The K-pop industry is struggling amid tensions between China and Japan. Chinese on-site events for K-pop groups with Japanese members have been canceled or held without those members.
According to the music industry on the 13th, the girl group LE SSERAFIM canceled its first single fan signing event scheduled for the 14th in Shanghai, China.
MakeStar, the event organizer, said it "inevitably decided to cancel after careful discussions with several related departments due to force majeure." It did not disclose specific reasons.
LE SSERAFIM has five members. Among them, Sakura and Kazuha are Japanese.
Similar cases have occurred recently beyond LE SSERAFIM. On the 6th in Shanghai, a fan meeting for trainees from the music agency Incode Entertainment, which had been scheduled to take place, was canceled on the day of the event.
The fan meeting was to feature Japanese contestants Masato and Sen from the Mnet audition program "Boys 2 Planet," as well as Chinese contestants Sun Jiayang and Peng Jinyu.
Incode announced that "an unexpected major force majeure reason arose early in the morning on the day of the event, making it impossible to proceed."
On the same day, the group Close Your Eyes held a fan meeting in Hangzhou, China. However, the Japanese member Kenshin was left out of the event.
In China, due to the "Korean Wave restrictions" (Hanhanryeong), large-scale performances by K-pop singers have not been held, but small fan meetings without song stages had been possible.
In China, large-scale performances by K-pop singers had been difficult due to the "Korean Wave restrictions" (Hanhanryeong). However, small fan meetings or fan signings without song stages did take place.
However, as even small events for teams with Japanese members continue to run into trouble, anxiety in the industry is mounting.