Asia’s top music market, Japan eyes selling pop to the world

The rookie music group XG drew a huge roar at the KCON LA festival, a gathering of Korean pop music fans, with a cover of “I Am the Best,” a 2011 hit from the group 2NE1. The seven young women in skeleton-print costumes and tank tops heated up the stage like all K-pop ensembles, with vocal harmonies and synchronized dance moves. But none of the XG members singing in Los Angeles to the tens of thousands of fans last August were in fact Korean — they’re all Japanese. The 2-year-old...