevertheless, there were South Korean singers like Cho Yong-pil and Kye Un-seuk, in the 1970s and 1980s who were household names in Japan, despite not being Zainichi.

[1] Today, there are also a number of non-Zainichi Korean artists such as BoA, Crystal Kay, TVXQ, BIGBANG, KARA, and BTS who have found chart and album success in Japan.

She attained fame through various hits including "Mok'po ui nunmul" and duets with "Emperor" Nam In-su.

[1] Born as Kim Bok-Ja, Akiko Wada has risen as a popular Japanese singer and television performer.

She made her debut as a singer in 1968, and has had a series of hits over the years, including "Doushaburi no Ame de" (In the Pouring Rain), "Furui Nikki" (Old Diary), and "Datte Shoganai Ja Nai" (Nothing You Can Do About It).

[4] Born and raised in Yokohama, Japan to an African-American father and Korean mother, Crystal Kay debuted as a singer at the age of 13 in 1999.

[5] Crystal Kay has discussed her nationality and race before, commenting "I consider myself a Japanese artist because I was born and raised here, but nationality-wise I look, and am, foreign.

In September 2004, BoA was in controversy in Japan over donating ₩50 million to a memorial project for An Jung-geun, a Korean independence activist and nationalist.

[17] The album was certified double platinum by the RIAJ on November 18, 2011, with sales exceeding half a million in Japan.

[18][19] The group's Korean single "Lupin" was also certified Gold by the RIAJ for sales of over 100,000, despite being a Korean-language song and not officially being released in Japan.

[20] Their first year in Japan earned them many accolades; the group was chosen as the Best Rookie Artist according to a popular Japanese mobile ringtone site, Recochoku and Oricon also announced the group as 2010's Best Rookie Artist, generating revenue to some 1.3 billion yen (or US$15.4 million[21]); and with a total of 493,000 copies of their releases sold this year.

[22] The group's popularity continued into 2011 with the release of their first DVD Kara Best Clips, which is a compilation of their past music videos.

[31] KARA continued to release music and tour in Japan in 2013, but their popularity began to decline in 2014 following the departure of members Jiyoung and Nicole.

The group's final performance in Japan was held on September 29, 2015, as part of their 3rd Japanese tour, before ultimately disbanding at the beginning of 2016.