&TEAM: Members, Music, Japan-to-Global Story and Current 2026 Guide

Group profile and current lineup

Members	EJ, Fuma, K, Nicholas, Yuma, Jo, Harua, Taki and Maki
Company	YX Labels
Formation	&AUDITION – The Howling
Debut	December 7, 2022
Current status	Active nine-member multinational group based in Japan
Fandom	LUNÉ

EJ, Fuma, K, Nicholas, Yuma, Jo, Harua, Taki and Maki — active nine-member global group based in Japan under YX Labels.

&TEAM at a glance

&TEAM is the active nine-member global group of EJ, Fuma, K, Nicholas, Yuma, Jo, Harua, Taki and Maki. Formed through &AUDITION and launched from Japan in December 2022, they built a multilingual wolf-pack catalogue, expanded into Korean releases with 2025’s Back to Life, released We on Fire and “For us” in 2026, and have Mark on Me scheduled for September 8, 2026.

They are Japanese-based and multinational, not “a Korean group” merely because HYBE’s system and Korean promotions are involved.

Nine members across borders

Seven members are Japanese, EJ is Korean and Nicholas is Taiwanese; Maki also carries German heritage. The group’s structure makes cross-border identity operational through language, training, releases and touring rather than decorative flag graphics.

Global should describe the work, not just the marketing deck.

The I-LAND foundation

K, Nicholas, EJ and Taki first became widely visible through I-LAND. Their continuation into the Japan-based project gave the later audition a history of unfinished ambition.

The earlier program is context, not a permanent ranking.

&AUDITION and formation

&AUDITION – The Howling selected Fuma, Yuma, Jo, Harua and Maki to complete the nine-person team. The program’s real test was not isolated talent but whether old and new candidates could build one performance language.

A team must become more than a result list.

Under the skin

The pre-debut release established vulnerability beneath the wolf mythology. Rather than beginning with pure dominance, the group framed connection as something people seek while afraid of rejection.

That emotional foundation keeps later power from becoming generic.

First Howling

The ME, WE and NOW releases expanded loneliness into pack identity through “Scent of You,” “FIREWORK,” “War Cry,” “Dropkick” and related tracks.

The best songs make unity sound negotiated rather than automatic.

Scar to Scar

Released as part of the May 2024 Samidare single and visualized in a June 11 Special Performance Video, “Scar to Scar” is a heavy rock number about fighting through difference to understand one another.

The exact playlist upload receives one long Iconic-by-Mistake React routed to all nine.

Water and synchronized force

The performance video uses water spray, green light and synchronized movement to make impact visible in hair, shadow and footfall. The final chorus turns knife-clean unison into the proof of the lyric’s hard-won bond.

The commercial Sprite tie-in does not erase the performance craft.

Seasonal 2024 releases

Aoarashi, Jyuugoya and Yukiakari used seasons to track change across the year, giving the group a specifically Japanese release architecture rather than copying a standard Korean comeback calendar.

Local form and global ambition can coexist.

Korean expansion

Back to Life arrived in October 2025 as the first Korean mini album, expanding promotion without retroactively relocating the group’s origin.

Entering Korea is a market chapter, not a nationality rewrite.

Current 2026 chapter

We on Fire released in April, “For us” arrived digitally August 1, and the second Korean mini album Mark on Me is scheduled for September 8. As of August 29, that album is forthcoming, not released.

Dates matter more than promotional momentum.

Rant: “global group” cannot mean identity laundering

Industry copy often calls a group global when it wants worldwide money, then collapses every member into whichever national label is easiest for press. &TEAM’s Japan base, Korean system, Taiwanese member and multilingual catalogue are the actual story.

Specificity is more global than vagueness.

RaeRae take

&TEAM work when pack language stops being lore and becomes visible labor: who clears space, catches a falling formation, adjusts weight and makes nine people breathe on one count. “Scar to Scar” is their thesis in motion.

Unity looks impressive because difference remains visible underneath it.

Image and routing standard

The hub, nine profiles and React use separate real local official-video frames with full metadata, SEO, attribution and FileBird folder 25 placement.

The exact card routes to all nine performers.

Member directory

• EJ — Korean; leader and vocalist.
• Fuma — Japanese; sub-leader and performer.
• K — Japanese; performer and vocalist.
• Nicholas — Taiwanese; rapper, vocalist and performer.
• Yuma — Japanese; vocalist and performer.
• Jo — Japanese; vocalist and performer.
• Harua — Japanese; vocalist and performer.
• Taki — Japanese; performer and vocalist.
• Maki — Japanese-German; vocalist and youngest member.

Why nine members do not blur into one pack

The wolf language gives &TEAM an easy headline, but nine performers cannot survive on lore alone. EJ steadies transitions. Fuma makes support work visible. K stretches movement until a formation looks larger than the stage. Nicholas changes the rhythmic temperature. Yuma catches musical details quickly. Jo lets restraint build tension. Harua makes precision feel light. Taki attacks direction changes. Maki brings vocal weight that refuses the usual youngest-member box.

That distribution matters because synchronization can erase personality when a camera only rewards the final shape. &TEAM are most interesting during the approach: who opens the lane, who delays half a count, who catches the eye line and who makes the impact arrive without nine people fighting for the same center.

EJ and Fuma: leadership without a microphone speech

EJ leads through attention. Watch the seconds between formations and he often looks less interested in claiming the picture than in confirming that the picture is ready. Fuma carries the sub-leader role with physical reliability. His strength is not a trivia answer; the group uses that steadiness when a lift, landing or crowded transition needs somebody who will not panic.

Leadership in a multinational team also means translation, timing and emotional temperature. A leader cannot solve every problem by talking longer. Sometimes the job is knowing who needs a direct correction, who needs another rehearsal and who needs five quiet minutes before the camera comes back.

K and Nicholas: danger from two different angles

K creates danger through extension. His limbs keep moving after another performer might have finished the phrase, so a line seems to cut beyond the formation. Nicholas works closer to the beat. His lower vocal color and sharper rhythmic attack can roughen a track before the instrumental changes at all.

Their I-LAND history explains familiarity, not entitlement. Both men had to enter a new audition system, accept five additional members and build chemistry that did not depend on viewers remembering an older program. The useful continuity is hunger. The useless continuity is ranking everyone forever by footage filmed before &TEAM existed.

Yuma, Jo and Harua: detail beats volume

Yuma hears structure. Small changes in accent, head angle and transition speed keep his performance connected to the arrangement instead of pasted over the beat. Jo uses patience. His height makes him visible immediately, but the better choice is often a delayed expression or controlled line that lets the frame come toward him. Harua works with clean timing and a lighter visual presence that becomes forceful when the choreography stops confusing aggression with impact.

These three are a good test for lazy reaction videos. If a reviewer only names the loudest move or the person in center, most of their work disappears. Follow the member leaving center and the group suddenly looks far more intelligent.

Taki and Maki: the youngest line grew past the audition edit

Taki carried an instantly recognizable elasticity from I-LAND, but adult performance requires more than being the energetic kid viewers remember. His direction changes now have stronger control around the landing. Maki entered with a vocal tone too sturdy for the expected youngest-member stereotype. English fluency helps international interviews, but multilingual usefulness should not reduce him to the person handed every foreign sentence.

The youngest line deserves current evaluation. Survival-show nostalgia can become a cage when fans keep asking grown performers to repeat the personality that first made them easy to edit.

Japanese seasons are part of the discography, not packaging trivia

The 2024 run through Samidare, Aoarashi, Jyuugoya and Yukiakari gave change a seasonal grammar. Rain, summer wind, moon-viewing and snow light are not interchangeable pretty backdrops. Each release moves the group through a different emotional climate while keeping connection as the central argument.

That sequence also resists the idea that international growth requires abandoning local references. A global audience can learn the context. Flattening every image into generic “Asian aesthetics” would be easier and much less interesting.

Korean promotion should expand the file, not overwrite Japan

Back to Life opened a Korean-album chapter in 2025. Korean releases change language, promotional rooms and chart context, but they do not retroactively relocate a group formed through HYBE Labels Japan. &TEAM can participate in K-pop systems while remaining a Japan-based multinational group. The honest description takes one extra sentence. Use the sentence.

Cross-market promotion also creates practical pressure. Versions need separate tracking, dates need regional context and a Korean performance upload cannot silently replace the Japanese original in an archive. Exact video IDs keep that history from becoming one vague playlist blob.

We on Fire and the 2026 escalation

We on Fire pushes the group toward a harsher visual temperature while keeping the pack idea intact. The styling is sharper and the attack is less sentimental, but the song still depends on collective motion. One member posing as the dangerous protagonist would miss the point. The danger comes from nine people moving as if every route has already been negotiated.

“For us” followed digitally on August 1, 2026. Mark on Me was announced for September 8, so this page treats that Korean mini album as forthcoming on August 30 rather than reviewing music nobody has heard. Preorder copy is not a listening session, no matter how expensive the concept photos look.

Scar to Scar: the exact performance in this playlist

The playlist uses official video ID 5SIuHmELFRQ, the “Scar to Scar” Special Performance Video. That ID matters. A dance practice, fancam, Korean-language version or later concert stage may show the same song, but none is the same object. The dedicated React reviews the water, green light, rock pressure and nine-person choreography in that exact upload.

The Sprite tie-in belongs in the record too. Commercial context does not cancel artistic work, and artistic work does not make sponsorship disappear. The performance earns attention because the members turn an advertisement-ready water concept into visible force rather than pretending the camera arrived by accident.

The camera test: can you still find the members?

Large formations look impressive until editing starts cutting on every impact. &TEAM need enough wide framing to prove the geometry and enough close work to preserve faces. The best footage alternates those jobs. A camera that only chases expressions hides the labor; a camera that only worships symmetry turns nine people into expensive wallpaper.

For a useful replay, watch once normally, once following the member leaving center and once with attention on the back line. The third pass usually reveals who carried the transition that made the celebrated center moment possible.

Language is work, not a personality accessory

Japanese, Korean, Mandarin and English appear around the group through different members and schedules. Multilingual promotion asks for memory, pronunciation, cultural judgment and the confidence to make mistakes publicly. Fans often praise the polished answer while ignoring the preparation that made the answer sound casual.

No member should become permanent translation staff simply because he handles one language well. Communication belongs to the whole team and the professionals supporting them. The members still deserve room to speak with personality instead of delivering nine versions of the same approved sentence.

What international fans should follow

Start with the official site for release notices and current scheduling, then use the official YouTube channel for exact uploads. Keep Japanese and Korean release dates separate. Check whether a title says Music Video, Special Performance Video, dance practice or live clip before assuming the tracker already has the same footage.

If a translation account posts a dramatic summary, locate the original notice before repeating the claim. &TEAM’s cross-border structure attracts confident misinformation because many readers see one market’s announcement without the other market’s context.

The current question is not whether they are global enough

&TEAM already work across languages, countries and promotional systems. The better question is whether each expansion strengthens the group’s identity or merely adds another calendar. More markets can create opportunity, but they can also turn nine people into travelers who only meet under stage lights.

The 2026 material works when scale remains connected to the original emotional promise: people with different histories choosing the same direction. If the songs keep that tension alive, “global” describes an artistic problem they are solving. If not, the word becomes a shipping label.

A survival-show group still needs a life after the finale

Audition programs teach viewers to recognize a contestant through scarcity: one center part, one conflict, one ranking jump, one devastating edit. A permanent group needs the opposite skill. Members must share a catalogue for years without every chorus becoming a reenactment of the finale. &TEAM escaped that trap by making connection the story instead of pretending competition never happened.

That does not mean the survival-show record disappears. K, Nicholas, EJ and Taki carried one public history; the five &AUDITION winners carried another. The useful archive keeps both. The useful fandom also knows when to stop treating debut positions like election results that require annual recounts.

Vocals need the same attention choreography receives

Performance clips make &TEAM easy to discuss through movement, but the voices supply the emotional map. Lower textures give the wolf material weight; brighter tones keep unity from sounding permanently grim; controlled group singing makes Japanese and Korean phrasing feel like related chapters rather than translated merchandise. Listen without the video and the handoffs become much easier to hear.

The catalogue still has room to push individual combinations further. A nine-member group owns more possible harmonies, contrasts and subunits than one title track can expose. Future releases should use that range instead of assigning every member the same emotional temperature and trusting styling to create difference.

Touring is where the multinational promise gets audited

A press release can call a group global in twelve languages. Touring asks harder questions. Can the set list connect seasonal Japanese material, Korean releases and older wolf-pack songs without feeling like three promotional decks stapled together? Can the members communicate naturally in different markets without every stop receiving the same memorized paragraph? Can the production travel without shrinking the choreography into a lighting demonstration?

The best concert version of &TEAM should make the cross-market history visible. Rearrangements, language choices and member introductions can show how the group changed instead of presenting every era as equally current.

The styling works best when the bodies can still move

Pack imagery invites leather, straps, distressed layers and enough hardware to alarm airport security. Those choices look useful only when the choreography can breathe. A jacket that hides a shoulder line or a boot that changes landing mechanics is not automatically “stronger” because the mood board said wolf.

We on Fire sharpens the silhouette without completely burying the performers. That balance matters. &TEAM already generate scale through height differences, long lines and coordinated attack. Costuming should reveal that architecture, not compete for the thumbnail.

My replay order for somebody meeting &TEAM now

Begin with “Under the skin” for the emotional foundation, move to “FIREWORK” for the group learning how to make connection look urgent, then use “War Cry” for collective force. Watch “Scar to Scar” with the exact React because the water performance exposes their transition work. Finish with the 2025 Korean chapter and We on Fire to see what changed when the market and visual pressure widened.

That route is not a ranking. The order explains the argument. Starting only with the newest aggressive track can make the group look like nine handsome men assigned a dark concept. The earlier material proves why closeness, fear and negotiated trust keep returning.

Official video tracker

Scar to Scar — Special Performance Video: official exact upload 5SIuHmELFRQDaily+3.1KTotal views5.7M · read the in-depth React. Other official versions remain separate records when they enter the owner’s playlist.

Sources and receipts

&TEAM official site for the current lineup, releases and 2026 notices; official We on Fire release notice; official Scar to Scar Special Performance VideoDaily+3.1KTotal views5.7M. The hub image comes from the official site and remains stored locally with source metadata.