aespa prepares "Kiss N Tell", Japan is the next test

K-pop girl group aespa. (Yonhap)

JAKARTA - aespa is preparing to greet the Japanese market again. The South Korean girl group will release their first Japanese EP, "Kiss N Tell", on July 24.

Korea JoongAng Daily, quoted Thursday, July 2, reported that the announcement was made by aespa's agency, SM Entertainment, on Thursday. This album is aespa's first Japanese release in the past two years, after their Japanese debut single, "Hot Mess", came out in 2024.

"Kiss N Tell" contains six new Japanese songs. One of them is the title track with the same title.

Ahead of the album's release, aespa is scheduled to hold a fan meeting titled "My Classmate" at Keio Arena Tokyo from July 18 to 20. The writing of the event title follows the source script.

aespa debuted under SM Entertainment in 2020 with the digital single "Black Mamba". The group, which consists of Karina, Giselle, Winter, and Ningning, is known for a number of popular songs, such as "Next Level" in 2021, "Spicy" in 2023, "Drama" and "Supernova" in 2024, and "Rich Man" in 2025.

The name aespa is also continuing to move in the global market. Their second full-length album, "Lemonade", which was released on May 29, debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard 200. This is the third time that aespa has entered the top 10 of the album chart.

This Japanese release is important because aespa is coming to a market that has long been one of the main goals of K-pop groups. In the midst of fierce competition among girl groups, "Kiss N Tell" is a way for aespa to keep its distance from its competitors, while also testing how strong their listener base is outside of Korea.