TWICE's Sana Credits a 2PM Concert for Her Decision to Leave Japan and Join JYP

TWICE's Sana has shared the specific moment that made her decision to leave Japan for Korea click into place: a 2PM concert her mother tracked down tickets for.

The story came out on October 1st during an episode of Sana's Naengteobyu on the online channel Ilil-chil, which featured Lee Junho of 2PM as a guest. The timing made the conversation feel a little full-circle. Sitting across from one of the men whose group changed the course of her life, Sana walked through exactly how it happened.

"I'd already been cast in Japan, but I was going back and forth on whether to actually go to Korea and whether to actually join JYP," she explained. "That's when my mom got us 2PM concert tickets. We went together, and she asked me, 'Do you want to stand on a stage like that?' And I said, 'Yeah, I do. I want to be like that.' So I came to Korea."

The performance that did it

What struck her most was the sheer energy of 2PM's stage presence, which she described as genuinely stunning. The impression stuck long enough to shape an expectation she carried into her own debut: she assumed that, naturally, she would one day perform alongside male dancers, just as the 2PM seniors she had watched danced with female dancers.

"So after I debuted, I just thought, obviously at some point I'll share a stage with male dancers," she said. "But we never used male dancers. This tour was actually the first time."

A decade in, with Junho's advice still ringing

Lee Junho, now 18 years into his career as a singer and 13 years as an actor, has been one of the few seniors who looked out for Sana from her earliest days at the company. She described him as the one sunbae who consistently checked in and offered support, including during TWICE's world tours.

"He would reach out and give advice," she said. Junho, for his part, recalled that his advice was mostly about health, though Sana added with a laugh that he also told her to enjoy the process and have fun along the way.

When Junho said he still couldn't believe she was already a 10-year veteran, Sana smiled and answered simply: "I guess that's what ten years does." His own numbers seemed to catch her off guard in return. "Has it really been that long?" she said.