Mama Awards stays in Japan for 2nd straight year

Despite its global aspirations, the renewed Mama Awards by Mnet is set to take place in Japan for the second straight year.

Although at a more sluggish pace than expected, the world's biggest K-pop festival said it is inching toward its goal of being held outside Asia, with this year's event taking place at the Tokyo Dome, Japan's top concert venue, for the first time.

With 20 days left until the festival on Nov. 28-29, producers of organizer CJ ENM, and this year's host, Jeon Somi, held a media day gathering in Seoul on Wednesday.

Park Chan-uk, the general manager of CJ ENM's music arm Mnet, noted of the venue's significance, as Tokyo Dome is a highly coveted stage by many global artists, and Mama will be debuting there for the first time as a K-pop festival.

"We're entering the Tokyo Dome, considered to be among Japan's three top domes along with Nagoya and Kyocera. Japan is K-pop's No. 1 consumer and the world's second-largest music market. Launching (Mama Awards) at a symbolic and central location of such a country itself holds value," Park said.

Last year's venue was Kyocera Dome in Osaka, Japan. The Mama Awards being held in Japan this year comes as a slight disappointment to some as the event had undergone a major renewal last year, renaming itself as the Mama Awards, from its previous name, the Mnet Asian Music Awards, in expression of its ambition to go more global.

Kim Hyun-soo, head of music content at CJ ENM, had stated at the media event last year that Mama Awards aims to be held in the US within three years.

When asked by The Korea Herald whether the plan is still feasible, CJ ENM's Live Entertainment Content Planning Manager Lee Sun-hyung gave a vague response.