A day after J-pop fans gathered at Honolulu’s Tom Moffatt Waikiki Shell for a one-night-only concert, Asobi Expo Hawaii 2026, the artists and executives of Asobi System congregated backstage to discuss the event and the company’s global aspirations.

As J-pop continues to move further into the U.S. market, Japanese entertainment companies and labels are looking for ways to connect artists with both longtime and potential fans in what was a previously untapped market. Bringing Asobi Expo, an event meant to gather and showcase artists from the Asobi System family, to the U.S. is one way some labels are introducing talent stateside. Other events similar to it, like Japan Culture and Entertainment Industry Promotion Association’s Matsuri event held last year in Los Angeles, are label agnostic.

“I thought that was really important to bring [the event] abroad, to really spread the Japanese culture,” Asobi System CEO and founder of Yusuke Nakagawa, tells The Hollywood Reporter. The entertainment company, which he founded in 2007, works to showcase and spread Japan’s famed harajuku culture, which is essentially a collection of eclectic and diverse subcultures.

That Harajuku culture is on display plenty, all the way down to the variety of artists Nakagawa has picked for the Honolulu edition of Asobi Expo. There’s the high-energy, out-of-box Atarashii Gakko!, the adorable and endearing Kawaii Labs girl group Fruits Zipper and the veteran Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. The event’s audience featured a fair share of supporters for each act, a mix of both local residents and diehard fans who flew in from Japan.

Nakagawa says he felt that Hawaii was the perfect location to expand Asobi Expo into the U.S. “I thought it was a really good place, where the Japanese people would be happy to come and the local people [would] have a lot of support,” he says.

“It was our first time in Hawaii,” says Suzuka of Atarashii Gakko! The four-member girl group is no stranger to performing in the U.S., having previously performed at Coachella and headlining a North American tour of their own.

“The audience was really enjoying [the] different artists, so I thought maybe that’s the atmosphere of Hawaii, that you get to be more relaxed. I thought that was really good,” the singer continues. She says they put together a setlist that they knew the crowd would enjoy.

“Even the Japanese people that traveled over here, they seemed to have more energy or were yelling in a higher tone or [had] more body movement,” she continues. “We actually got hyped watching the audience. And, as a team, I was really grateful that we all got to travel together with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Fruits Zipper, but also [with] the Asobi System staff.”

Fruits Zipper, hailing from Asobi System’s sublabel, Kawaii Labs, is admittedly a bit to newer the U.S. market, but the girl group — which operates on a system of each member being assigned a color — had a large fan presence at the Honolulu concert.

“It’s always nice to see that there are fans outside Japan because we never get to meet the person,” Noel, whose color in the group is yellow, explains. The 22-year-old is the group’s main fluent English-language speaker, having been born in Germany and raised in Japan.

The word “kawaii” means cute or adorable in Japanese, which is exactly the vibe that Fruits Zipper’s visual aesthetic and sound conveys. The label, much like its parent company, aims to bring Harajuku culture to the global stage. Kawaii Labs, led by Misa Kimura, oversees several girl groups, including Cutie Street, who have been going viral internationally following music show promotions in Korea.

“One of the main thing Kawaii Labs strives to do is to bring the Japanese idol culture to the world, so when we do anything abroad like in U.S. and elsewhere, we don’t try to customize it to that region,” Kimura explains. The 35-year-old serves as the project’s leader and producer for Fruits Zipper and Cutie Street, along Candy Tune and Sweet Steady.

“In the case of the U.S., they think [this kind of group] is a breath of fresh air,” the producer says. “It’s just completely different than what they’re used to.”

Kimura was once in the J-pop scene herself, having previously been the leader of idol group Musubizm. The producer’s experience as both an executive and a former idol makes her uniquely qualified in conveying just how much J-pop has grown globally. “I’m very happy to see that the Japanese culture is actually spreading in different countries, even in places that I didn’t think it was there,” she says. “I’m very happy to [be able] see that in person.”

Asobi System and Asobi Expo plan to continue their global growth, says Nakagawa. “Watching the audience’s reaction really touched me. It was really very emotional and made me realize I really want to [bring this to] L.A., Miami, London, Paris,” the executive explains.

“The music is so different when you experience it [in person], not just on the social media side [or] listening to it,” he continues. “It’s a challenge to bring [the show] over and then to find the right artists that will be able to communicate to the audience, but it’s something we want to think about and challenge ourselves to make it happen.”