Minority J-Pop Fans In Malaysia
KAJANG: Japanese Pop (J-Pop) fans have become the minority especially in Malaysia. Still, there is actually a minority group of people in Malaysia.
J-Pop was the major of Asia musical mainstream in the late 1970s till 1999 before Korean Pop (K-Pop).
Malaysian Japanophile has collected merchandise
Chin Jia Yin, 23 has a collection of Arashi the famous J-Pop idol group merchandise. She admired Arashi has been 3 years.
J-Pop is so different for her because she acclaimed the culture of Japan makes attitude of Japanese is polite even though they are famous.
She added that Japanese always take care of the details and do things perfectly to maintain their quality of product. “Arashi’s song stimulated me a lot when I was depressed,” she said.
“I don’t feel lonely even there are a lot of friends around me talking about K-Pop because I already have my friend who loved J-Pop, so I can discuss with them,” she said.
Photograph by Tan Wei Kun
J-Rock VS J-Pop
Besides the musical mainstream of Japan, there are also Malaysian who love Japanese Rock (J-Rock).
A 10 years of J-Rock fans Ivy Tee May Fong believes that the personality, background and experience are influencing preference of song. Even personality might slightly changes according to the preference of song.
“Listening to our favourite songs can brighten up our days, giving us motivation and let us be more confident, Japanese song or music is so important for me maybe because of style. I personally had followed and collected a lot of quality music or songs from Japan for many years, but the good song from Korea is sadly, very few,” Tee said.
For her, there are almost 95% of people around her who are talking about K-Pop rather than Japan song. She feels so lonely, upset and meaningless because there are rarely people around her admire Japanese song or music.
“Well, good things deserved for the less,” she always believed that Japan is the best in terms of their quality, neither their popularity nor quantity.
Although she claimed that she is so obsessed with Japanese song or music but she rarely spend money on their products because she understand her financial situation and what's more important thing in life.
For Tee, Japan’s culture, style and language contribute significant importance in the development of song. It is so unique and unable to replace by any other country.
J-Pop fans also has paid attention on K-Pop
There are also some people who actually following closely in both J-Pop and K-Pop as well.
Lee Min Xin, 22 years old, who loves Japan music, drama and comic who influenced by her sister since she was a kid in the kindergarten.
Her admire idol is same as Chin who love Arashi so much. She mentioned that mostly she is listening to Japanese music and song in a drama original soundtrack album. Through watching drama and reading Japanese comic, she had learnt Japanese language and drawing skill.
She wouldn’t feel lonely even her friend around is talking about K-Pop because she watched and listened to K-Pop.
“I prefer Japanese drama because their plotting will make you want to continue on to see what happen next,” Lee felt the Japanese drama has its unexpected storyline which attracts her to continue watching.
For her, Japanese drama usually doing detailed on their props. They do better in the original plotline compared to Korean drama is always having some items that obviously not belong to that timeline of the plot.
Most of the Japanophile love in Japanese product because it is more likely pursuing perfection to maintain good quality of product.
Read more: