Boy band BTS speaks on stage during the 2026 American Music Awards, in Las Vegas on May 25. [REUTERS/YONHAP]
A teenager who discovers BTS today may grow up to book trips to Seoul, buy Korean products and carry a favorable image of Korea well into adulthood.
That is the long-term bet behind a recent analyst report from NH Investment & Securities, which argued that young BTS fans could eventually translate their fandom into lasting economic gains for Korea, enough to buoy the country’s GDP decades from now.
There is a precedent nearby, which may at first sound ambitious. Japan spent decades turning anime, manga, games and characters into soft power, as generations raised on Nintendo, Pokémon and Studio Ghibli grew into adults who feel Japan is familiar and culturally close to them.
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