u/Aggressive_Boot6252

I know it’s a bit late to comment under this post, but i had a few questions.

I’m currently studying in my country to work in the music industry. We get shown how labels work, how to sign and manage artists, book artists, and most importantly, get a wide network of connections through the school since its a well known school here ( the Netherlands) when it comes to music.

Though this is great and awesome, I really want to go into the Japanese music industry. I’m just a bit concerned about the music industry world as it is, let alone for a foreigner. All the language skills, experience, etc aside, how hard really is it? I’m extremely young and am planning to go study abroad in Japan before while i go into this industry. I’m going to study economics and business economics.

Really, i just want to know the music industry is and what it’s like for people who come from outside. The reason is because i don’t really plan on working there if i can’t be certain i can stay in Japan with, for example, a working visa or a international business visa.

I know it’s a bit late to comment under this post, but i had a few questions.

I’m currently studying in my country to work in the music industry. We get shown how labels work, how to sign and manage artists, book artists, and most importantly, get a wide network of connections through the school since its a well known school here ( the Netherlands) when it comes to music.

Though this is great and awesome, I really want to go into the Japanese music industry. I’m just a bit concerned about the music industry world as it is, let alone for a foreigner. All the language skills, experience, etc aside, how hard really is it? I’m extremely young and am planning to go study abroad in Japan before while i go into this industry. I’m going to study economics and business economics.

Really, i just want to know the music industry is and what it’s like for people who come from outside. The reason is because i don’t really plan on working there if i can’t be certain i can stay in Japan with, for example, a working visa or a international business visa.

I’ll be 18 when i’m done with the school i’m in now so i want to ideally go there immediately so i don’t have to start building up my life here just to leave it behind to go study abroad.

idk if its in this post, but I DO do a lot of immersion. At least I try to. I always watch Japanese N5 vlogs or podcasts between 2 people which I actually understand like 80-90% of and has new words and grammar into the rest of that 20-10%. I also try to watch a lot of anime with Japanese subtitles and mine words I find difficult, though they are pretty obscure words that I likely won't use. Tha's why I plan on actually learning those mined words after I finish my kaishi deck. The only thing I'm lacking right now is grammar, since Bunpro only lets me do a few reviews a day and I havent really found a alternative to quizzes and repetition for grammar :/

Great advice. Also, do you think mnemonics would help me remember kanji more or would it hurt me further down the road? It would probably help for a simple jlpt test but it would actually hurt me when I try to strike conversations without having subtitles.

Thank you so much! If anything you’ve actually motivated and encouraged me! I didn’t know that simply watching videos without translating every word is also a good immersion tool. Also i do kind of shadow it but i don’t speak too loud since i’m on a quiet train with earphones in at 8 in the morning and 6 at noon lmao. I have been trying to get comfortable with shadowing anki while i’m at home which i wasnt all too comfortable with at first.

I actually think it might be working against me when i try multiple learning methods at the same time so i will keep it at anki and maybe switch it up for a few days where i add something! (Ofcourse ill still do bunpro and other grammar stuff.)

I’ll reach out if i’m stuck on anything and thank you so much!

This is great information, i already am trying to fill deadspace as much as i can on the way to school or when i’m eating or before going to bed. Just the trainride is 3 hours filled in the whole day, but it’s just not full immersion like i’m sitting at home and really mining words i don’t know. I just watched videos from WAKU WAKU JAPANESE and they have the best beginner videos jn my opinion. I also watch “speak Japanese naturally” since those are like vlogs where she just films what she does and she voice overs it slowly and understandably for almost every vlog. It also only has japanese subtitles. That’s more for when im done with the lil kiddy stuff where they talk about what fruit is in the basket.

Up until now i haven’t missed a day since i started around a month ago and i feel like i’m doing pretty good for somone who’s in a month. I can understand maybe half a sentence when having a conversation with someone through text and when reading a N5 story i can understand the story somewhat because of the fact i can read a few words per sentence. The thing i’m going to be worried about is speaking and listening so i’m gonna try really improving on that too in the meanwhile while still doing the anki and grammar learning stuff ive been doing recently

Well, how would you see a schedule where its realistic

You’d think kpop is bigger but Japan has the second largest music revenue in the WORLD because tokyo is basically a haven for music when it comes to physical media. I’ve heard from a Japanese friend of mine that while Japanese infrastructure is ahead of its time, it’s mediums aren’t. They still use fax machines according to my Japanese friend. That’s one of the largest of reasons japan has such a large music related revenue. Everyone still uses cd-players, vinyl players and tape players. Over 50% of Japans revenue from music comes from physical media! And i suspect that will only increase with physical media getting more relevant and populair in my generation and the one before mine.

Now revenue does not mean that it’s more populair. What it does mean is that the market for jobs is bigger and wider, not just ar Sony or Universal. It’s also the little independent labels that make alot of revenue.

Another thing about k-pop is that it is extremely driven towards profit and commercialism. I may be going into business and commercialism but the reason im doing it in music is because, i love music! When the main goal of music is to make money it doesn’t feel authentic anymore. The art and creation aspect of the music is gone and now just used for profits. Most of the biggest K-pop groups don’t even produce, write, choreograph or even have a say in their own music! Everything is handed to them by the label and they just have to be the face of a brand. In most of the western world of music, artists get signed to a label because they are expected to blow up AFTER they’ve already released a debut single or album. In Korea and also just alot of eastern world music, the groups are created for the labels themselves. They scout young cute looking people and just hand them everything to become a pop-icon. I saw this ironically Japanese group who got scouted for a group that HYBE created. The youngest was 14 and the oldest 17. Some of them have never even touched a microphone or danced. They are trained to do this AFTER they are scouted. If you thought the western music industry was fake you haven’t seen the eastern.

Now why would i want to go out of my way to go a country where i don’t like the way the industry is? Because this is for a majority in Korea and the only real people who do this in Japan are people who are associated with HYBE (a K-Pop label). Everything else when it comes to music there is just like here in the western side of it.

Will def do this thank you! I’ll try cutting off english almost fullt and switch almost all apps to japanese; captions, comments, videos, all japanese.

Great question, especially since this will be asked when i want to go study there. This will get deep. I work in the music and entertainment industry as an artist manager and event organizer. My kind of goal is to become a sort of middleman between Europe (where i am now) and asia (Japan ) to either get Dutch artists to Japan or Japanese artists to the Netherlands. Since the study i’m planning to follow has a broad economics and management course but also minors in the music industry (which they do very practically and not theoretically) of Japan. This way i can either start from the Netherlands to connect or start from Japan. Second reason is that i need something refreshing and new, i want to explore new cultures, meet new people, get used to a different way of living. I think everyone should do this. The reason for me choosing Japan is not just because it’s one of the largest music industries on the planet right now, but also because i’ve been dabbling and watching Japanese culture from a very young age. Same way that other European kids used to dream about LA in 2016 with all the newest iphones and starbucks drinks, i used to do with izuma eleven and shibuya sky. It’s really not just a goal i have set for the future but also a childhood wish i’m going to fulfill simultaneously. Now i know living there is extremely hard, especially since they don’t welcome foreigners who can’t speak their language, follow sociatal rules and contribute to the community (Which those shouldn’t be a problem for me because why would i not adapt to a foreign country if i’m going to be there). So I don’t have the goal of fully migrating and leaving my family here behind, but i do want it to be a place i can switch to between homecountry and second “home”country. Knowing i won’t fully ever be accepted in their society.

Now why did you live in Japan for 6 years?

I’ll try and get into books since alot of people are recommending me, tho i’m curious, what did you write in that wall of text?

2 hours extensively and just inactively during reading, watching shows, etc. Possibly more during weekends and fridays since im off from school and barely have any work next to school.

Are you sure that’s possible? I thought i checked the test requirments and it said you couldnt skip the levels and had to do them in order tho i found that pretty weird..

Thank you so much! Will def use this

I AM writing over and over and over again. Everything i learn in anki is just the words the first time. Everytime i see them i write them down with the meaning, tone and furigana (eventually getting rid of furigana).

I don’t really have time since I’m a full-time student.

Well, see it as an exchange student, but, for a company. I’m just gonna go do my internship internationally instead of in my own country

Yeah… just kinda force him to speak with me

This is a great comment, thank you so much! I should spend most of my time reading then?

Already have yomitan installed and made a deck for this beginner N5 anime i watched a few days ago. Pretty interesting.

I did that, i’m working on everything on that list rn but the hardest for me to achieve is N2 at the moment. That’s why i’m trying to learn it.

Do you know any pre-made decks for this? I’m confident i can achieve this tho i ofcourse have no experience in learning japanese for so long so that’s why i ask the people of reddit.

Luckily i do all of those things! Except cor the classes and tutor stuff. I need it for mainly school, but i plan on going to an economics school so i would def also need a better or more complicated vocab than average

Oh yeah forgot to say, in about 2 years, around 6 months before the last school year before i plan on going to study abroad, i’m going to do an internship in japan for 6 months, atleast thats the plan. Even that i need a pretty good japanese level language for.

No, a full study.