Rising Japanese boy group ONE OR EIGHT have spent the past year finding out what "bet on yourself" – their official tagline – truly means. Formed through a battle-style audition that ran for a full year before the group's August 2024 debut, MIZUKI, NEO, REIA, RYOTA, SOUMA, TAKERU, TSUBASA and YUGA arrived as eight people who'd learned, competitively, what made each other worth keeping around.

That instinct runs straight through to EN-GÏNE, the group's new EP released this week. It follows a year that's moved fast: a global deal with Atlantic Music Group, a breakout US moment via "TOKYO DRIFT,” a first tour across North and Latin America, and the recent close of GATHER, their first proper live tour at home.

The EP’s lead single "YANKEE SQUAT" arrived as the clearest statement yet of what the group wants to do with that momentum. Built around a pose specific to Japanese street culture – part symbol of individuality, part shorthand for community – the track and its video turn something hyper-local into an open invitation, letting the rest of the world in on a reference most outsiders wouldn't recognise. It's a small gesture that says a lot about how ONE OR EIGHT see their own global expansion: not diluting what's specifically Japanese about them to travel further, but using the travel to go deeper into it.