Kep1er is heading back to Japan — and this time, they're bringing six shows across three cities.
Agency Klap Entertainment announced on Friday that the girl group will hold its second fan meeting series in Japan in May, under the title "Kep1arcade." The events will take place in Osaka, Tokyo, and Nagoya, with two shows per city. It marks the group's return to Japanese fans roughly three years after their first fan meeting in Tokyo, and about six months after their "Kep1asia" tour brought them back to the country for three stops.
The timing is deliberate. Just weeks before the Japan fan meetings, on March 31, Kep1er will release its eighth EP, "Crack Code" — their first album since the group reorganized into a six-member lineup. The fan meetings give the group a direct way to bring that new material to one of K-pop's most loyal and active markets in person.
Kep1er's history with Japan goes back to their debut days. The group launched in 2022 with nine finalists from the Mnet competition show "Girls Planet 999," building a fanbase that quickly extended across Asia. Japan, in particular, became one of their strongest markets — Japanese fans have shown up consistently for the group's releases, in-person events, and online activities since the beginning.
The group's lineup has changed since then. In 2024, Kep1er transitioned from nine members to seven, and has since reorganized again to six. For a group that started as a project act with a fixed timeline, the decision to continue and rebuild with a smaller roster was a statement in itself. "Crack Code," their upcoming EP, arrives as the first full release under this new formation, giving the six remaining members a chance to define what Kep1er sounds like in this chapter.
Fan meetings, as a format, sit somewhere between a concert and a direct conversation with the audience. For a group like Kep1er, which built its following through a competition show and has always had a particularly engaged fanbase, the "Kep1arcade" series makes sense as a way to reconnect. Six shows across three cities is a substantial commitment for a fan meeting tour, and the Japan dates signal that the group's investment in that market remains strong.
Specific dates and ticket details for the May events have not yet been announced.