Global pop groups are rising in popularity, but Japan-based XG is a pioneer in the space.
The seven-member group was formed as part of a joint venture titled XGALX (a partnership between Japanese entertainment conglomerate Avex and producer Jakops) and hit the worldstage in 2022. XG’s members were all from, trained and based in Japan, promoted their releases through the K-pop system in Korea, and performed entirely in English. At the time, it was unheard of.
The vision came from Jakops, both the CEO of XGALX and XG’s lead producer. Knowing the 39-year-old’s origins provides a good window into just how XG’s formula came to be. Jakops, whose real name is Simon Junho Park, was born in Seattle, Washington to a Japanese mother and a Korean father. He spent his formative years in Korea, eventually debuting in K-pop boy group DMTN before shifting his focus to working as an independent artist under the name Jakops. As a producer, he began contributing to the creation of music for large K-pop acts.
“I’ve seen a lot of different cultures,” the executive tells The Hollywood Reporter, explaining his desire to form a group like XG came from being interested in different music systems in different cultures.
It’s mid-December and Jakops sits in the conference room of a Koreatown hotel. He’s made the trip to L.A. with XG for their U.S. television debut on NBC’s The Voice, performing “Gala,” their 2025 Met Gala-inspired single. “From the get go it was all about the global reception and the global resonance,” Jakops says of XG, but perhaps he’s also speaking a bit for himself, as he later admits L.A. might become a larger fixture in his life.
XG — which released their first full-length studio album, The Core, last week — was Jakops’ first major project under his, at the time, newly formed joint venture. The young members of XG spent five years training under Jakops and his team, documenting the process in their 2023 YouTube documentary series, Xtra Xtra. Jakops says he trained the group from the start with the intention to sing in English and hit a global market.
Their debut single, “Mascara,” set them on a path to success, but the duel 2023 singles “Shooting Star” and “Left Right” launched the group into the global conversation. The bright, cutesy, quirky aesthetic of the early early aughts paired with the R&B and pop sound of girl groups like 3LW or TLC landed XG in a sweet spot creatively, and they’ve continued down that road since.
“We wanted to do something that had never been done before, that [had] never been seen before, something very unique,” Jakops explains. “We had to have a very clear idea of what we were doing and why we’re doing it because no formula really fit what we were trying to do.”
In the years since, global girl groups, which XG previously categorized themselves as, have become increasingly popular with the rise of acts like Katseye, up for best new artist at the 2026 Grammy Awards, and Girlset, formerly known as VCHA. It’s fair to argue that XG was ahead of its time and laid the groundwork for this new type of group, but it’s also important to note that the moniker no longer fits the group.
Generally speaking, the Idol system in the landscape of J-pop and K-pop, has a notoriously abysmal history of openly LGBTQIA+ performers. But last month, XG member Cocona, 20, made history and joined the small group of openly LGBTQIA+ idols, coming out as transmasculine nonbinary in an Instagram post on their 20th birthday. The rapper, the youngest member of the group, also shared that they had undergone top surgery earlier in the year.
Cocona’s choice was not only brave, but it was a massive step forward for the world of idol performers. Jakops, who has been training Cocona since they were a pre-teen, stood firmly in support of Cocona, as both an artist in his group and a person, posting to Instagram shortly after Cocona did. “Sometimes I feel like I share the DNA with the seven members. They really feel like family,” Jakops admits.
“When I first met Cocona, they were a very young child, and really, we built this group together [with the other members]. XG bet their lives on what we were about to do,” he continues. Having trained with the members of the group for so long, he laments that he’s been able to watch all of them grow and become the people they are today.
“It was a very moving and touching happy moment for me to see them find their own identity, and looking at each individual member as an individual, how they’re able to be true to themselves,” Jakops says. “It’s about respect and respecting that and that space, so it’s for us, [about] cherishing that truth as a company, but as individuals. When they look in the mirror, they’re able to see themselves in a way that I think gives courage and hope to the world.”
XG, Jakops explains, is currently in the midst of a “big shift” as it finds new meaning. “[It’s] a good shift, a good evolution,” he says. The shift comes in the form of the group’s name, previously an abbreviation for Xtraordinary Girls, which has become to mean Xtraordinary Genes, going back to the group’s futuristic, alien career-long storyline.
But the group is also undergoing a more personal shift, as Jakops and XGALX plan to buck typical idol tradition of what performers can and can’t do. All members of the group have reached adulthood, Jakops points out, and like most K-pop and J-pop groups, XG had rules they had to follow during their trainee and early days.
“I want their success and happiness,” Jakops says of the seven members of XG, pointing out that given the strict lifestyle idols live it’s harder to make friends and live the life one might expect a group of 20-somethings to live. But the producer is hoping to change that for XG, sharing that in October, he told the members there’s a trust amongst them and the rules that were needed before are no longer needed.
“I told them two months ago, you guys are all free. You guys are adults, [go] find, I don’t know, a boyfriend or [you can be] more social. You guys are free,” he recalls. “[Going forward], it’s more their own life.”
Jakops is also looking at changes in his life, aligning with the company’s position on the U.S. as not only an important market for the group but a center for culture. In May, Jakops will move to the U.S. for possibly up to six months. He jokes that even though he’s 39, he feels like he’s going back to university again.
“There’s always been this notion in Korea and Japan to be recognized by the U.S., to be recognized internationally. We tried really, really hard, and I think now is finally our moment,” he says. But for now, it’ll just be Jakops moving to the U.S., as he says XG will not be joining him when asked if the plan is for all to move.
“We’ll keep the scale rather small and then see how it goes — everyone in my company doesn’t even know about this plan yet — but during this trip I was able to find my result and make up my mind,” he says.
“The members of XG are very supportive, and they’re cheering me on for this new initiative,” he says. He knows the members well, laughing when he admits,”I think after I get settled, they’re going to say they want to come too.”