Korean Gen Z is tuning into Taeko Onuki and classic Japanese city pop

Something interesting is happening on Korean Gen Z playlists. Young listeners in Korea are gravitating toward Taeko Onuki, classic city pop, and J-rock, a cross-border appetite that reads as a genuine cultural shift, not a one-artist algorithm spike.

Taeko Onuki's catalog, rooted in the late-1970s and early-1980s Japanese music scene, is finding a new audience decades after its original run.

If you are diaspora-adjacent in North America, this probably feels familiar. The same algorithmic bridges that connect K-pop fans to J-pop deep cuts and retro Japanese catalogs have been active in diaspora listening circles for years.

What makes this Korea Times story a signal is that the bridge is running in the other direction too: domestic Korean Gen Z audiences are the ones doing the crossing, not just overseas fans importing taste back home. That reverses the usual assumption that cross-border fandom flows from West to East or from diaspora back to origin countries.

City pop's global revival has been building for a while, from vaporwave aesthetics and TikTok rediscoveries to the way a single sample can send an entire generation hunting for the original. But framing it as a Korean generational trend adds a layer: national music scenes are not as siloed as charts and language barriers suggest.

Young listeners treat catalogs as shared territory, not foreign imports requiring permission to enjoy. That attitude is increasingly the norm for diaspora Gen Z listeners who grew up with multilingual Spotify libraries as a default, not an exception.

The cross-market fandom in Seoul will show whether the city pop moment has staying power beyond a seasonal mood. If you have been watching Japanese catalogs travel through diaspora playlists for years, seeing the same appetite take hold among young listeners in Korea is a reminder that taste flows in more than one direction.