Billboard Japan

Sakurazaka46 shared the new music video accompanying the group’s new song “Shoninyokkyu” (“esteem needs”), featuring second-gen member Hikaru Morita in center position of the choreography. The popular J-pop girl group’s seventh single is set to drop Oct. 18. The girls express the struggles of people living today, wondering who they have become as a result […]

The upcoming new season of the popular TV anime SPYxFAMILY will feature a new track by Ado called “Kurakura” as its opening theme song.  “Kurakura” will drop digitally worldwide on Thursday, Oct. 5, ahead of the show’s season 2 premiere in Japan on Oct. 7. The song was written by meiyo, with arrangement and performances […]

Billboard‘s International Power Players list recognizes the leaders driving the success of the music business in countries outside the United States. Avex’s CEO, Katsumi Kuroiwa, was chosen from the music industry leaders of the world for inclusion in the list for the first time.
Billboard Japan interviewed Kuroiwa in recognition of his selection for the list and discussed the challenges involved in creating global hits and the potential of female artists.

You were selected for the 2023 Billboard International Power Players list in recognition of the success of XG’s debut and their appearance in the Mediabase Top 40 Radio Airplay charts, the first time ever for Japanese female artists. Could you start out by discussing some of the challenges you faced with XG’s debut?

Kuroiwa: We launched XGALX, a global artist project behind artists like XG, six years ago, in 2017. This was when the world’s attention was first turning to K-pop. Of course, K-pop already had its fans at the time, but this was about when it started to establish an overwhelming presence due to BTS. Avex has a long history of producing K-pop artists such as BoA, TVXQ, and BIGBANG. We formed a partnership with S.M.entertainment in 2001, and we created a label with YG Entertainment. The strong impression I got through our activities with them was that they were keeping a close eye on the Japanese and global markets. Leveraging this experience, we launched the XGALX project with the aim of creating global hits. Initially, we were aiming for a 2020 debut, but the COVID pandemic but a halt to any major moves, so the debut ended up being in 2022. We built up even more knowledge in the intervening time, so in the end it turned out for the best.

XG is based in Korea, but all of the members are Japanese. How does it differ from K-pop?

Kuroiwa: We have a great respect for K-pop, but what really sets XG apart is their originality and freshness. We built the group together with our partners around the world, taking the best elements from Korea, Japan, and the US. The potential of the members, the music production, the video, and the fashion all came together, overlapping and giving birth to XG. We didn’t want to make them a J-pop or K-pop group, but instead create an all-new genre, X-Pop.

The members of the group had a lot of different ideas about what language the lyrics should be in. Some said that since the members are Japanese, they should sing in Japanese, but ultimately they came to the conclusion that since they’d be targeting the global market, including the Korean market, English would be best. None of the members are native speakers, so we really focused on pronunciation from the very start of their artist development.

Comparing the Japanese and US hit charts, it feels like in Japan, songs are often supported because of their strong melodies, while in the US and K-pop charts, songs with distinctive rhythms enjoy a lot of support. Do you take things like that into consideration?

Kuroiwa: Yes. Part of our company’s DNA is dance music, but we want to create an “XG rhythm” that features the originality of the members.

Could you talk a bit about the future you see for XG?

Kuroiwa: We don’t have any experience or expertise with creating global hit artists. That’s why we’ve been working with marketing firms and digital streaming platforms (DSPs), sharing ideas with each other. Thanks to these efforts, we’ve achieved organic growth, and I believe that the knowledge we’ve accrued will provide extremely valuable.

In the world of sports, like baseball and soccer, Japanese players have become really prominent presences, but that’s not the product of the sporting scene suddenly changing. No, the world has changed because of the efforts of all kinds of players, like Hideo Nomo, over the course of decades.

I don’t want the XGALX project to just shut down after a year or two. I hope it keeps going for 10, 20 years, creating a world in which Japanese artists thrive in the mainstream music world. Of course, I’d love it if XG were the breakthrough artist, but by having various artists take on the challenge, we can shift from these being isolated successes to a tide that creates a new market.

When YOASOBI took the top position in the US Billboard “Global Excl. U.S.” chart in June 2023, it created quite the buzz. Artists like Ado, Fujii Kaze, and imase are starting to build up support around the world.

Kuroiwa: It’s extremely encouraging. Every artist gains ground in a different way, so I think we need to take a close look at the data to see just how they’re growing in each individual country, including Japan. Right now, roughly 30% of XG’s listeners are in Japan, 20% in the US, and 50% in other countries. I think this is an ideal distribution, and if Japanese artists from all kinds of genres become widely listened to — if people say “Fujii Kaze’s great and YOASOBI’s great, but XG’s also great” — then I think the future of the Japanese music market will be a bright one.

In August 2023, NewJeans took the number 1 position in the US Billboard200 album chart for the first time. Overseas, female artists like BLACKPINK, Taylor Swift, and Olivia Rodrigo have been very successful, but looking at the Japanese charts, most of the artists have been men for a while now, and there are still few high-charting female artists. What do you think about that?

Kuroiwa: Male artists, especially male groups, enjoy a lot of support from female fans, which makes it easy for them to generate revenue. However, we’ve made a lot of female artists, like Namie Amuro and Ayumi Hamasaki, into hit artists. Around the 2000s, what happened is that although these artists had some male fans, there was a societal phenomenon of female fans who aspired to be like these artists. For both men and women, it’s common for an artist to enjoy a lot of support from the other gender when they debut, but once they reach a certain level, female artists also have a lot of female fans. They have the power to create a kind of culture of their own. I’m not sure if, in our current age, it’s right to speak in terms of gender, but I think female artists have the power to transcend gender and generation barriers.

In closing, the rise in streaming sales is driving ongoing, positive music market growth in Japan and worldwide. However, the rate of growth of that streaming is slowing, and new market development is starting to take place. What plans does Avex have for the future?

Kuroiwa: I think that issues like that affect the countries who were at the forefront of the adoption of music streaming, but in Asia, including Japan, in the Middle East, and in Africa, the streaming market still has a lot of room for growth. I think that Japan has come out of the gates late with respect creating global hits, including hits in those regions. We’re not a major foreign-funded record company, so we don’t have the kinds of internal resources those companies have. That’s why we established Avex Asia Pte. Ltd. in 2013 and Avex USA Inc. in 2018, and we’re adding new Avex sites around the world. In August of this year (2023) we established a new company, Avex Saudi Arabia Entertainment LLC. I think the strategy of connecting all of these sites in Japan, the US, China, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia organically will be an effective way for us to generate global awareness of the IP we create.

So you’re setting up new sites around the world?

Kuroiwa: Singapore, where Avex Asia Pte. Ltd. is located, is our Southeast Asian hub, and Avex USA plays an extremely important role in our creative and marketing efforts. I feel there is tremendous market potential in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. As far as creating global hits, Japanese anime is an important form of IP, and it’s extremely popular in Saudi Arabia. That’s why in 2022, we produced the “Anime Village” event area.

In the fields of music, video, and anime, we’re going to sell original Japanese IP, which we create, around the world, and feed the results back into our future efforts. I hope we can become a company that keeps doing that for decades to come.

—This interview by Seiji Isozaki and Naoko Takashima first appeared on Billboard Japan

J-pop musician Nishina is the next featured guest on Billboard Japan’s Women In Music interview series highlighting female players in the country’s entertainment industry. The series is one of many projects being conducted as part of the initiative launched last year, honoring female artists, producers and executives who have made significant contributions to the music industry and empowered women through their work.
Nishina began her music career while still in high school and her smooth singing voice has steadily gained popularity through social media and performances in night clubs. The 25-year-old artist is also popular for her lyrics depicting relatable and genuine emotions. Billboard Japan chatted with the rising singer ahead of her Women In Music Vol.1 performance set for Nov. 3 at the historic Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall and asked her about maintaining a healthy mindset and her mission to spread a message of self-love.

You’ll be performing at the upcoming Billboard Japan’s Women In Music Vol. 1 event. How did you feel when you were asked to participate?

I’m so honored to be a part of this project. I’m not thinking of doing anything special and hope I can properly convey who I am to the audience. 

The three artists/acts set to perform that day have different styles, so we’re really looking forward to seeing your respective live performances. Were there any women you looked up to growing up?

I didn’t have any particular image of an ideal woman when I was little, and honestly speaking, I remember being embarrassed about becoming more feminine during my adolescent years. I wasn’t put off by it, but I guess I was embarrassed by the changes in my body. It felt strange. But I did admire musicians, regardless of their gender. I liked singing but felt shy standing in front of audiences, so musicians who gave commanding performances onstage looked really cool to me at the time.

It’s amazing that you’re now doing what you used to admire.

I’m so grateful. I’m pretty pleased with who I am right now.

That’s such a good space to be in. There are people who have trouble getting over their hang-ups and accepting who they are.

I know. I mean, I say I’m pleased with myself but of course I have a lot of hang-ups. In Japan, all kinds of ideals in terms of how one “should” look still run rampant, regardless of gender. Like, “the skinnier the better.” I don’t think it’s necessarily bad to want to change to like yourself more, but I’d like people to first accept themselves as who they are now. I’m fortunately in a position where I can deliver a message to people and I want everyone to know they should love themselves properly.

I see, so in a way, the message you want to get out to people is also coming back to you. Do you think there’s a trick to maintaining that state of being pleased with who you are?

For example, the idea that “skinny is more beautiful” is a way of thinking that stems from the culture you grew up in or was imposed on you by others. Different things may be considered beautiful in different countries, and what seems like common sense at first doesn’t mean it’s absolutely correct everywhere. So I think it’s important to change your environment to question that common sense. 

Try not to think that the world around you is all there is, you mean. How did you come up with that way of thinking?

I’ve always been a bit of a contrary person, so maybe I have a habit of looking at things from a different angle. For example, even when I’m in a situation where people don’t like me, when someone rejects me, I think, “Why should I be told that by you?” and feel like affirming myself instead. I can’t give you any specific examples, but when one of my complexes is triggered by something, I have a tendency to want to accept myself because of that.

Accepting yourself because others don’t. If you can think like that, the noise around you could sound different. Do you think being a woman has any influence on your music career? 

I’d like to say no but I think it does affect me in some ways. I call myself Nishina because I didn’t want to limit my gender. I wanted people to value who I am without letting my gender influence them.

I imagine you probably think differently since you started calling yourself Nishina. How did you develop that awareness to recognize and value your own individuality?

I’m not sure how it happened… I think it means that my mind has matured. There are some things I’ve come to understand as I’ve grown older. Some people have a clear idea of who they are from an early age, while others, like me, gradually deepen their understanding as they gain more experience. These days, I have this strong sense of my inner self being formed.

So you’re still changing in a positive way. At what moments do you update the way you think?

I guess it’s when I feel really down. The first year of my professional music career coincided with the pandemic, so there were periods when I couldn’t perform live or release songs and all I could do was keep producing music. No matter how much I worked, I couldn’t get any feedback and it was so hard. I felt stuck and thought, “I can’t do this anymore, I can’t keep going.” But I shared my feelings with my manager during those times and took some time off from production to slack off and just go have some fun. After doing that and letting myself hit rock bottom, I wanted to sing again. By hanging in there somehow without quitting, I managed to get through the tunnel and began to enjoy singing again. Looking back now, it was a good experience.

I see. I imagine it takes a lot of courage to let yourself fall like that.

Yes, I think I was at my limit at that time. Also, I read a book back in junior high where the question of “What’s the point of my existence?” was answered by something along the lines of “That’s a problem everyone encounters at least once, but it’s no use thinking about.” I was taken aback by that reply because I was asking myself the same thing and was surprised to learn that everyone has similar thoughts. You might not notice something when you’re in the midst of it, but you begin to see it when you set yourself apart from it. Once I realized the importance of changing my perspective and looking at things from a wider angle, my thought process changed a little. There’s more than one way to look at things, and it’s OK to look for an easier way to navigate by looking from above or below or whatever.

Since you admired musicians from a young age, did you ever hesitate taking steps toward your dream of becoming one, or feel ambivalent about your direction? What would you say to people who don’t like themselves or don’t have the courage to take that first step?

I did feel anxious, but had no hesitation. I spent a long time thinking, “I want to be like that,” so I couldn’t let go of the opportunity that came my way.

The thing I’d say to people would be about changing your perspective, like I mentioned just now. Most of the time it won’t kill you whether you choose right or left, and that step you think you can’t take might not be such a big deal. If you take that small step, it may lead to a surprisingly big change. If you don’t like yourself, try to find one thing about yourself that you can like, whether it’s something on the inside or out. Once you find that, think of ways to cherish it and make it shine.

Last question. This project began in response to the fact that men make up the majority of the Billboard Japan charts every year. Could you share your thoughts on this?

Until I was asked to do this interview, I wasn’t aware of this fact at all. I’ve gone through phases of listening only to works with male vocalists. Or maybe it has something to do with the power of women supporting male artists. I don’t think it’s necessarily something to be pessimistic about, though. It’d be a shame if there’s an air of female fans being made to feel out of place among a sea of male fans, but events like Billboard Japan’s Women In Music Vol. 1 are happening and there are many opportunities for people to listen to songs on social media now. I hope there will be more opportunities for everyone to freely encounter the music they like, regardless of gender.

–This interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan

On Sept. 7, RIKIMARU released his first full album, CLOWN OR CROWN. After serving as a member of boy band INTO1 through the WARPs PROJECT, it’s the first release from the solo project he launched this summer which also shares the same name. In this interview, Billboard Japan spoke to RIKIMARU in depth about the artistry his fans can expect from his solo project and album.
You’ve said that your newly launched solo project would be a “mutual sharing of philosophies between you and listeners as well as an embodiment of the reasons you create as an artist and a way to pursue your goals.” What led you to attempt this?

In the past, the images associated with my music were “freshness” and “youth.” That was fun, in its own way, but looking at myself as a person, it felt like that image didn’t truly connect to the real me. I felt like an image of “craziness” would be a closer fit. That’s why I decided to make an album whose image is more along those lines. Through my songs, I wanted to examine societal issues and interpersonal relationships, not romance. I wanted to make songs whose themes would resonate with listeners, which is why I launched the project.

You’ve released your first full album, CLOWN OR CROWN. Why did you choose that name for the album?

I had this mental image of a deaf clown and a blind king. The deaf clown is a symbol of freedom and craziness. He is totally immersed in his own world, which is why he can’t hear others. The king lives in a dark castle, and he doesn’t know what kinds of lives people outside his castle are living. The album’s themes revolves around these two people, whose outlooks on life and whose perspectives on the world are so totally different from each other. Based on that foundation, I wrote songs as stories of what I myself have seen and felt, and what I’ve heard from others.

So it’s something of a social satire.

Right. But it’s not just a deep, heavy album — it has a lot that will also resonate with listeners. The stories could be interpreted differently if taken in different ways. CLOWN OR CROWN has this deaf clown and this blind king sharing information and their own sensibilities, so I want listeners to also share their own ideas and impressions.

I’m getting the feeling that album is encouraging people to broaden their perspectives.

Right. For example, I think about 80% of what I read online is fake (laughs). The majority opinion isn’t always the truth. Sometimes the minority view is correct. And not everything you see is real. It’s up to you to determine what to accept and what to reject, and if you change your perspective, you can get insights into all kinds of different worlds. That’s one of the things I want to convey through the album.

I know exactly what you mean.

And the difference between “CLOWN” and “CROWN” is just the difference between an “L” and an “R.” In China, I’m known as “Liwan,” and in Japanese my name is “RIKIMARU.” I often hear that “When you’re just chatting, you’re ‘Liwan,’ but when you dance you’re “RIKIMARU’.” Looking at the first letters of the names I go by, it’s an “L” and an “R.” I only noticed that afterwards, but it’s an interesting coincidence.

It sounds like an album that provides people with insights into various aspects of your character. You released “TALKIN’BOUT,” a single from CLOWN OR CROWN, on July 27, before the album was released. What is the meaning behind the song?

Recently there have been a lot of people struggling with bullying or violence online. It’s also common for the people making these abusive comments to be faceless. You often don’t know who they are. Even if the people around you are saying positive, uplifting things, sometimes it just doesn’t get through. The theme of this song is that you need to turn your attention to the positive. If people want to criticize, let them criticize.

That’s a problem that’s become particularly prominent as of late. So on the album, you’re focusing on that issue.

Some of the people who criticize others online are doing it because they’re stressed. If you get in their crosshairs, it’s almost like an accident. I realize it’s easier said than done, but I think the most important thing is to not let it get to you. If you let yourself get affected by negativity, you lose sight of yourself, right? That’s what I wanted to communicate. I want listeners to make their highest priority being true to themselves.

It feels like this is a theme song for your entire solo project.

That’s true. I wanted to make it kind of a table of contents, a declaration that “I’m going to talk about things that are going on today.” That’s why I made it the first song on the album.

I heard that you’ve made numerous revisions to the song, refining it into its final form.

Until I started working on the album, my voice sounded…childish, I guess? Lacking in artistry. It felt like I was just singing. When I played it to people I knew in the music industry, they said “Your singing technique has improved, but there’s no emotion in your voice.” I didn’t feel that my voice was artistic, either, so during the recording of the song, I recorded each line, line by line, over and over again. In the past, it took me about three hours to record an entire song, including the chorus, but this time it took me five hours just to record the melody line alone.

You were really a perfectionist.

We only had ten days to record the whole album. So there were times when I’d go in to the studio a little after lunch, record all night until 10:00 the next morning, get four hours of sleep, and then go back into the studio again. I did the recording in the US, and the producer said “I’ve never had a recording session continue through the entire night before” (laughs). But everyone pulled together and contributed, making the recording a success.

You’ve also uploaded a music video for “TALKIN’BOUT” to YouTube. What are the highlights of the video?

The dancers are blindfolded, which represents the faceless people I talked about earlier. There are scenes where the dancers are approaching me from behind, or in which it looks like they’re looking at me, but they don’t truly see me. They’re just haunting me. It’s interesting seeing the reactions of people who watch the music video, reading their novel interpretations.

One of the appeals of the song is how much depth there is to explore its meaning. The choreography was done by YUMEKI, right?

YUMEKI’s been doing a lot of great work lately, and his dancing is really cool, so I asked him to choreograph the song. I want people to pay especially close attention to the dancing in the chorus and in the dance break that follows. This was a new experience for me — it was the first time I had one of my former students do my choreography. I thought it would be perfect for giving my dancing a different feel and showing a new side of me.

The lead song is “I am Riki.”

This song is in a totally different genre than my past songs. In the past, I’d danced straight through all my videos, but this music video has zero dancing. Instead, it’s like a short film of a story I created, and I did a lot of acting.

What was your story about?

When I get stressed out, I sometimes think “What am I? Who am I?” I don’t truly understand myself. When that happens, it’s like the world goes dark. I get disoriented. “Why am I here, doing what I’m doing?” My story depicted that feeling.

I’m sure that before writing the story, you’d thought about just who you were. What kind of conclusions did you arrive at?

I didn’t arrive at any conclusions (laughs). I never arrived at an understanding of who I was, or what my own ideal self would be like. But I did realize that a darker approach, like CLOWN OR CROWN, was a good fit for me. Also, I’m really fickle. Who knows, maybe when I listen to the album again later it’ll feel like a comedy (laughs). But I want to concentrate on myself as I am here and now, and I want to enjoy the moment, without thinking about the future.

All of your songs, including the two that we’ve discussed, have clearly defined themes. I’m sure there were a lot of things that you paid special attention to, and you faced a lot of challenges.

I really focused on the themes. Even if an album has an overall theme, it’s rare for each individual song to have a sense of story and to match the overall album theme. I spent about half a year thinking about that.

 As far as challenges go, the English was a challenge. With this album, I wanted for people around the world to discover me, so most of the lyrics are in English. When you sing, if your accent’s off, the emotion doesn’t come across. The nuance might change, as well. So I sang with an American, who provided input like “If you sing it this way, the singing matches the story” or “The emotion doesn’t really communicate well if you do it that way.” Making all those adjustments was difficult.

You really put your all into the album. In closing, do you have any message you’d like to share with your album listeners?

This album is like a fairytale. Each song tells a story, so I’d love it if you listened to it in the same way you’d read a storybook.

—This interview by Azusa Takahashi first appeared on Billboard Japan

Japanese pianist ‎‎ HARAMI chan spoke with Billboard Japan for its Women in Music interview series featuring female players in the country’s entertainment industry. The WIM initiative in Japan launched last year to celebrate artists, producers and executives who have made significant contributions to the music industry and empowered women through their work.
‎HARAMI chan has more than 2.18 million subscribers to her YouTube channel and over 600 million total views. Last year, she became the first female pianist to headline the historic Nippon Budokan in 15 years. Before she settled into her current career aiming to make piano music more familiar to a wider audience, her life took a series of twists and turns as she was forced to give up her childhood dream of becoming a classical pianist at one point to work as a company employee. 

‎HARAMI chan looked back at her beginnings and shared her experiences with the rigid rules and sometimes baffling traditions in Japanese classical piano competitions and more in this new interview.

Did you look up to any particular woman growing up?

‎HARAMI chan: Michiko Shimizu (impersonator/radio personality/actress). I’m not sure why, but I went through a phase when I was a kid where I’d do a kind of gag before practicing the piano. My parents still have videos of me doing this. I wanted to entertain them, and I think I was taking advantage of the fact that they weren’t getting mad at me and having some fun. Michiko Shimizu makes people smile by using the piano as entertainment.

Is there a difference between how you play now to entertain people and how you played for classical piano competitions growing up?

Competitions are a very unique, craftsman-like environment where you practice the same piece hundreds of times every day for about six months before the big day and then put all your energy into that single performance. On the other hand, something like “the melancholy ‘Anpanman March’” that made my friends laugh in school is like a gag I improvised on the spot. So I regarded the two as completely different things.

When I play the piano, I enjoy it so much that my face moves, but when I used to practice for competitions, my teacher would scold me and say, “Don’t play with your face.” But during breaks (at school), I’d play and my face would do whatever it wanted. They’re completely different genres.

How did you first get into playing the piano?

Piano was one of the things I took lessons in when I was little and I liked it. What’s more, my parents handed me a textbook to prepare for music college entrance exams when I was only in first grade and I thought, “Hey, my future is set, lucky me.” [Laughs] My thinking at the time was, it made things easier because I wouldn’t have to worry about my my career path and all I have to do is keep playing the piano.

I participated in piano competitions since then, but when I changed teachers in high school to prepare for music college entrance exams, that teacher flat out told me, “You can’t be a pianist.” Playing the piano had been my identity since I was in the first grade and it felt like all the building blocks I’d piled up were knocked over in one blow. It came as a shock, but I think I also sort of already knew. When you take part in competitions, you have many opportunities to become acutely aware of your own level. So I was shocked, but also began thinking I needed to find another strength.

You experienced a number of setbacks since and took a break from playing the piano to make a living as an office worker. Then a former coworker, now your current manager, uploaded a video of you playing the piano at the Tokyo Metropolitan City Hall on YouTube, which kicked off your career as ‎Haramichan. Did you ever consider piano as a career before that?

I never considered it. I thought it was a world where you could only make a living after winning competitions. I’m actually the type who carefully thinks things through. I want to leave as many options open as possible in life, so I got a teaching license when I went to music college. I even obtained a color coordinator certification after graduating.

When my former coworker asked to upload that first video, I just thought, “Nobody is gonna see it anyway, so why not?” I was more terrified than happy at first because I hadn’t expected so many people to see it. Besides, that performance is terrible in my opinion, so I couldn’t think about betting my life on that one video that happened to go viral.

If you didn’t immediately decide to play the piano as a career then, what encouraged you to do so?

The comments from people who watched my videos. People left notes like, “It’s nice how you look like you enjoy playing,” and “Watching your videos puts a smile on my face.” I do look really happy when I’m playing the piano the way I want, and finding out that there were people out there who accepted the way I play was a revelation. It felt like a new world had opened up to me. And that coworker who uploaded the first video said to me, “Life is a win the more you laugh,” and those words gave me courage as well.

But I set a deadline for ‎HARAMI chan’s performances back then, that I’d do it only until I ran out of savings. If I couldn’t kick off a career in music by then, I’d go back to being an office worker.

That viral video ended up being the first of your many accomplishments since then, and you now have a solid fanbase collectively called Okome-san. You say your goal is to make piano music more familiar. When did this thought begin to materialize?

There was a time, especially around junior high school, when I really disliked wearing dresses when I played in classical music competitions. I was at that rebellious age when I wanted to be defiant and performed wearing a jacket ensemble. I wouldn’t say I was dressed like a man but I got points deducted for my outfit. I understand the importance of traditional classical manners and don’t necessarily object to the point deduction. But I also felt that there are other ways to enjoy the piano besides observing tradition and competing in technical skill, so why shouldn’t I bring those things into the competition? I’ve always felt this way, so when the public accepted ‎‎HARAMI chan, I started feeling that I wanted to spread this joy even more. 

We’ve been focusing on women in this interview series. Does being a woman affect your activities in any way?

Fortunately, I’ve made it this far without having to think too much about it. Like, I’ve always split the bill with the guys around me and have never felt that I’m being treated any differently because I’m a woman. The male-to-female ratio at my music college was 90 percent women. Many continued to play the piano since taking lessons at a young age, so I guess it’s true a majority of our parents’ generation thought that “boys should learn sports and girls should learn the piano.” I mentioned my outfit earlier, but when I was little, I was happy to wear dresses, too.

The majority of acts and artists on Billboard Japan’s charts have been male for many years. Could you share your thoughts on this phenomenon?

I heard about this when I was asked to do this interview, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a negative thing. It doesn’t mean female artists are inferior, but that maybe it’s the result of fandom culture where a lot of women supported their favorite artists of the opposite sex. It might be that some women are more dedicated than others and they feel the urge to recommend their favorite artist, which leads to more streams and so on. So I don’t think female artists should feel inferior in any way.

You’re right, that could be one reason. I get the impression from speaking to you that you have the ability to see things in a multifaceted way. If you were to give advice to yourself when you were first starting out, what would you say?

I’m a cautious person, but that isn’t always a bad thing. Someone once said to me that being a worrier is also a strength, because negative thinkers can endure the negative things they imagine. If you have the flexibility to rotate the opposing sides of your thoughts, it’s harder for your mind to snap. Ever since I realized that, I’ve been practicing to think things from both sides. And I also try to be aware of proportions. If someone says something negative to me, I think about what percentage of the total that opinion might be. If 95 percent of the people say, “You shouldn’t do this,” I might want to listen to them, but what if it were only 5 percent and the rest agree with me? If I were to listen to that 5 percent, I’d be ignoring the expectations of the remaining 95 percent. If we make an effort to look at the whole picture and calmly think about proportions like that, it might make things easier.

—This interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan