Soneium And IRC APP Partner To Transform Fan Engagement At Japan’s Largest Idol & Fashion Festival 

by
Alisa Davidson

Revealed: November 27, 2025 at 9:00 pm Up to date: November 27, 2025 at 8:36 am

by Ana

Edited and fact-checked:
November 27, 2025 at 9:00 pm

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Soneium, developed by Sony Block Options Labs, introduced a collaboration with IRC APP, the official software for IDOL RUNWAY COLLECTION, supported by TGC. 

Created by YOAKE leisure, IRC APP allows fandom actions to be recorded, rewarded, and acknowledged in a clear and lasting method utilizing onchain know-how by way of the REC token. YOAKE leisure, a recipient of the Soneium Spark initiative, is backed by main Japanese IP and leisure corporations together with TWIN PLANET, ASOBISYSTEM, W TOKYO, Y&N Brothers, and Sony Group. 

The corporate organizes IRC, Japan’s largest idol and trend pageant, and continues to innovate fan engagement by way of the appliance.

IRC has reached over one million individuals by way of venue attendance, broadcast viewership, and media protection. The applying goals to redefine how fandom contributions are tracked and rewarded, creating new alternatives for inventive participation within the digital and onchain period.

IRC 2026 marks the third annual version of one in all Japan’s fastest-growing cultural festivals, now elevated by its partnership with TGC, the nation’s largest and most influential trend occasion. Since 2005, TGC has hosted over 40 large-scale exhibits, attracting a cumulative viewers exceeding 5 million by way of dwell occasions, regional excursions, and nationwide livestreams, offering IRC with a world-class manufacturing and cultural platform.

Constructing on this basis, IRC 2025 drew round 11,800 attendees to the Nationwide Yoyogi Gymnasium First Gymnasium, that includes 107 idols performing in a novel mixture of idol tradition and high-fashion runway presentation. The occasion established IRC as one in all Japan’s most vital idol and trend hybrid festivals.

On March fifteenth, 2026, IRC 2026 will return to the Yoyogi Nationwide Gymnasium First Gymnasium, hosted by YOAKE leisure. This version will function distinguished idol teams together with Nogizaka46, =LOVE, FRUITS ZIPPER, CUTIE STREET, and TAKANE NO NADESHIKO, reflecting its cultural impression and broad attraction.

By integrating TGC’s international trend affect, IRC’s arena-scale manufacturing, and Japan’s idol ecosystem, IRC 2026 represents an bold convergence of leisure, trend, and onchain fan participation, providing a brand new mannequin for interactive cultural experiences.

IRC APP Brings International Fan Engagement To Japan’s Largest Idol Competition On Soneium

Throughout the worldwide leisure business, fan engagement has usually gone unmeasured and undervalued. IRC APP addresses this difficulty by specializing in J-Pop, the world’s second-largest music market in keeping with IFPI’s International Music Report 2025, collaborating with main idol teams and Japan’s largest idol pageant to reveal how IPFi infrastructure can unlock measurable worth from inventive communities at scale.

Constructed on Soneium’s infrastructure, IRC APP connects on a regular basis fan exercise to tangible outcomes at IRC. The applying makes use of Account Abstraction (AA) to simplify blockchain entry, permitting customers to take part instantly by way of social logins corresponding to LINE, Google, or Apple while not having wallets or technical setup. By linking an X (previously Twitter) account, customers interact with “AI SNS Tendencies,” an AI-driven analytics system powered by Document Protocol that evaluates publicly accessible supportive posts for positivity, consistency, and group contribution.

Document Protocol offers a impartial, blockchain- and AI-based infrastructure that makes fandom contributions verifiable and economically related. Traditionally, followers have amplified content material, coordinated communities, and generated demand, but their efforts have hardly ever been quantifiable. 

Document Protocol addresses this hole by turning engagement into measurable worth.

Fan exercise is tracked by way of IRC Rating, which is routinely credited to customers’ onchain wallets with out gasoline charges or transaction approvals. 

Gathered scores decide membership ranges—Common, Bronze, Silver, or Gold—unlocking advantages corresponding to early ticket entry, precedence entry, and premium venue invitations. Increased membership ranks additionally grant extra voting tickets, permitting followers to affect real-world features of IRC 2026 by way of onchain “Fan Vote” capabilities. 

The system was validated throughout a January beta, which introduced over 60,000 customers onchain and demonstrated that mainstream audiences can interact with onchain voting by way of an accessible design.

By combining social-native onboarding, AI-based fandom evaluation, and gasless onchain interplay, IRC APP creates a framework the place fan participation interprets into significant, verifiable impression on the occasion expertise.

IRC 2026 Lineup Built-in With IRC APP On Soneium

YOAKE Leisure has revealed the primary wave of performers for IRC 2026, all of whom will take part by way of IRC APP on Soneium, permitting followers to have interaction through AI SNS Tendencies and earn IRC Rating. Further artists are anticipated to be introduced within the coming months. 

Nogizaka46, fashioned in 2011 and produced by Yasushi Akimoto, is a number one feminine idol group acknowledged for its polished performances and affect throughout music, trend, and media. 

=LOVE, produced by Rino Sashihara and debuting in 2017, combines expressive vocals, dance, and visuals to set a contemporary normal for mainstream idol leisure. 

FRUITS ZIPPER, a seven-member group launched in 2022 below ASOBISYSTEM’s “NEW KAWAII” idea, displays Harajuku tradition and has gained recognition on social media each in Japan and overseas. 

CUTIE STREET, an eight-member ensemble debuting in 2024 from ASOBISYSTEM’s KAWAII LAB., brings particular person personalities collectively below the “KAWAII MAKER” idea to ship modern Harajuku fashion worldwide. 

TAKANE NO NADESHIKO, fashioned in 2022 by HoneyWorks, embodies conventional Japanese class whereas interesting to fashionable idol tradition.

By IRC APP, followers can earn IRC Rating routinely by posting constructive, supportive content material about collaborating artists on X (previously Twitter), with scores claimed onchain with out requiring blockchain information or charges. The platform transforms on a regular basis social engagement into measurable affect for IRC 2026.

As a part of the pageant’s participatory method, the IRC APP will host an Opening Act Audition, inviting followers to appoint idols for the opening efficiency. Chosen nominees might be featured in AI SNS Tendencies, permitting their fandoms to earn IRC Rating, which converts into voting tickets based mostly on Membership rank. The submission interval runs from November 28, 2025, to December thirteenth, 2025, with voting scheduled for January 2026. Additional particulars might be shared through official social channels, encouraging widespread fan participation.

This collaboration represents the most important real-world fandom integration constructed on Soneium, uniting Japan’s main idol teams, nationwide followers, and an onchain engagement layer. IRC APP reconceives J-Pop fandom as a measurable community linking digital and bodily exercise, the place every day contributions are recorded transparently. Powered by Soneium, the platform connects fan enthusiasm with inventive IPs, forming a basis the place music, tradition, and know-how converge. Whereas rooted in idol tradition, the mannequin is designed to develop into music, anime, trend, and different inventive industries, demonstrating how know-how can improve, fairly than change, fan ardour.

Alisa, a devoted journalist on the MPost, makes a speciality of cryptocurrency, zero-knowledge proofs, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a eager eye for rising developments and applied sciences, she delivers complete protection to tell and have interaction readers within the ever-evolving panorama of digital finance.

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