Cho Yong-pil Thrills Japanese Fans with Nostalgia Concert

Veteran singer Cho Yong-pil staged a concert in Japan for the first time in 15 years on Wednesday. Although the show was held at the Tokyo International Forum, a relatively small, 5,000-capacity venue, the audience was delighted as Cho transported them back in time by reeling out his old hits.

His songs were hugely popular in Japan in the 1980s, when many Japanese singers released cover versions of them. Reflecting on that time, Cho told the concertgoers in fluent Japanese that he was grateful to be able to "keep singing and releasing new songs, and also hold a concert here."

At the press conference prior to the concert, he said, "I'm not aiming to accomplish anything in particular with this show. I'm just doing it because I love music and want to keep singing."

Cho sang all of the songs in Korean except for "Bounce" and "Hello" from his 19th album. Thanks to the success of his latest album in Korea, he recently released a Japanese version recently.

Despite the smaller scale of the concert compared to his previous shows, it still required eight truckloads of stage props and a production crew of 140.