Title: City Pop and K-Pop: Popular Music in Post-Postwar Japan and South Korea
Presentation 1: City Pop in Translation: Sound, Nostalgia, and Its Connections to K-Pop
: Toshiyuki OHWADA (Keio University)
Presentation 2: From Tokyo to Seoul, via “America”: City Pop and the Urban Dynamics of Americanization and De-Americanization
: Sungmin Kim (Hokkaido University)
Discussants: Gyutag Lee (George Mason University Korea), Hyunseok Kwon (Hanyang University)
Moderator: Seok-Kyeong Hong (Global Hallyu Team, The SNU Contemporary Korean Studies & Center for Hallyu Studies, Seoul National University Asia Center)
Date & Time: Friday, September 18, 2026, 2:00–4:30 PM
Venue: Room 304, Seoul National University Asia Center
Co-hosted by: Center for Hallyu Studies, Seoul National University Asia Center · Institute of Communication Research, Seoul National University · The SNU Contemporary Korean Studies
The Global Hallyu Team of The SNU Contemporary Korean Studies is pleased to announce a special seminar on Korean-Japanese popular music, exploring the historical and cultural pathways through which popular music from South Korea and Japan has intersected, circulated, and been translated across cultures.
Under the theme “City Pop and K-Pop: Popular Music in Post-Postwar Japan and South Korea,” the seminar will bring together discussions on the formation and global rediscovery of Japanese city pop, as well as its relationship with Korean popular music and K-Pop.
The first speaker, Professor Toshiyuki OHWADA (Keio University), will present “City Pop in Translation: Sound, Nostalgia, and Its Connections to K-Pop.” His presentation will examine the processes through which the distinctive sound of Japanese city pop was formed and its recent global rediscovery, with particular attention to how the sound and nostalgia of city pop have been newly translated and reconfigured in K-Pop.
The second speaker, Professor Sungmin Kim (Hokkaido University), will present “From Tokyo to Seoul, via ‘America’: City Pop and the Urban Dynamics of Americanization and De-Americanization.” His presentation will explore how popular music from the United States, or “America,” was translated and appropriated in different ways in Tokyo in the 1970s and 1980s and in Seoul after 1987.
Following the two presentations, Professor Gyutag Lee (George Mason University Korea) and Professor Hyunseok Kwon (Hanyang University) will participate as designated discussants. We warmly invite everyone interested to join us for an engaging conversation on the historical connections between Korean and Japanese popular music and the cultural genealogy of K-Pop.