NewJeans’ Hanni’s Song Gives ’61-Year-Old Cancer Patient’ Japanese Person Courage, ‘Thank You’

On the night of the 9th in Yonago City, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. I happened to meet a male university student in his 20s at a small izakaya in this small town. When I said I was from Korea, the student raised his thumb and said, “NewJeans Hanni, yabai” (“yabai” is a term used often by young Japanese people, roughly translating to “awesome!” or “crazy!”).

“I never imagined she would sing this song”

He said, “Many of my friends saw Hanni singing Seiko Matsuda’s ‘Blue Coral Reef’ at Tokyo Dome on TV and YouTube. Her pronunciation was perfect, like a native Japanese,” he marveled. His friend added, “Seiko Matsuda is a singer loved by our parents’ generation, but she’s so famous that even our generation knows ‘Blue Coral Reef.’ But we never imagined that a Korean girl group member would sing this song.”

That day, I met a woman in her 30s in the lobby of a hotel in Yonago. She said she came from Yokohama, Japan, to enjoy her vacation here. She knew all the Japanese members of popular K-pop groups. “I know IVE’s Rei, LE SSERAFIM’s Sakura and Kazuha, and Billlie’s Tsuki. I like their songs, but I also like seeing Japanese people working hard in other countries.”

Until recently, she didn’t know much about NewJeans. But after the Tokyo Dome concert became a hot topic in Japan, she learned about NewJeans. “I didn’t know much about NewJeans because they don’t have any Japanese members. But when I heard from a friend that Hanni from NewJeans sang ‘Blue Coral Reef,’ I watched the video on YouTube. I watched it several times. Then I watched other NewJeans videos on YouTube and fell in love with them.”

On the 11th in Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture, a man in his 40s, who is an office worker, also said he became interested in NewJeans. “I originally liked TWICE. In Japan, TWICE is more popular than BLACKPINK. I think it’s because TWICE has three Japanese members (Mina, Sana, and Momo), whereas BLACKPINK has none. But this time, Hanni from NewJeans singing Seiko Matsuda’s ‘Blue Coral Reef’ became a hot topic. I became interested in NewJeans because they sang a song that symbolizes the good old days of Japan.” He also asked, “I heard that middle-aged men in Korea like NewJeans. Is that true?” The ‘NewJeans Syndrome’ that started with the ‘Blue Coral Reef’ stage was ongoing in Japan.

NewJeans (Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, Hyein) held the ‘Bunnies Camp 2024’ concert for Japanese fans at the Tokyo Dome on the 26th and 27th of last month. The event was planned to promote their Japanese debut single album ‘Super Shy’. NewJeans demonstrated their ticket power by attracting 90,000 spectators over the two-day event.

At this event, Hanni, with her bobbed hair, performed ‘Blue Coral Reef’ in Japanese while wearing a striped T-shirt and a flowing flared skirt. After the performance, Hanni said on a live broadcast on social media that she watched many past videos of Seiko Matsuda and practiced even the hair-flipping gestures to capture the emotion of the time.

Seiko Matsuda debuted in 1980 at the age of 18. Her song ‘Blue Coral Reef,’ released that year, became a national hit in Japan. Not only the song but her hairstyle, with hair flipped outward, became known as the ‘Seiko-chan Cut’ and became a trend. Her prime coincided with Japan’s bubble economy era. The early 1980s was a period of economic boom for Japan. However, following the Plaza Accord led by the United States in 1985, the yen surged, and Japan entered a prolonged economic downturn starting in the 1990s. ‘Blue Coral Reef,’ reinterpreted by Hanni, evokes the atmosphere of the golden era just before the collapse of Japan’s bubble economy, representing a prosperous era.

Following Kara and Girls’ Generation?

The Japanese song sung by Hanni, a Vietnamese-Australian member of the Korean girl group, is gaining popularity in both Korea and Japan, serving as a bridge connecting generations and countries. This also leads to cultural exchanges. On the 16th, Kumyoung Entertainment, a karaoke machine manufacturer, announced that ‘Blue Coral Reef’ ranked first in the domestic Kumyoung karaoke Japanese song chart. In this way, different countries recall their memories and approach each other with a new retro feeling.

A YouTube video of Hanni’s stage filmed by a NewJeans fan has surpassed 6.5 million views as of the 19th, continuing to generate buzz. The video has received over 13,000 comments. One Japanese commenter wrote, “I am 61 years old and fighting cancer. I remembered 44 years ago when everything was bright. Thank you for the inspiration and courage. I will do my best to beat cancer.” Another Japanese commenter wrote, “I am a 55-year-old Japanese uncle. I stumbled upon the video on YouTube. I felt the same pure vibe from this unknown Korean singer as Seiko Matsuda. When I was in about fifth grade (1980), Seiko Matsuda was hugely popular, and I used to watch her on music programs while having dinner. The video brought back many memories from 44 years ago, and I cried.”

A Korean living in Japan commented, “As someone living in Japan, I dare say that every element of this stage hits Japanese preferences. Not just the song choice, but also the clothes, hair styling, voice, singer’s face, and gestures. It feels like they perfectly set up all the points that drive Japanese people crazy. I wonder who planned this?”

The event planner is Min Hee-jin, the CEO of ADOR and known as ‘the mother of NewJeans.’ In an interview with Nihon Keizai Shimbun on the 12th, CEO Min said, “I wanted to create a pure image through Hanni’s bobbed hair,” and added, “I included songs from various eras and genres to maximize the members’ charms.”

It is noteworthy that CEO Min, who directly criticized the ‘uncle culture’ of HYBE’s management, including Chairman Bang Si-hyuk, during a live press conference in April, is now stimulating the fandom of Japanese uncles with NewJeans’ retro sensibility. Attention is focused on whether Japanese men in their 30s to 50s, who were interested in K-pop through Kara and Girls’ Generation, will become fans of NewJeans.