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Riku is a member of NCT WISH, the six-member SM Entertainment group who debuted on 21 February 2024 with 'WISH'. He was chosen through the pre-debut reality programme NCT Universe: LASTART, broadcast in 2023.
Riku is a member of NCT WISH, the six-member SM Entertainment group who debuted on 21 February 2024 with ‘WISH’. Mynavi News wrote on 4 July 2024 that he joined SM through a global audition held in 2022 and debuted after about a year as a trainee. Avex handles the group’s Japanese releases.
He first became known on NCT Universe: LASTART, the pre-debut reality programme that began broadcasting in July 2023. On 7 September 2023 SM announced that Riku, Jaehee, Sakuya and Ryo had been confirmed as pre-debut members after four missions and assessments by BoA, Eunhyuk and Jang Jin-young; they joined Sion and Yushi, who had already been presented as SM Rookies. THE FIRST TIMES reported on 13 July 2024 that BoA, the programme’s artist director, said the tone of his rap was one she had never heard at SM before.
In April 2025, the month of the second mini album poppop, he told Star News: “When we debuted I could only look at the camera when I performed, but now I can perform while connecting with the fans.” Of the first time he heard the title track, he said: “The moment I heard ‘poppop’, I felt my heart racing.”
On 18 July 2026, on TBS’s The Music Day 2026 in Japan, he also appeared in a dance segment separate from the group’s own performance. Kstyle listed him on 13 July as one of the six performers in a s**t kingz selection whose theme was crossing the sea, and avex’s official portal announced his appearance the day before the broadcast. The group’s ‘BOY MEETS GIRL’ on the same programme is covered in the story on its first Japanese platinum single.
On 17 December 2025 the Fukui Shimbun reported on an official group YouTube video in which Riku, who comes from Fukui Prefecture, acted as guide and took the members around Fukui Station and the Tojinbo cliffs in Sakai.
SM Entertainment
NCT WISH are a six-member boy group under SM Entertainment who debuted on 21 February 2024 with 'WISH', released in Korea and Japan on the same day. They were formed through the reality programme NCT Universe: LASTART, and avex handles their Japanese releases.
The Recording Industry Association of Japan certified NCT WISH's Japanese single platinum on 10 August 2026, on 250,000 shipments as of July — the group's first. Here is what happened between the 15 July release and that certification.
