Only One Foreign Song Made Japan’s Top 10, and It Was Lee Soo-man’s A2O LITE “NEON”

Featured photo: Lee Soo-man speaking at CISAC 2024 in Seoul, May 30, 2024. Photo: TV10 (티비텐) via YouTube / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.

In Japan’s overall singles top 10 this week, only one name didn’t belong to a Japanese artist: A2O LITE, the new girl group built by Lee Soo-man, with their debut single “NEON.” Twenty-four years ago, he made 15-year-old BoA the first Korean singer to top Japan’s Oricon chart. This time he walked into the middle of Japan’s charts with one song by a group barely two weeks past debut.

I’ll be honest: the first time I spotted that name on the Japanese chart, I was so happy as a fan. There, wedged between nine Japanese acts, was a name I know by heart: A2O LITE.

Nine Japanese songs, and one “NEON”

Billboard Japan’s JAPAN Hot 100 is the country’s all-in-one singles ranking, combining physical sales, downloads, streaming, radio airplay and video views. On this week’s chart, released October 28, “NEON” was No. 9. In only its second week on the chart, it jumped 36 places from No. 45.[1]

The eight songs above it all belong to Japanese artists, from MAZZEL and Naniwa Danshi to Vaundy and M!LK. No. 10 is “Brand New” by the Japanese band Mrs. GREEN APPLE. The next-highest K-pop song is ILLIT’s “It’s Me,” which Japan has loved for more than half a year, at No. 13.[1]

Oricon, Japan’s biggest chart company, points the same way. On its weekly streaming ranking dated November 2 (tracking October 19–25), “NEON” was played 5,367,929 times in one week and rose to No. 5, up from No. 48 in its first week the week before.[2] Weekly plays grew 140%, and its total passed about 7.6 million.[3] ILLIT’s “It’s Me” was No. 9 that same week.[2] On Spotify’s Japan daily chart, it climbed to No. 8 on October 26, a new career high, and held No. 8 on October 27 with its biggest day yet in Japan, 209,560 streams.[4]

The video stands at 30.59 million views and 551,000 likes (checked October 29, 2026, 5:19 p.m. KST).[8]

Also read: Ousted From SM, Lee Soo-man Just Beat the NCT He Built: A2O LITE Tops NCT WISH on Inkigayo

In 2002, Lee Soo-man opened Japan first

This No. 9 matters because Japan is where Lee Soo-man first won a No. 1 with a singer made in Korea. BoA debuted in 2000 at 13. With the Japanese market as the goal from day one, SM spent two years training her in singing, dancing, English and Japanese, then teamed up with the Japanese label avex to send her to Japan. BoA put her Korean activities on hold to focus on Japan.[3]

In March 2002, BoA’s first Japanese studio album, LISTEN TO MY HEART, sold more than 230,000 copies in its first week, became the first album by a Korean artist to hit No. 1 on the Oricon album chart and went on to sell a million. Starting with that record, BoA took six studio albums in a row to No. 1 on Oricon.[3] Lee Soo-man’s map, a singer made in Korea winning Japan first and then carrying that name across Asia, began with this album.

Twenty-four years later, Lee Soo-man is no longer at SM. After leaving the company in 2023, he founded A2O Entertainment in Singapore; why he took that road is in It Wasn’t Exile That Sent Him to China. Released October 13, “NEON” hit No. 1 on Melon, Korea’s biggest music platform, in 29 hours (Korea Flipped When the King of K-pop Came Back), and two weeks later it was No. 3 in the world outside the US on Billboard’s global charts (Two Weeks, No SM: Lee Soo-man’s A2O LITE Just Outranked BTS on Billboard). The very next day, it walked into the top 10 of the Japanese chart that BoA first opened. It’s a song sung by nine members from five countries: Korea, China, Japan, Thailand and the US.[5]

BoA’s record was a No. 1 on an album chart built on physical sales; “NEON”‘s numbers are rankings on streaming and all-in-one charts. Different formats, so it isn’t the same record. But it’s the same road. Plays that people in Japan chose for themselves piled up into a chart position, and the man who made the song is the same one as 24 years ago.

Six wins, and then Paris

At home, the momentum keeps going. On October 28, “NEON” took No. 1 on Show Champion for the second week in a row, its sixth music show win.[6] On October 26 it entered Spotify’s global daily Top 100 for the first time at No. 96, rose to No. 91 the next day, and stayed No. 1 in both Korea and Taiwan.[4] The music video passed 30 million views 16 days after release.[8]

The next stage is set, too. A2O LITE will perform at the K-pop awards show D Awards 2027 in Paris, held January 15–16, 2027, at Plenitude Arena (formerly Paris La Défense Arena) in France. A European stage, just three months after debut.[7]

That name wedged between nine Japanese acts: I’m already counting down to chart day to see which line it lands on next week.

Sources

1. Billboard JAPAN, JAPAN Hot 100 (released October 28, 2026), rechecked October 29, 2026, 5:20 p.m. KST
2. ORICON, Weekly Streaming Ranking, dated November 2, 2026, rechecked October 29, 2026, 5:20 p.m. KST
3. MHN, October 28, 2026, Sports Kyunghyang, October 28, 2026
4. Kworb, NEON Spotify chart history, through the October 27 daily chart, checked October 29, 2026, 5:20 p.m. KST
5. TV Report, October 24, 2026
6. Topstar News, October 28, 2026
7. Xports News, October 28, 2026
8. View count of A2O WORLD’s “NEON” Official Video (via returnyoutubedislikeapi), checked October 29, 2026, 5:19 p.m. KST