In no particular order, let’s take a look at some of the newer idols who’ve studied or taught themselves Japanese!  

1. ENHYPEN’s Jay

At a fansign, when asked by an ENGENE if he had any secrets for learning Japanese, Jay said that he started learning Japanese by watching the anime series ‘Atashin’chi’ and ‘Detective Conan.’ He also said that would listen to Japanese radio stations on YouTube with subtitles on. Prior to being an “I-LAND” contestant, he was a trainee for about 3 years, and during this time, he continued listening to Japanese radio with his earphones. His favorite Japanese word is “tsuyoi,” which means strong. It was also the first vocabulary word that he learned. As he was born in and spent much of his childhood living in Seattle, he’s also fluent in English.  

2. CRAVITY’s WonJin

Since he was so into anime, WonJin started teaching himself Japanese so that he could watch it without subtitles. After joining Starship, he actually began taking Japanese lessons. At the 2020 Mnet Asian Music Awards, WonJin delivered an appreciation speech to fans in Japanese. People seemed to love his Japanese. He gained much attention for it on Twitter, and some viewers even mistook him for a Japanese member because his Japanese was so good. Watch the speech below!

 

3. EPEX’s BaekSeung

In the middle of last year, BaekSeung said that he takes Japanese lessons. We aren’t sure if he still does, but they definitely did work! ZENITHs fell head over heels for his Japanese while doing a cover of the Japanese hip-hop song ‘Hug’ by sorane with cignature’s Belle. Check it out below!

 

4. T1419’s On

It’s no surprise that a T1419 member is on this list. After all, 4 out of their 9 members are Japanese. On’s Japanese isn’t perfect, but we still love heading him speak it, especially on the Japanese version of their reality show, Daily Us.  

5. TREASURE’ JiHoon

Although he’s skilled in it, JiHoon has said that he still has a long way to go with his Japanese. He actually studied the language extremely hard because he thought that he would be the group’s spokesperson for Japanese promotions. Little did he know that he would be joined by 4 Japanese dudes as members!  

6. JUST B’s Bain

Bain is impressively multilingual. Aside from Korean and Japanese, he can also speak English and Mandarin.   4 K-Pop Idols You Might Not Have Known Could Speak German KPOP STORIES|Feb 15, 2022 7 K-Pop Idols Who Can Speak Cantonese KPOP STORIES|Aug 21, 2018

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