AKB48 Singapore
A short press conference was held today for the opening of AKB48′s official merchandise store in Singapore and their first permanent theatre outside of Japan. There was also a short photography session with Misaki Iwasa, Mika Komori and Miho Miyazaki from AKB48 who were present for the opening ceremony.
AKB48 Singapore is a project consisting of a permanent theatre, a merchandise store and a theme cafe (to be opened late June).
Members of AKB48, along with their sister groups SKE48, NMB48 and SDN48, will be performing at the theatre twice a month on a regular basis. The first public performance will be held tomorrow, May 15, and the performers consist of a mix of Team A, K and B members.
Meet and greet
AKB48 actually performed in Singapore last year as part of AFA X. Presumably the reception was good enough for the business end to decide to establish a permanent presence in Singapore.
Crowd of photographers blocking the view
There was a queue of fans waiting for the official store opening today. Probably because there is a handshake session with the three girls for customers making purchases of 15 SGD or more. I didn’t have to queue because I was with the media people, but I didn’t buy anything and only took a quick look around. The store is pretty standard for an official merchandise store of its type.
Blind overhead shoot
Everything is located within the *SCAPE complex located behind Cineleisure. The entire building was playing AKB48 songs for the store opening.
The queue goes around the building
AKB48, despite its origins, has become incredibly mainstream in Japan in the past two years thanks to aggressive marketing, perhaps even exceeding the former glory of Morning Musume. When I was in Japan last month, there were AKB48 posters put up by the Tokyo metropolitan government telling people to vote in the elections.
Posing for photos
That said, the Asian pop market is quite a different game altogether and holding two concerts a month in Singapore seems like a rather intensive schedule to keep for an overseas location, just considering the logistics alone.
This looks like a huge strategic push to make AKB48 part of the mainstream consciousness in the overseas J-Pop market, which in recently years has grown stale, partly due to a lack of a new generation of flag-bearers, and has been severely under-performing compared to its Korean counterpart. It’s a gamble but it can potentially pay off huge for the entire industry if it establishes a new wave for similar J-Pop idol groups.
Also worth noting is that Singapore has a rather large Japanese expatriate community for its size.
Maybe one day there will be a Singapore franchise. SGP48.
May 14th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
I’ve always thought that AKB48 and its offshoots were somewhat sinister.
May 14th, 2011 at 10:28 pm
This is fascinating on several levels. AKB is not linked to any anime, manga or other pop-culture movement, and yet they seem to have enough of a fanbase in Singapore to warrant a semi-permanent presence. I would have thought that something like a Pokemon Center would be the first enterprise to claim that status.
Secondly, I’m pretty sure this is going to be a loss-leader type of affair. I find it hard to believe that they are going to be able to recoup their cost in any reasonable amount of time, given the high opportunity cost of bringing AKB members to Singapore, not to mention the airfares. This is perhaps, as you said, a strategic move to bring awareness of idol-pop to the south-east asian region.
Finally, it really makes me wonder if the stereotypically ‘cheap’ Singaporean fan will really pay to watch more than one AKB performance a year. I mean, let’s face it – AKB, while fascinating, does not provide a whole lot in terms of artistic / musical value during their performances. How much will the fans here pay for thinly disguised fan-service? Time will tell.
Frankly, I have a strong suspicion that local interest will dry up within a year or so. Maybe we’ll see the theater packed with regional tourists who find it cheaper to travel to Singapore than to Japan, or by curious westerners who don’t want to brave the ordeal of getting a ticket in Japan.
May 15th, 2011 at 12:01 am
If by ticket you mean a ticket to the show, yea. But if you are of a sufficiently high fan-IQ, they do offer special tickets for tourists at the Akihabara shows. More hassle, but not by a lot. Or rather, it’s something that casuals are not accessible to.
But Singapore is out of the way for westerners; access to Japan is much easier (and usually slightly less costly) for most, and really Australia/NZ is the only exception. The REAL big advantage of Singapore in that sense is it is English-speaking and (maybe) you can get tickets to the show on a whim.
May 15th, 2011 at 8:18 am
I’ve been meaning to ask DM, are you planning on attending Anime Expo this year in California for once? Disappoint me now so that I don’t keep my hopes up for too long :(
May 15th, 2011 at 8:01 pm
I won’t be there so early. School only starts in September after all. Maybe next year…
May 16th, 2011 at 7:56 am
K-PoP it’s everywhere… SOMEONE MAKE IT STOP PLEASE!!
I can’t take it anymore
RaNdOM azN people need to stop asking me to translate the songs for them!!
May 21st, 2011 at 8:47 am
OT: I got pointed to your site from anime suki. Nyoro~n subs hasn’t quit yet. http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=104338