South Korea-born entertainment giant HYBE has rebranded its Japan-based subsidiary.
HYBE Labels Japan, headquartered in Tokyo and led by CEO Han Hyun-rock, has been renamed YX LABELS as of Friday (February 14).
The company’s rebrand in the world’s second-largest recorded music market arrives seven months after HYBE unveiled a significant reorganization of its global business under the banner of HYBE 2.0.
As part of the new HYBE 2.0 structure, the company launched a new division called HYBE MUSIC GROUP APAC to oversee all of the company’s music label businesses based in Korea and Japan.
Young Jae Shin was appointed President of HYBE MUSIC GROUP APAC.
Youngmin Kim, the former General Manager of SM Entertainment, was appointed as Chairman of HYBE JAPAN. HYBE said at the the time that it was planning to accelerate the company’s growth in the country.
In a press release issued on Friday (February 14), HYBE said that as part of its HYBE 2.0 organizational structure, the company is promoting a “multi-home, multi-genre strategy to develop businesses tailored to the culture and characteristics of each region”.
In addition to Japan, other regions of focus for HYBE include the United States, where it launched HYBE America following the acquisition of Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in 2021.
HYBE Latin America, meanwhile, launched in 2023, via the acquisition of Exile Music, an affiliate label of Spanish language entertainment studio Exile Content.
The company recently expanded its presence in the Latin American music market with the launch of a new label.
HYBE says that HYBE Japan operates as a standalone entity, along with HYBE America and HYBE Latin America.
According to HYBE, as part of its HYBE 2.0 strategy, HYBE JAPAN, now YX LABELS, will build “an independent multi-label system with the aim of becoming a leading company in Japan”.
According to HYBE, the new name for its Japan-based division, YX LABELS, “reflects the label’s ambition to set up a new ‘axis’ in the Japanese music market”.
Added HYBE in its press release: “YX LABELS is a label that offers the most innovative (eXtreme) and outstanding (eXcellence) entertainment experience to all youth, including fans (You).
“Not bound by conventional conventions, we aim to provide an unprecedented entertainment experience while presenting new trends in the Japanese music market.”
YX Labels has also launched an audition show locally to discover seven members for a new Japanese K-pop boy band based in Japan.
“The show will portray the contestants’ raw emotions as they push their limits, compete and support one another,” the Korea Times reports YX Labels as saying.
Elsewhere in Japan, just last week, Universal Music Group acquired a majority stake in prominent Japanese artist management business and record label, A-Sketch.Music Business Worldwide