{"id":1530,"date":"2011-05-14T15:22:59","date_gmt":"2011-05-14T07:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/?p=1530"},"modified":"2011-05-14T15:48:06","modified_gmt":"2011-05-14T07:48:06","slug":"akb48-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/2011\/05\/14\/akb48-singapore\/","title":{"rendered":"AKB48 Singapore"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AKB48\"<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

AKB48 Singapore<\/a> is a project consisting of a permanent theatre, a merchandise store and a theme cafe (to be opened late June).<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/div>\n

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<\/a> consist of a mix of Team A, K and B members.<\/p>\n

\"AKB48\"<\/p>\n

\"AKB48\"
\nMeet and greet<\/p>\n

AKB48 actually performed in Singapore last year as part of AFA X<\/a>. Presumably the reception was good enough for the business end to decide to establish a permanent presence in Singapore.<\/p>\n

\"AKB48\"
\nCrowd of photographers blocking the view<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"AKB48\"
\nBlind overhead shoot<\/p>\n

\"AKB48\"<\/p>\n

Everything is located within the *SCAPE<\/a> complex located behind Cineleisure. The entire building was playing AKB48 songs for the store opening.<\/p>\n

\"AKB48\"
\nThe queue goes around the building<\/p>\n

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<\/a>. When I was in Japan last month, there were AKB48 posters<\/a> put up by the Tokyo metropolitan government telling people to vote in the elections.<\/p>\n

\"AKB48\"
\nPosing for photos<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Also worth noting is that Singapore has a rather large Japanese expatriate community for its size.<\/p>\n

Maybe one day there will be a Singapore franchise. SGP48.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,28],"tags":[1042,934,128],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}