Why do K-pop groups keep going to Japan for promotions? Well, the answer is quite simple: because promoting in Japan is very lucrative.

Take TVXQ for example. TVXQ will be continuing onward with their 5-dome tour in Japan until mid-August. In all, they will perform 18 times in front of an audience of 850,000 people. At an average cost of 120,000 KRW (approximately $109 USD) per ticket, the revenue from all the tickets sold will add up to 102,000,000,000 KRW (approximately $92.6 million USD).

But it’s not just limited to Japan where idols can make money. TVXQ brought in 570,000 fans for their world tour. Super Junior and SHINee each brought in 280,000 and 250,000 respectively during their Asia tour, and the SM Town concerts also brought in an additional 300,000 fans last year. Super Junior is expected to be bringing even more since they’ve started their world tour and recently wrapped up a successful run in South America. SM Entertainment stated, “This year, the number of audience members (for our concerts) up to this point already matches the number of audience members we had for the whole of 2012. If we combine all the concerts scheduled until the end of the year, the attendance numbers will increase by at least 50%.”

Of course, it’s not just SM Entertainment going overseas - YG Entertainment has their own firm grasp on overseas concerts. G-Dragon is going on a solo world tour with 25 dates in front of 550,000 fans. Daesung is also bringing in an audience of 100,000 fans with his own 25 concerts. Not only that, Psy is preparing a world tour with agencies in America, and they said, “Since it’s his first world tour, everyone is looking forward to it.”

JYP Entertainment‘s 2PM, DSP Media‘s KARA, and FNC Entertainment‘s CNBLUE are also bringing in similar results. K-Pop experts have predicted that revenue from overseas concert will be increasing 20% this year as compared to last year. Overseas concerts bring in much more profit compared to album and digital sales. Last year, profits from K-pop exports was an estimated amount of $235,000,000 USD, 60% of which came from concerts. Also, there’s additional revenue as big concerts usually bring in over 2,000,000,000 KRW (approximately $1.8 million USD) in sales of merchandise and other concert goods.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism will be building a concert venue in Ilsan’s Hallyu World that can seat up to 15,000 people in 2016. Through Hallyu World, they hope to boost tourism and attract overseas visitors to visit Korea.

Source: Korea Economy

Daesung and Taeyang came to assist G-Dragon after the Big Bang leader suffered an injury during his Japanese tour.

G-Dragon sprained his ankle on April 27 during his first Osaka concert. He was told that his ankle needed 2 weeks for recovery, but he stood on stage anyways and finished the concert utilizing a cane and segway.

When Daesung heard that G-Dragon had injured his ankle, even though he was busy holding his own concert rehearsal in Tokyo, he immediately came to Osaka. Taeyang was also the special guest at the encore concert, and the three of them sung “Bad Boy” and “Fantastic Baby” together.

After his concert, G-Dragon wrote through his ‘LINE‘ account, “Thankfully, the 2nd Osaka show finished without any incidents. I’m thankful to everyone who came out. You were a big strength. Even though I wasn’t able to move or do a lot of performances, I sang harder. How was it? For the final Osaka concert tomorrow, I’ll work even harder.”

G-Dragon wrapped up his concerts in Osaka on April 29 and his next scheduled concerts are in Nagoya on June 1 and 2, so thankfully he has some time to recover. Daesung will be continuing his 17-city Japanese tour on May 1.

Tip: korrea

Fans all over the world celebrated the birthday of Big Bang‘s Daesung.

Daesung turned 24 on April 26 in Korea, and to celebrate, fans all over the world started to trend #HappyDSday for him. To their delight, G-Dragon and 2NE1‘s Dara joined in on the trend.

Dara wrote, “Daesung, happy birthday~~~ ^.^ #HappyDSday“, and G-Dragon tweeted, “Our Daesung, happy birthday #HappyDSday“.

The joint efforts of both celebrity and fans booted the trend up to #1.

[UPDATE - YG Entertainment has officially celebrated Daesung's birthday with a new post on the blog featuring the photo below]

Happy birthday to Daesung!

The members of Big Bang recently got together for a group photo!

Seungri tweeted the above photo onto his Twitter with the words,

we are !!!!! twitter.com/ForvictoRi/sta…

— Seung Ri (@ForvictoRi) April 17, 2013

The photo perfectly depicts the various personalities of each member. Daesung is his usual mischievous self, Taeyang is showering fans with his trademark bright smile, G-Dragon is eccentric with a fierce-yet-funny face, T.O.P is his usual handsome looking self, while Seungri provided fans with a wry smile and is working hard to be included in the photo.

It’s been a while since the whole group was all together, so fans were especially elated to see the photo. What do you think they all got together for?

G-Dragon and Daesung talked about making and keeping promises on that latest episode of ‘Incarnation‘.

The two were guests on the show with Kim Kyung Ho and Kahi. During the interview, they talked about the reasons on why breaking up was difficult. Daesung brought up the topic of promises that weren’t kept, saying, “I usually can’t break up with a girl first. The times when I’m the most sorry are from the small things. Like when you watch a movie, say something related to the Tokyo Tower, she’d say things like, ‘Next year, I wish we could go to the Tokyo Tower’. And of course I’d say, ‘Yeah, let’s do that’. I’d feel sorry that I couldn’t keep those promises.” He added, “I make a lot of promises, like, ‘I’ll always be next to you, or ‘I’ll be your last man’.”

The topic then turned to G-Dragon, who said coolly, “I don’t make promises.” He explained, “You don’t know what will happen in the future. The reason why I haven’t made promises is because rather than making promises I can’t keep, I would rather do my best in the moment.”

MC Yoon Jong Shin then wanted to know the promises Daesung had kept. He hesitated for a second and revealed, “Once I made a promise to be by her side whenever she was sick.” He then turned to G-Dragon and burst out laughing, who was confused as to why Daesung would laugh. Daesung explained, “One day, Big Bang was headed to Japan. But that day, my girlfriend was really sick. At that time, we had Japanese activities starting from the next day. It was okay for me to go to Japan a day after everyone. I pretended that I lost my passport so I could stay with my girlfriend for an extra day.”

His confession surprised G-Dragon who had thought Daesung had actually lost his passport at the time. G-Dragon couldn’t shake off the surprise, and he stared into space for a while as the MCs poked fun at their awkward situation.

Daesung and G-Dragon have fan girls tossing aside their earrings as they make their ears freely available for the unique types of skinship the two idols discussed!

On this ‘Incarnation‘ episode discussing the mentalities of women and men, MC Kim Hee Sun asked, “Do you have any type of skinship method that you think is a little unique?” Daesung answered first and said, “Ears? It’s not that I kiss their ear, but I like making the kissing sound to their ear. You can hear that sound really close. Then they react a little.”

G-Dragon answered, “One thing that I do all the time is that when I’m working and my girlfriend is next to me, I touch her ear as I work.” He demonstrated on Daesung, who asked, “Why the ears?” He answered, “I just get calm when I touch the ear.“

G-Dragon garnered the attention of the female guests on set as he revealed the polite manners he’s known for extends into dating as well!

On ‘Incarnation‘, MC Kim Hee Sun revealed that she had known G-Dragon ever since he was little, way before Big Bang. She joked that he should be careful as she has a lot of things she could spill about him, and G-Dragon teased back, “But that means I also have a lot of stories about you too, noona.”

One of the first secrets Kim Hee Sun revealed about G-Dragon was about the way he treats his girlfriends. She opened up the topic, saying, “I hear you give out your heart easily.” The sudden comment flustered G-Dragon, and Daesung added on by saying, “The doors to his heart are always open. Like the Gwanghwamun.”

MC Shin Dong Yup said, “Do you admit it?” and he answered, “I treat people I like very well. For me, they’re very small things. I tie her shoelaces. These things are obvious and come naturally to me.”

Kim Hee Sun and Daesung both confirmed that this was true, and Kim Hee Sun said, “Like you see in the movies. He is very kind to his girlfriends.” G-Dragon added, “But these little things don’t hold big significance to me. It’s just natural. When you go eat, there are places where you have to take your shoes off. Then when we come out, of course I put her shoes on for her and tie the laces.”

Daesung also said, “He’s amazing. When they eat, when his girlfriend looks like she’s finished eating, he disappears and appears again with water and a napkin for her. He takes care of all the details.”

MC Yoon Jong Shin joked, “It’s like you’re serving [a table] while you’re dating,” as G-Dragon nodded, laughing along.

Big Bang‘s Daesung revealed his plan on how he got a girl to notice him.

Daesung and G-Dragon were guests on the March 26 installment of SBS‘s ‘Incarnation‘. On the show, Daesung revealed that in real life he is actually very shy. MC Yoon Jong Shin confirmed this and said, “He’s a very cautious person“. G-Dragon added on, “When I see Daesung from the side, he sort of acts like a boy still going through puberty. He sort of teases whoever he likes. He plays a lot of jokes on them. He tells them they’re ugly for no particular reason and makes fun of them, he playfully pushes them around.”

Kim Hee Sun also revealed, “I heard Daesung disappears when he gets in a relationship. He gets so focused on his relationship that he just disappears.” Both G-Dragon and Daesung admitted the claim, and Kim Hee Sun jokingly added, “Since you’ve appeared now (on the show), you must not be in a relationship.”

Daesung admitted it and said, “When I start a relationship, I forget how time passes. One time, I liked someone who I didn’t really even have a chance to meet often. I knew her number, but I didn’t have a reason to contact her. But I really liked her, and I wondered how I could talk to her. The thing I came up with was to pretend like I misdialed her number. I felt like pretending that I texted her by mistake would be too much, so I pretended like I dialed the wrong number. So I called her, but before that, I had to write out what I was going to say on paper, since I’d be too nervous to properly speak. For example, I pretend like I was supposed to call my stylist, and prepare things like, ‘Noona, what’s on the schedule tomorrow? What time should I get to the shop?’. Since I shouldn’t talk too much, I’ll just end speaking right there.”

He continued, “You also have to be careful because you have to talk before the other person has a chance to speak, since you know her voice. If you look at your phone, the phone will read, ‘Dialing’, but then when the other person picks up, the screen changes to the call timer of 00:00. So you can’t listen – you have to be carefully watching. As soon as it changed, I said everything. There was silence, and then she started to laugh. So I said, ‘Oh! I’m so sorry!’ and hung up. The reason why I hung up was because if I kept talking then, I’d have no more reason to talk to her. So I pretend like I’m talking to the original person I was supposed to call for 5-10 minutes, and then I text back.“

G-Dragon and Daesung showed off their dating skills.

Both G-Dragon and Daesung were guests on the March 26 episode of ‘Incarnation‘ and they acted out a skit to show how they would ask a girl out using actress Kim Hee Sun as the date.

At the beginning of the skit, G-Dragon joked around by greeting her, “Grandma“, but when both of them settled down at the makeshift movie theater, she said, “I heard this movie was good“. He answered, “Yeah, the movie is good, but this is a little uncomfortable“. He proceeded to push up the arm rests between them as well as the one on his side, and then lied down with his head on her lap.

Not only so, he’d pushed the soda cup far away, so when she leaned over him to drink from it, she’d have to practically lie on top of him. MC Shin Dong Yup said, “He’s a genius!“, and the other guests couldn’t help with their awed laughter.

Daesung was up next, and he said, “I’m going to go for a romance movie“. From the beginning, he made the entire situation comical by breathing hard, and Kim Hee Sun couldn’t help but laugh and say, “His breathing is really loud“. He explained, “This is part of my acting“.

As they kept watching the movie, he suddenly threw down the popcorn he was holding, surprising Kim Hee Sun. She asked, bewildered, “What’s wrong?“, and he said, “It’s just stuffy in here“, causing the audience to burst out laughing again. He said, “I can’t breathe,” and then suddenly grabbed her arms and brought it to his chest, exclaiming, “Feel it.” Of course, the sudden action caused the women watching to shriek in delight, and the men to burst out into laughter. Daesung smoothly ignored them both and said coolly, “Can you feel it? When this movie ends, can you look not at the screen, but just at me?”

Which method would you prefer?

Daesung will have his first Japanese MC gig on MTV Japan!

His new program is called ‘D-LITE & VJ Boo D’splay‘, and will begin airing on April 13 at 6:30 JST. VJ BOO has always been friends with Daesung, and the program will air every other week on Saturday, with 5 episodes in all. On the program, the pair will visit parks and even try their hand at cooking. The program will also show Daesung’s solo concerts in Japan.

Daesung said, “I was really nervous because it was my first time having a program in Japan, but I will work hard to show my real self to the fans. I hope fans have fun watching the broadcast and enjoy my first Japanese solo album.”

Daesung will be having 25 shows for his Japanese solo tour, which he kicked off on the 20th and 21st at the Kobe World Memorial Hall.

G-Dragon gave fans a proof shot that he was on the set of ‘Incarnation‘!

He and Daesung were scheduled guests on the new show, and they finally had their filming session just a few hours ago. He tweeted the photo with the words “Taking selcas while filming ‘Incarnation’“. He was dressed in a neat suit and had matched it with a pink and navy tie while making a funny face at the camera. You could also see his back reflected in the mirror behind him, but G-Dragon even made that look cute.

The Big Bang leader also revealed polaroids he and Daesung took on the set and wrote,

With D , Today instagr.am/p/W1uGWotgPK/

— G-DRAGON (@IBGDRGN) March 14, 2013

Are you excited to see the two Big Bang members on the show?

Chun Myung Hoon revealed that Big Bang‘s Seungri and Daesung had inadvertently taught him a lesson.

On the latest episode of ‘Radio Star‘, the old school idol member chose G-Dragon‘s “Heartbreaker” as the song he wanted to let his hoobaes hear him sing. When asked why, he answered, “This song is really hard to sing, so I want to show that I’m not dead yet. Also, I want to thank Seungri and Daesung.”

Of course, the MCs couldn’t let this go, and Kyuhyun asked, “What do you have to thank them for?” For Seungri, Chun Myung Hoon revealed, “About 1-2 years ago, I was going through a hard time. I was going back and forth between variety shows and music. It was a time when I was rebelling a lot, and I got into music and DJing, so I went to clubs often. I really liked music, so I would stay in front of the speakers. I really like the loud bass sounds. Every time I went to a club, Seungri would also be there looking really cool. To be honest, I should have gone to him first, but he came first and bowed down 90 degrees to me. This probably occurred around three times in all, strangely, even when I went to a different club, he’d be there. It was very coincidental.”

After they laughed about the bizarre coincidence, he continued, “He’s a very high-class person. But I saw him everywhere I went. Since he greeted me every time so politely, I was so thankful, and I realized I should get a grip over myself. It was in my own imagination, but it was like he was telling me, ‘Get a grip, hyungnim’, or ‘What are you doing here’. I got a grip on myself after that.”

He was then asked about why he was thankful to Daesung, and he revealed, “For a while, I thought I would be really popular on variety shows. But after a point, that all disappeared, and I stopped watching variety shows. One time, I turned on the TV by chance, and I saw Daesung on this show. It was at a time when I was really angry. And coincidentally on the show, he was asked what he thought about me, and he said that I wasn’t funny. I heard that and I was in such a hard time then. I was really weak in my heart back then, and I couldn’t believe I saw that. If it was before, I’d just laugh it off and be like, ‘oh, that’s cute’. But instead, I got so mad and thought to myself, ‘I’ll see you later’. I drank 3 bottles of soju because I was so mad.”

Confused, the MCs asked, “Then why are you thankful?“. He replied sincerely, “After that when I came out from the army, I had another low point. But I suddenly remembered what he said. I realized that the fact that he mentioned my name and for some reason it made me feel alive again. Because of that comment Daesung made, he went on other shows and my name was brought up again. Over time, I was just very grateful.“

Gummy will have a duet with Daesung in her upcoming Japanese album!

According to YG Entertainment, the duet song “To You Whom I Love” will be included in her 2nd Japanese album. This is the first time the pair’s duet is going to be officially recorded for an album, so it should be a treat for fans of both!

‘FATE(S)’ is an album that is said to represent people who accept fate for what it is, and live their lives with love. This is the first time she’ll be directly participating in the production of the album in Japan, and she’s sought the help of producer Jeff Miyahara, who has produced songs for Amuro Namie, V6, KAT-TUN, and other popular Japanese artists, to complete the task.

The album’s scheduled to be released on April 3rd!

Big Bang‘s G-Dragon and Daesung will be filming for their episode of ‘Incarnation‘ soon.

YG Entertainment stated, “G-Dragon and Daesung plan to film for ‘Incarnation’ on the 14th.” This will be one of the rare times since ‘Healing Camp‘ that the two idols, who are both preparing for their solo comebacks, will get the chance to spill their guts on a talk show.

G-Dragon has his ‘One of a Kind‘ world tour coming up, and he’s also been confirmed as the first Korean solo artist to go on a dome tour in Japan. Daesung recently released his first Japanese album ‘D’scover‘, and he’s currently preparing for his Japanese solo concert as well.

Are you excited to see the two Big Bang members on the show?

Big Bang‘s Daesung has fans swooning over his muscular figure including his group’s leader G-Dragon.

G-Dragon was able to catch Daesung in the dressing room and shared, “Daesung ah ha alk ha alk ha alk le ge oh ha le he oh ge”, showing how speechless he became upon seeing Daesung’s figure. Wearing a white tee that is slightly transparent that gave fans just a glimpse of his abs underneath, Daesung’s backstage photo received endless praise.

Fans were left gasping just like G-Dragon commenting, “He looks so sexy” and “I wish we could see his face.”

Big Bang‘s Daesung has found himself at the top tier of Oricon‘s Daily Album Chart with the release of his solo cover album ‘D’scover‘ in Japan!

Even for the 26th, the album made it up to the #4 spot, and through the chart revealed for February 27th (the actual date of release), Daesung, or should we say ‘D-Lite‘, jumped up two to come in at #2!

Selling 10,876 copies for February 27th, Daesung comes in behind popular Japanese girl group NMB48, who sold 30,946 copies to rank #1.

With this solid start under his belt, Big Bang’s crooner will be embarking on his Japanese tour, titled ‘D-LITE D’scover Tour‘, starting on March 23rd!

Congrats to Daesung!

Big Bang‘s Daesung will have a whopping 25 shows for his solo tour!

His Japanese tour, titled ‘D-LITE D’scover Tour‘, will start on March 23 in Kobe, and will span for 3 months until June 18 in Yokohama. During those 3 months, Daesung will be providing ‘d-lite’ to fans in 19 cities with a total of 25 performances. Originally, Daesung was scheduled for only 4 dates in Kobe and Tokyo in March, but the concert planners must have grossly underestimated Daesung’s popularity, because they ended up adding an additional 21 concerts in 17 cities because of the high demand.

He’ll be visiting cities such as Nigata, Aomori, Hokkaido, Miyagi, Gigawa, Okayama, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Saga, cities that even Big Bang had never visited before.

His 3-month long tour means his tour will be going at the same time as leader G-Dragon, who will also hold his own 4-dome Japanese tour. Japan, are you ready for them?

[Thanks to everyone who sent in this tip!]

The members’ personalities were out on full display and left fans laughing in ‘D-Lite’ at each member’s quirks.

Seungri took charge as the group’s talkative, businessman as he articulated a promotional message for his member in true Seungri fashion.

Taeyang also assisted Seungri the best that he could as G-Dragon stuck with his random outbursts of his one-liner comment.

Daesung, the man of the hour, also suddenly strolled in nonchalantly and used his body language to get his message across, furthering the laughs. And last but not least, T.O.P, kept up his stoic, cool-guy image, which unfortunately meant we didn’t get a peep out of him, all adding to the hilarious nature of the video.

Check it out below (subs available if watched directly on YouTube)!

Check out the preview for the ‘D’scover’ album, if you haven’t done so yet!

Big Bang‘s Daesung captivated a crowd of roughly 1200 people at a Japanese event.

Daesung featured as a guest at ‘ViVi Night‘ held in Nagoya, Japan on February 22nd.  With his singing skills and cute speech, he showed off his various charms.

This event was also covered in the local news and thus is garnering a lot of attention.  SanK wrote on February 23rd, “Daesung came up on stage and shared that he loves chicken wings and would like to move here.”

Daesung sang three songs from his solo Japanese album ‘D’scover‘ that will be released on February 27th capturing the hearts of the roughly 1200 people gathered.

Daesung will release his solo album on the 27th and is planning to follow with active promotions for the album.

Watch a few fancams from the event below:

Source: OSEN via Naver

Japanese model Tsubasa Masuwaka apologized for her actions on the Japanese show ‘Downtown DX‘.

The model attended a Big Bang concert last year, and even snapped a picture together with the members. In the picture, you can see that G-Dragon had wrapped his arm around her in a friendly way, and was posing with a peace sign.

On February 21, she appeared on the ‘Downtown DX’ program and the subject of the photo was brought up. Even though she looked happy in the picture, she stated something different. On the show, she stated, “I feel uncomfortable around men. I didn’t like what G-Dragon did.” When Big Bang fans heard her statement, they were shocked, especially because Daesung was also present on the show as a guest. Daesung being the gentleman he is, quickly apologized to Tsubasa Masuwaka on the program.

However, she was criticized heavily online, and apologized for her actions, stating on her Twitter, “I appeared on Downtown DX. It was meant as a joke, but if any of you felt offended, I apologize.”

She clarified her stance stating that she doesn’t really know how to properly communicate with guys since she has only been with her husband, whom she divorced with last month.

Do you think an apology was needed?