SM Entertainment Under Fire For Its Allegedly Unfair Treatment Of NCT’s Yuta

“The discrimination is so ridiculous.”

NCTzens have been raising concerns about SM Entertainment‘s treatment of NCT‘s Yuta, whose solo activities have allegedly not been promoted by the company despite their significance.

NCT’s Yuta | @yuu_taa_1026/Instagram

Yuta has had a busy year full of solo activities in Japan, including multiple high-profile magazine shoots, interviews, brand collaborations, and more.

In fact, Yuta was even cast in major Japanese blockbuster franchise, HiGH&LOW, and is due to make his debut as a fully-fledged action star this year. NCTzens couldn’t be more excited—or proud. Yuta has managed to not only carry out his responsibilities as a member of NCT, but has been traveling back and forth between Japan and Korea to fulfill rigorous schedules for months.

HiGH&LOW: THE WORST X movie poster

And yet, NCTzens feel SM Entertainment has not done him justice, claiming that the company has failed to promote Yuta’s activities the way it normally promotes other members’.

This comes as a surprise, as not only has Yuta proven himself to be extremely popular…

…but his many solo ventures have also been very high-profile.

What makes even less sense to fans is that Yuta has also reportedly been instrumental to SM Entertainment’s financial recovery in Japan following the pandemic.

| @Yeokshi_Yukkuri/Twitter

And yet, his activities have rarely — if ever — been promoted on NCT’s social media channels, despite their considerable contributions to the company.

Additionally, fans have pointed out that there has been an unfair ‘erasure’ of Yuta in NCT 127‘s previous promotional material, wherein Yuta was seemingly omitted from content such as facecams or ‘endings.’ Where other members had both facecams and fancams of them filmed, there was no facecam of Yuta to be found.

This is far from the first time fans have called out SM Entertainment for unfair treatment of a member. Earlier this year, for example, fans demanded better treatment for WayV’s Ten, who has been in China since September 2021. Allegedly, the company (or its subsidiary in China, Label V) not only failed to promote Ten on NCT’s channels, but they also failed to inform fans about his activities, leaving him with no fans to support him in the audience at variety shows.

WayV’s Ten | @tenlee_1001/Instagram

More recently, NCTzens have been pointing out that while Ten’s popularity has often been used to boost NCT projects, including the upcoming collaboration with Sanrio (similarly to Yuta’s popularity being used in Japan), Ten himself is never promoted.

For this reason, the reveal of NCT Tokyo and NCT Hollywood left fans with mixed feelings, as many feel that SM Entertainment is not doing enough to manage NCT’s already established members, specifically Yuta, Ten, the members of WayV, Japanese member Shotaro, and Sungchan. In fact, many fans have alleged that the company has discriminated against these members, seeing as most of them are not Korean; during NCT 127’s recent tour in Japan, NCTzens were upset to find that Yuta, the group’s only Japanese member, received less screentime than the other members.

The fact that SM Entertainment has been actively promoting other members’ activities recently, such as Johnny‘s appearance at the Met Gala or Jaehyun‘s trip to Italy for Prada‘s fashion show, has only highlighted Yuta’s absence from the official NCT channels for many fans.

Yuta has proven himself to be a vital member of NCT. So, as fans continue to support him, the company will hopefully come to acknowledge everything that Yuta brings to the table.

Idols Done Dirty