Star-studded lineup set for KCON Japan 2023

ZeroBaseOne is set to perform at KCON Japan 2023, which will be held at Makuhari Messe in Japan from May 12 to 14. [CJ ENM]

Super stars such BTS, Monsta X, Ateez and Stray Kids have all performed at KCON.

KCON is a festival that combines K-POP with Korean lifestyle related conventions. It has become the world’s largest K-culture festival with more than 1.36 million offline audiences around the world since 2012 as CJ ENM’s representative platform.

The upcoming KCON from May 12 to 14 is planned to be held at Makuhari Messe in Japan. Following its success in Thailand in March, the second edition is expected to tap into the Japanese, one of the representative K-pop consumer markets.

Performances by fifth generation boy bands are anticipated to shine this year, while attention is also being paid to newly rising groups.

The rising star that stands out the most is ZeroBaseOne (ZB1), formed through cable network Mnet’s audition program “Boys Planet”. With about 9.4 million votes from 184 national as well as regional star creators, the band was formed amid explosive interest. Its name, ZeroBaseOne, refers to the brilliant beginning of the nine members and implies the member’s promise to share their journey with the fans. Consisting of nine members — Zhang Hao, Sung Han-bin, Seok Matthew, Ricky, Park Gun-wook, Kim Tae-rae, Kim Gyu-vin, Kim Ji-woong and Han Yu-jin — the band became the fastest K-pop group to reach 1 million social media followers. Showing strong global power even before its official debut, ZeroBaseOne will give a refreshing yet solid performance on the stage of KCON JAPAN 2023 on the 13 and 14.

DXTeen will also feature at KCON. DXTeen is a six member Japanese boy band, consisting of Taichi Taniguchi, Ayuta Fukuda, Koshin Terao, Nalu Okubo, Ken Hiramoto, and Shotaro Tanaka. The group name contains the meaning of the infinite possibilities of six members, while its debut song “Brand New Day” accumulated 2 million views in 24 hours. Set to make its official debut in the Japanese market on May 10, which is two days before KCON, DXTeen is scheduled to meet its fans at KCON JAPAN 2023 from the 12 to 14.

BY PARK YE-EUN [park.yeeun@joongang.co.kr]