Rain's boy band MBLAQ gaining popularity in Japan

Korean idol group MBLAQ's popularity in Japan and Korea has been on the rise since their performance at Rain's Osaka concert over the weekend, according to a press release by their agency on Wednesday.

The quintet's opening performance at the "Legend of Rainism" tour on January 23 and 24 caught the attention of major record company executives in Japan, J. Tune Camp said in the statement.

"We are discussing the [contract] terms in detail with several companies," an official at J. Tune was quoted as saying. "We will work out the best possible terms and prepare their Japanese debut step by step."

Their increasing popularity appears to have carried over to Korea as well; the group has been racking up album sales in Korea, according to estimates released today by Hanteo Chart -- which uses a sampling method to predict online and offline record sales in the country.

For the week of January 19 thru 25, the group's first single "Just Blaq" sold 2,267 copies, ranking third in weekly album sales behind boy bands TVXQ and CNBLUE. The feat may be regarded as unusual, considering it was released three months ago and the group is currently on a break, preparing to come out with a new single.

MBLAQ -- which stands for "Music Boys Live in Absolute Quality" -- was created and trained by Asian superstar Rain for two years. They debuted in October 2009 as the first group that Rain introduced to the public since he turned producer.

Reporter : Lynn Kim lynn2878@asiae.co.kr
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@asiae.co.kr