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Tomohisa Yamashita‘s latest album, Sweet Vision, is now available for streaming. Yamashita, who began his career in 1996, has achieved a fabulous level of stardom. He’s a household name in Japan and a famous musician and actor throughout Asia.
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He has appeared in shows streamed around the world, such as Netflix’s Alice in Borderland, Max’s TOKYO VICE, and Apple TV+’s Drops of God. Although he has recently focused on acting, he has taken a step in a new direction as a singer with the release of Sweet Vision. What kind of future does this album depict, and what kinds of hope does it convey?
In the early 2010s, you performed a lot of songs written by other famous Japanese artists. Your sound changed dramatically, though, with your last album, UNLEASHED, which you released in 2018. You wrote the lyrics for almost all of the songs on the new album, right?
Tomohisa Yamashita: By taking part myself, I was able to create songs that I felt more comfortable with, and the process was more enjoyable. I wanted listeners to get a bit of a sense of where I am now. When I’m filming TV series or movies, I don’t really have the time or energy to think about anything else, but with this album I was able to devote time to working on the music. I’m happy to have been able to focus on preparing the music to perform in future concerts. I really wanted to share the music and concerts as a single, combined set.
What kind of message did you set out to share when you made the album?
Tomohisa Yamashita: I always wanted to convey a message of hope, and in creating the new album I wanted to make music that provides people with a brighter vision of the future. If you don’t have a clear vision in your mind, you can’t make that vision a reality. I’ve turned my own visions into reality. I believe that what’s important is how clearly and powerfully you can conceptualize, and I hope through the new album to provide an opportunity for people to create their own wonderful visions. If I didn’t want to put on a concert, or if there weren’t people who wanted me to put on a concert, these shows would also never become realities. There’s a lot that I can’t achieve all on my own, but I’ve done what I could to turn my ideas into reality, and all kinds of miracles have occurred to help make that possible.
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The lead single from the album, “Sweet Vision,” includes the lyric “People cannot stay free of blemish.” What do you mean by that?
Tomohisa Yamashita: If you’re 100% unsullied, you won’t even notice that you’re pure. When you get hurt — when you get scuffed and scratched — you get stronger. It’s better to be hurt, because it strengthens you. I think that taking on new challenge after new challenge, without seeing failure or pain as negatives, ultimately leads to love.
You’ve talked about failing multiple auditions. Honestly speaking, wouldn’t you rather make it through life free of damage?
Tomohisa Yamashita: You get used to being hurt. You lose your fear of pain and of failure, and when you lose that fear, your likelihood of succeeding improves. I’m a voracious learner, and I feel like taking a proactive stance also makes me better on an emotional level. It provides me with greater depth as a person, and I think it’s important to keep going forward, without fear.
Are there any rules that you apply to your own activities?
Tomohisa Yamashita: I always try to stay honest to myself. Also, over the years, I’ve really come to feel that maintaining this level of activity is no easy feat, so I’m constantly trying to take on challenges so that I don’t give up on myself.
On the Amazon Prime show SEE HEAR LOVE, you played a blind character. Considering that role and your own life experiences that have been in the album, “vision” is really a word for what you’re talking about.
Tomohisa Yamashita: The album has a lot of different elements and a lot of different influences. It’s a collection of all kinds of things I find pleasant at this point in my life. It also has an element of serendipity, and it flows naturally.
The first song, “Anima,” felt like it was announcing that the album was going to provide a window into you. What were you trying to convey by making this the first song?
Tomohisa Yamashita: I thought it would be a good opening number for live shows. I also thought it would be perfect for expressing the atmosphere and concept of the album. The song’s title is Latin for “soul,” and in my recent work, that word, “soul,” has come to have a special significance for me. I need to do things that bring my soul joy, and this song is the best song for expressing where I am now, and my desire to love again from the bottom of my heart. Everything is so convenient in the digital society of modern Japan. I feel like people’s souls — their passion and their excitement — are getting weaker. When I deal with people overseas, I feel their passion for life — their soul. It feels like they’re living with every fiber of their being, and that’s given me energy and stimulated me. It’s also made me recognize that I’ve been getting weaker. When I wrote the song, I felt this spirit of, “Okay, here we go!!”
In July, you travelled to various countries in Asia to promote SEE HEAR LOVE. What were the reactions from local fans and media like?
Tomohisa Yamashita: I was welcomed really warmly. I felt grateful and also felt a strong desire to visit even more places. The whole atmosphere of the shows I appeared on during the promotional tour — the tempo, the language, the structure, the background music — felt different than Japan. It was a good experience. I hope to be able to visit countries in Asia again and to really bond with my fans there.
So Sweet Vision is your first step to becoming a border-spanning musician.
Tomohisa Yamashita: It (going global) will take a lot of energy and time, but I’ve got the determination, so I’ll keep sharing what I have with the world, led by this powerful ambition.
Going forward, what kinds of projects would you like to take on as an actor?
Tomohisa Yamashita: I’d like to maintain a good balance of sweeter works and more evocative works. If all you do is make sweet works, it just becomes sugary. You need to add a little spice. I’d love to be able to work on all kinds of projects in all kinds of locations with all kinds of directors.
–This interview by Mariko Ikitake first appeared on Billboard Japan
Billboard Japan spoke with Kaori Hayashi, CEO of Hayashi International Promotions Co. Ltd., for the latest installment of its Women in Music interview series. H.I.P. has long been one of Japan’s leading concert promoters of both domestic and international artists.
Billboard Japan launched its Women in Music initiative last year in an effort to highlight women in the country’s music industry through projects including interviews by leading figures in their respective fields of expertise.
Since Hayashi took up her current post in 2021, H.I.P. promoted sold-out stadium shows for Bruno Mars (October 2022) and Maroon 5 (December 2022) in Japan immediately after the country reopened following the pandemic. For these achievements, she was recognized on Billboard’s 2023 International Power Players list. H.I.P. is producing another round of Mars’ sold-out stadium shows in Japan set for January next year.
Hayashi, who studied in London and is currently based in California, shared her thoughts on the current landscape of the Japanese music industry.
Congratulations on being recognized on Billboard’s International Power Players list this year.
Thank you. My father (Hiromichi “Massy” Hayashi) founded H.I.P. and a lot of the other names on that list are people who’ve been working in the industry since his days, so I feel honored to be named alongside them. There aren’t many female concert promoters out there, so I’d be happy if people notice me for being the next generation of the business and for being a rare woman in it who can really help shake up the industry.
So there aren’t too many female concert promoters on the whole, not just in Japan.
Right. You see a lot of women in positions like the vice-president of a record company now, but the people I talk to on a daily basis are only men. We don’t pull our punches, though. [Laughs]
Why do you think there are more men in concert promotion?
Our work is done both domestically and internationally, so we have to deal with taxing time zone differences and are under continuous pressure every day. It takes a lot of physical strength, and it can be really damaging if you’re not tough mentally. But I think there will be more women coming to the business in the future. I think this job is cut out for people who are good at multitasking.
We started this series of interviews after noticing the gender imbalance on our charts. The topic of gender imbalance in music festivals is also being talked about recently. Do you take gender into consideration when inviting artists?
To be honest, not at all. When we plan and promote concerts, we never think about what we do based on whether the acts are male or female.
An observation that’s come up a number of times while speaking to various people in this series is that there’s a tendency in Japan for women to have a hard time being accepted for asserting something strongly, unlike in the U.S. where artists such as Beyoncé and Billie Eilish who express strong convictions are popular. Have you noticed such sentiments in your line of work?
I’ve never noticed any such reactions to the foreign artists we work with, but it is true that for Japanese female artists, there is probably a higher demand for being cute and pretty rather than whether or not they have something to say. In the U.S., being assertive and having bold and flamboyant performances are considered interesting and garner attention.
What influenced your thinking behind not taking gender into consideration when making decisions?
I think I was raised not to think too much about gender. I’ve always wondered why we think about men and women in a separate way and discriminate when we’re all “from Planet Earth.” Of course, there are times I find myself not being able to communicate smoothly with conservative-thinking men. But it’s up to me to decide whether or not to associate with such men. I don’t let it distract me because it’s my choice to make.
You mentioned the lack of female concert promoters. I’m sure your presence inspires others to consider your line of work. How did you decide on this career?
I often used to accompany my father to the concerts he produced and watched him work. It was still rare at the time to see so many non-Japanese people around, so seeing him working in such an environment seemed out of the ordinary to me. I think that’s why I also wanted to do it too. When I was 18, I worked on Mariah Carey’s dome tour as an assistant. That’s when I started thinking I wanted to make it my career.
Getting started working on a Mariah Carey tour sounds amazing. Now that you’ve established yourself in the business that you aspired to, what parts of the job make it worthwhile?
Every day I keep running into some kind of wall, whether it be big or small. But when I’m able to overcome those obstacles and achieve something, I feel a sense of fulfillment.
When you hit a wall, how do you overcome it?
I never give up and keep looking for a way. If option A doesn’t work, then I consider option B, then C and even D, and just think things through.
You’ll find a way if you work really hard. You can achieve your goals even under intense pressure. The most important thing is to never give up. My father embodied this attitude. He never ran away from the reality in front of him and overcame obstacles by facing them with sincerity.
If you could give yourself one piece of advice when you first started working, what would it be?
“Go with your gut.” At the time, I didn’t have much experience and didn’t trust my intuition. But now I know that my intuition is more important than anything else and can guide me along the way.
Before I started working, I was a student and decided to go to the U.K. because I was feeling cramped in Japanese society. I was also uncomfortable with the idea that it was considered the norm for women to do all the housework. I was young at the time and wanted adventure, so I lived in London and learned from many experiences. I also learned that in the U.K., women are equal to men when it comes to pursuing a career, and that men tend to encourage women and support their advancement in society.
I live in California now and am surrounded by many women who are mothers and business owners. In Japan, there seem to be a lot of people who think that it’s not good to let other people help care for your kids or help do things around the house, but that’s not the case in the U.S. I think a supportive environment for women is essential for them to be more active in this industry.
You’re right, the way people think needs to be changed along with working conditions because these things are directly related to gender imbalances in the workplace. Is there anything you try to be aware of to maintain a free mindset?
I try to consciously create situations that allow me to be free. For example, when choosing a partner, I choose someone who doesn’t think “women should stay at home.” It’s my choice. I try to remember that the choices are always mine.
—This interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan
Ado’s “Show” holds at No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Oct. 4, logging its second week atop the tally.
The Universal Studios Japan Halloween collab continues to rule streaming, increasing by 0.89 percent from the week before (13,438,742 weekly streams). The track also holds at No. 2 for video views, while rising 3-2 (15,517 units) for downloads and 8-7 for radio. “Show” also makes its debut on the karaoke metric at No. 66.
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King Gnu‘s “SPECIALZ” continues to edge up the Japan Hot 100, this week rising a notch to No. 2. The opener for the Jujutsu Kaisen Shibuya Incident story arc debuted on the list four weeks ago at No. 4. The track moves up a notch to No. 31 for physical sales, while also improving in other metrics including downloads (9,439 units, No. 4), streaming (10,729,972 streams, No. 2), radio (No. 11), and video (No. 3).
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YOASOBI’s “Idol” slips to No. 3 this week, with streaming moving 2-3 (10,313,760 streams), downloads 8-6 (6,586 units), radio 68-24, and video 3-4. The record-holder for most weeks at No. 1 on the Japan Hot 100 (21 weeks) continues to rule karaoke for the 19th week straight.
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The duo consisting of producer Ayase and singer ikura have another song in the top 10 this week, as “The Brave” debuts at No. 9. The opener for the anime series Frieren that premiered Sept. 29 hit No. 1 for downloads with 22,086 units. The music video dropped the same day and has racked up over 5.2 million views at the time of publication (No. 7 for video). The hit-making pair’s latest single is also currently at No. 49 for streaming with 2,426,245 streams and No. 51 for radio.
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Three songs by female idol groups debut in the top 10 this week. AKB48’s “Idol nanka janakkatara” leads the pack at No. 4, launching with 541,037 CDs to hit No. 1 for sales. Tsubaki Factory’s “Yuuki It’s my Life!” follows at No. 6, coming in at No. 2 for sales (79,078 copies), No. 47 for downloads (1,177 units), and No. 64 for radio. Cho Tokimeki Sendenbu’s “Kawaii Memorial” hits No. 10 with 40,708 copies sold (No. 3 for sales) and comes in at No. 4 for radio.
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The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Sept. 25 to Oct. 1, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
Takanashi Kiara, a virtual YouTuber belonging to the English division of Japan‘s VTuber agency hololive production, dropped her first album Point of View last month. Her debut set displays the various faces of the English-speaking VTuber, with songs ranging from the lead track “Pineapple,” a tropical summer song accompanied by a music video featuring the VTuber dancing brightly by the poolside, to tracks such as “The Great Wanderer” and “Retrospective” that highlights her inner conflicts, sadness and negative emotions.
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Takanashi — her name is in Japanese order, surname first — debuted in 2020 as a member of the early hololive English group called Hololive English -Myth-, and made her 3-D debut in February of this year. The pioneering English-language VTuber talks about her passion for music and the ways she infuses it with feelings for her fans in this new interview.
Could you tell us some of the things that were going through your mind around the time you kicked off your career as an English-speaking VTuber?
I never thought it would be such a success. Japanese hololive VTubers were well-known at the time, but not so much outside of Japan yet. As a comparison, Japanese anime is popular everywhere now, and many people prefer watching it in the original Japanese instead of English dubs. Hololive English -Myth-inking at the time was, if people enjoy watching anime in Japanese, then VTubers who speak English might come across as odd.
Which VTubers do you admire or draw inspiration from?
I first discovered hololive through Shirakami Fubuki. I was intrigued by the concept of VTubers and was hooked from the moment I checked her out. That was when I was living in Japan on a one-year visa, then the pandemic broke out. I was watching UsadaPekora’s videos to cheer myself up during that time and then the hololive English auditions began. It felt like destiny to me and I applied.
What kind of music did you grow up on?
I started listening to the Black Eyed Peas because of my parents. I also listened to Paramore and Kelly Clarkson. Like, mainstream artists on the radio that everyone knows. Paramore was one of my inspirations for the song “Retrospective” on this album. Right now I’ve been hooked on K-pop artists like TWICE and NewJeans. Today’s K-pop is influenced by American music but still has its own unique flavor. I wanted my songs to be like that.
What’s the concept of your debut album, Point of View?
My previous singles “HINOTORI” and “Heart Challenger” were Japanese-language tracks in the vein of J-POP, anime songs, and idol songs. I personally love that kind of music, too. But since we’re hololive English, some fans preferred that I sing in English. Also, there were many other hololive VTubers singing similar stuff, so I decided to try making songs that were different from that kind of music and also suited me. I tried to include elements such as my gratitude for my past history and activities and tried to create a collection of songs from Kiara’s various “points of view.”
I’d like to ask you about some of the songs off your new album. First, “Love Rush,” the second track on the set. It has a really positive mood.
The lyrics express my gratitude to all my listeners. I’m moved by it when I sing it, and it has a really profound meaning to me. Kai Gojo, who is also the songwriter for “HINOTORI” and “Heart Challenger”, wrote it for me, and he’s someone I can completely rely on because he can write both cool and cute numbers. I told him I wanted to try my hand at a cute song like “Heart Challenger” again for this project. But I also wanted a different vibe, so I asked him to include some elements reminiscent of the J-pop group fhána, like sounds of a violin.
The next song, “The Great Wanderer,” has a different, more serious tone.
When I first heard the instrumental, I felt a touch of loneliness, so I decided to have the lyrics written about such feelings. We all have moments in our lives when we feel lonely or sad, so I thought the song would resonate with people. There’s actually another angle to this song. VTubers are virtual beings so we can’t meet our fans in real life. It’s pretty sad, you know? Of course, the fact that you can only interact with them online is one of the good things about VTubers, but sometimes I want to break down that barrier. I tried to express such dilemmas specific to VTubers in this song.
You mentioned Paramore as an inspiration for the next song, “Retrospective.”
“Retrospective” is the song that contains the most of my negativity on this album. There’s no positive ending, only my hang-ups about failures in the past that I want to redo but can’t, or the things I lack and so on. But I think those kinds of songs are good to have once in a while. When I’m sad, sometimes I just want to listen to a song that makes me wallow in my sadness, not one that cheers me up.
Incidentally, the melody of the song was originally completely different, but I wanted something more Western-sounding so I could sing it more naturally in English. So I asked monii, who wrote the lyrics, to come up with a new melody. It ended up being really Evanescence-like and dramatic. When we were recording the song, even the expression on my face looked like I was in pain and I enjoyed singing with so much emotion.
Music might be a unique way of detoxing because negative emotions and experiences can be expressed as they are instead of having to convert them into positivity.
Yes, exactly. It’s a way of letting it all out. I think VTubers exist to give people comfort, but I figured this album was a good opportunity to show my real self, so I went ahead and tried it. I’m the type of person who wears my emotions on my sleeve, but it’s still hard to show these feelings. But people seem to like songs like “Retrospective” and I realized that it’s okay to talk about such feelings in music, so I hope I can keep expressing my personal story in the future.
The fourth track, “Sleep Talking,” is completely different in that it’s a song where you can let the sound wash over you without thinking too hard about it.
After releasing “DO U” on my second anniversary, I asked my team of creators if I could sing something with more of a K-pop feel, and they sent me several demos. One of them was “Sleep Talking.” I was like, “Whoa, I really like this one!” and asked to sing it as the keystone of this album. The album leads with “Pineapple,” but I consider “Sleep Talking” as another leading track in a way, and we plan to release a music video for it as well.
“Pineapple” is the first song of the album, a really fun pop number.
It’s a summer party song, the kind you’d want to listen to at the beach. The music video is also based on the theme of a beach party, and for the dance scene, I went to the U.S. to shoot motions at the studio of my colleague, Watson Amelia. The choreography was pretty hard and I had a lot of trouble with it. I shared a short video of the chorus dance for YouTube Shorts, so I hope people enjoy it.
We’re also looking forward to your live performances.
I would really like to do solo live performances in real life and not just on YouTube. All my songs are choreographed and I’m ready to perform any time, so I’ll keep doing what I can to stand on stage someday. But first, I want everyone to listen to the album, even those who aren’t really into VTubers. I hope I can reach as many people in the world as possible.
–This article by Takuto Ueda first appeared on Billboard Japan
The Japanese entertainment company that has acknowledged its founder sexually assaulted hundreds of boys over the span of half a century, took a new name on Monday: Smile-Up. It also vowed to focus on compensation for victims of the abuse.
Tokyo-based Johnny & Associates, founded in 1975, will eventually fold, but its performers can join an independent company that is being set up, said Noriyuki Higashiyama, the company’s new leader and a former star at Johnny’s, as the company is known.
Higashiyama, tapped last month to head the old Johnny’s, will now be president of both Smile-Up and the new company. The new company’s name will be put to public vote by Johnny’s fans.
“All things with the Johnny’s name will have to go,” Higashiyama told reporters at a Tokyo hotel. “A wounded heart isn’t easy to heal. Compensation on its own will never be enough.”
In recent months, dozens of men who were performers and backup dancers as teens and children at Johnny’s have come forward, saying they were sexually assaulted by Johnny Kitagawa.
Kitagawa, who died in 2019, was never charged.
So far, 325 people have applied to the company’s compensation program, and that number may grow. Payments will begin next month, Higashiyama said. How the monetary amount will be decided was not yet clear.
Last month, Kitagawa’s niece Julie Keiko Fujishima resigned as chief executive at Johnny’s and apologized for his past. She still owns 100% of the unlisted company but will not be part of the new unnamed company, whose capital structure is still being worked out.
Fujishima did not appear at Monday’s news conference and had a letter read aloud. The letter said she was “brainwashed” by her mother Mary, who insisted Kitagawa was innocent, even after the Japanese Supreme Court ruled two decades ago that the sexual allegations against him were accurate.
“I want to erase all that remains of Johnny from this world,” she wrote. “I do not forgive what Johnny has done.”
Some victims say they have suffered for decades in silence, unable to confide in family or friends, while experiencing flashbacks.
Most of the attacks took place at Kitagawa’s luxury apartment, where several youngsters were handpicked to spend the night. The following morning, he would thrust 10,000 yen ($100) bills into their hands, according to various testimony.
Rumors about Kitagawa were rampant over the years, with several tell-it-all books published. A recent U.N. investigation has said that the number of victims is at least several hundred, and called on the Japanese government to act. When BBC did a special on Kitagawa earlier this year, the scandal jumped into the spotlight.
Mainstream Japanese media have come under serious scrutiny for having remained mum about Kitagawa, apparently afraid of his influence and ability to deny access to his stars.
Now, some TV broadcasters and programming have done an about-face to shun Johnny’s stars. Major companies have also recently announced they will stop using them in advertising.
In a related development, several victims met with lawyers, feminists and Johnny’s fans to work together in pushing for legal changes so civil damages can be pursued after the current limit of 20 years. The criminal statute of limitations is now 15 years.
Attorney Yoshihito Kawakami said children often don’t understand what happened, and the changes will allow victims to seek damages from Johnny & Associates.
Japan raised the age of sexual consent from 13 to 16 only this year. Japanese media reports say Kitagawa often purposely picked on 13-year-olds, although his victims have been as young as 8.
The company has promised it will compensate victims “beyond the scope of the law. ”
“Some perpetrators are living their lives as though nothing happened. That causes great pain to the victims,” said Junya Hiramoto, who heads a group of Johnny’s victims.
The Associated Press does not usually identify victims of alleged sexual assault, but Hiramoto and others in the case have chosen to identify themselves in the media.
“By coming together, we can grow into a bigger force and move toward hope,” he said.
Fujii Kaze‘s rise to fame began when his 2020 release, “Shinunoga E-wa,” trended on TikTok. He now enjoys popularity in Japan and throughout Asia, and has recently released a new song, “Workin’ Hard.” The song was created in Los Angeles with sound producer Dahi, who has also done sound production for Kendrick Lamar and SZA, and was used as the theme song for Japanese broadcasts of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, which was held in the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan. It isn’t just a sports fight song, but a song that energizes and encourages people throughout their day-to-day lives.
This summer, Fujii embarked on his first international tour — Fujii Kaze and the piano Asia Tour — playing in seven cities throughout Asia. Billboard Japan spoke with him about the indelible tour and his new song, which represents a major turning point, as well as the process of making the song’s music video together with its director, videographer MESS.
You toured Asia from June to July. What was that experience like?
Fujii Kaze: More than ever before, I felt a spiritual connection that transcended language. I’m so grateful that they are paying attention to the content of my songs and trying to see the humanity and spirituality within. I want to keep trying to tear down those barriers between me and others. I don’t want there to be this feeling that there’s some kind of distance between us. I want us all to feel like we are one.
Were there any particular scenes that stand out in your memory?
Fujii Kaze: With each show, it felt like I myself was also being liberated. I was focused on my inner world, so I could feel the changes going on inside me. And somehow they made me feel proud to be Asian. It felt like my hometown and brotherhood was expanding. That feeling was new to me.
Did you start working on your new song, “Workin’ Hard,” after being approached with an offer for FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023?
Fujii Kaze: Yes. Basketball is the sport I have the closest personal connection to, and it has a definite hip-hop image. The team wanted me to make a song inspired by the NBA, which brings together the finest players from around the world, just like the World Cup does. That’s why we went to Los Angeles to watch a game. The stadium often resounded with the rumbling bass of hip-hop, and that’s when I was sure that I wanted to create a hip-hop inspired song for the event.
You took on a few new challenges with the song, making hip-hop and working in a new songwriting environment.
Fujii Kaze: When I released my last song, “grace,” it felt like I’d said everything I wanted to say and done everything I wanted to do. I felt burned out. For a long time, I didn’t know what I should do next, and I didn’t feel the need to create more music. So when I received this great offer, the energy welled up within me to do something I’d never done before, starting from the ground up. I like trying new things, but the message I need to share through my music stays the same. It’s basically one single message. Because that message is so constant and unchanging, I wasn’t sure if there was any room to explore new approaches to conveying the message or any new methods I could use. I was looking for a totally new approach that wouldn’t just be rehashing what I’d already done, and this offer was the perfect fit.
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You created the demo and then worked with Dahi to flesh it out, right?
Fujii Kaze: I had the whole completed song in my head, so I looked for someone who could realize the song as-is while adding their own special magic. I only met Dahi in-person once, but we did all of the recording then. Dahi kept coming up with good idea after good idea, and unless I said “I like that!” he’d just keep going. I put out everything that was in me at that session, and then we put all of the finishing touches on online. The whole process was very smooth, and the final song went in a direction that was even cooler, more refined, and more stylish than I’d anticipated.
Singing and rapping seamlessly blend into each other in the song. What did you pay special attention to when it came to singing style and flow?
Fujii Kaze: Ever since “Matsuri,” my mindset has been all about relaxation and being laid back. It’s been important that the music I create doesn’t place undue stress on listeners, and that it conveys to listeners the relaxed mood with which it was created. With “Matsuri,” I feel really confident about the sound of the song, the way I sing it, and my flow. When I made it, I realized that this was the sound I wanted to have going forward. I debuted with “Nan-Nan,” but when I released “Matsuri,” I felt like it was a “second debut song.” I ended up almost immediately closing that chapter with my next song, “grace.” So with “Workin’ Hard,” I had to bring back so much energy and passion that you could even call it a “third debut song.”
“Matsuri” and “Workin’ Hard” were both turning points for you, but did you realize this while you were working on the songs?
Fujii Kaze: Yes, I did. “Workin’ Hard,” in particular, came after “grace” and after “Shinunoga E-wa” had become popular even outside Japan, and it was the first song I released this year, so in many ways while I was creating it I felt like I needed to make it a new beginning and to show people something new.
It’s been a while since “Shinunoga E-wa” gained widespread popularity. As its creator, what do you think about it now?
Fujii Kaze: What happened was really like a gift from God. “Shinunoga E-wa” and “Matsuri” were my favorites, too. So the popularity of them gave me the confidence in sharing what I truly felt was cool.
The music video for “Workin’ Hard” also makes quite an impression.
MESS: I started out with this mental image of a garbage man holding on to the back of a garbage truck as it drove down the street. From that starting point, I interpreted the message of the song through its lyrics, and I came to think that showing scenes of people working in different workplaces would be the best way to convey the song’s message. When I met with Kaze and talked about it, he said that was exactly what he had imagined.
Fujii Kaze: I wanted something which people who hear the song or watch the video could apply to their own lives. I was hoping to visually convey that “this song belongs to you.”
MESS: I thought of this song as a song for everyone. I don’t think “work” should just be used in reference to one’s job, but should include the housework in your daily life too, which is why in the end of the video there are the scenes of him airing out the futons and hanging up the laundry.
Fujii Kaze: Who would have thought I would end up beating the futon at the last hook? I saw some comments that they are glad the video includes chores as well. That hadn’t even occurred to me, so big kudos to MESSY.
What’s the meaning behind the artwork illustration you made, MESS?
MESS: This cover art shows all kinds of characters taking care of garbage using a bucket brigade style to express that no matter what our jobs are, no matter what our environments are, we’re all “Workin’ Hard.” If you look carefully, you’ll see that the knots on the garbage bags are all hearts. The bucket brigade can also be seen as how our love, praise, and consideration for others are passed on from person to person, reaching people far away. I think I was able to make a video to even better express this message.
Fujii Kaze: Without a doubt, the visuals really expanded the world of the song. I think the song has really been supported by the video, and I think they’ll continue to synergize and help spread this message.
—This interview by Tomonori Shiba first appeared on Billboard Japan
I Don’t Like Mondays. will soon release their fifth full album, RUNWAY.
It’s their first album in over two years, following their ambitious Black Humor project, on which the band laid its soul bare in the midst of the pandemic. RUNWAY is a tremendously varied album, with 10 songs that go back to the band’s roots and aim to encapsulate the quintessence of I Don’t Like Mondays. Funk, rock, hip-hop — the album covers a wide range of musical styles, changing from song to song. It’s packed with the full appeal of I Don’t Like Mondays., a band that focuses not only on music, but the whole package, including fashion and artwork.
Billboard Japan had an opportunity to interview the band, which is poised for even greater success, having performed a growing number of overseas shows in recent years.
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To start off with, why is the new album named RUNWAY?
YU: Last year, although we didn’t release an album, we went on our Black Thunderbird TOUR, and we were able to really give it our all. After that, we wanted to take a good look back on ourselves and really think about the true essence of I Don’t Like Mondays., and about what we wanted to express through our music.
We don’t have one specific genre — each of us likes different kinds of music. The I Don’t Like Mondays. approach has been to play the kind of music we want to at the time. To put it metaphorically, it’s like we’ve garbed ourselves in music. The same fashion model might wear different kinds of clothes at different times. I think that’s the way all four of us think about I Don’t Like Mondays. That’s why we named the new album RUNWAY, after the runway in a fashion show.
KENJI: The bands that we like, like the Rolling Stones, are bands that excite us in every way. Their music, of course, but also their fashion and artwork.
CHOJI: Personally, I really like the fashion of Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, or, for a Japanese example, Char. There’s no way you’d ever see Page or Char on stage in a tracksuit (laughs). Of course, that kind of casual look goes well with certain genres and types of sound, but I like the traditional rock guitarist look, and that’s something I’m not willing to budge on. I feel that same kind of dedication to fashion from all the members of the band, and I think that’s directly reflected in our visual image.
SHUKI: Along those lines, we took our band photos for the new album pretty early. I feel like that also provided us the opportunity to nail down our fashion image for the album (laughs). There was even a time during the sound production when we were working backwards from the photos, thinking “what kind of sound would fit best if performed by the four people in these photos?” Before we’d written all the songs on the album, we experimented with different sound textures, using a trial-and-error approach. I think that this was tucked away in the corner of our minds, and had a big influence on the making of the album.
YU: For example, the song “Dynamite” was the first song we completed, excluding “PAINT,” a tie-up song that we’d released previously. After we completed our previous album, Black Humor, we were reflecting on what I Don’t Like Mondays. was all about, like I mentioned earlier. We realized that when we first started out as a band our sound had been highly influenced by 80’s pop.
Now that you mention it, “Dynamite” has a synth phrase in the middle that’s reminiscent of a-ha’s “Take On Me.”
YU: Right (laughs). We decided to just go all out and do what we liked. The result of that was “Dynamite,” and from there the direction of the album gradually solidified.
SHUKI: We also decide on the lighting for our shows by discussing it within the band, and this time we decided that a blue-centered lighting concept would fit us best. I think the reason we realized this is that we’d already taken the band photos. As for the drums, in the past we’d always used programmed drums, but on this album we also mixed in some processed acoustic drums. With RUNWAY, we thought more than ever about what it means to be a band and that band feeling.
KENJI: And, on the flip side, I also overlaid my own bass playing with several layers of synth bass. I spent more time than ever before on the tone of the bass, and before I knew it I’d just spent a prodigious amount of time on programming.
Could you give us an example?
KENJI: Well, on “Sin City,” I overlapped my electric bass with five or six layers of synth bass. I experimented with fine-tuned adjustments, exploring what kinds of effects could be achieved by layering the bass, what kinds of frequencies I should emphasize, whether I should apply distortion or go for a clear sound, how I should balance the layered bass tracks to produce the most interesting effects, and the like. It took longer than it had ever taken before (laughs). But I think that thanks to that effort, I was able to create some good grooves. I’m confident about how things turned out.
CHOJI: As far as the guitar, I want to be able to reproduce the guitar work from our albums during live shows as much as possible, so on this album, as well, I tried to record guitar parts that could be performed with a single guitar, without overlapping parts. However, for “Beautiful Chaos,” the guitar is really the centerpiece, so I recorded both an excellent acoustic guitar sound and also delicate picking on an electric guitar. This is similar to “WE ARE YOUNG,” one of our earliest songs. I might just go so far as to say that with “Beautiful Chaos,” we’ve created a guitar song that surpasses even “WE ARE YOUNG.”
The new album also features “Strawberry Night,” a collaboration with ESME MORI, and “conversation,” with artist CREAM from the Korean hip-hop group DPR.
YU: We collaborated with ESME MORI a few years ago, on a song called “ENTERTAINER.” He’s the same age as SHUKI and I, and I remember the process of recording the song being a lot of fun.
ESME’s put out a lot of mainstream music, but he also has an edgy, alternative side, and I’ve always been impressed by how he balances those. When we finished the demo for “Strawberry Night,” I asked to have ESME work with us because I knew that he’d come up with something that would exceed even our own imaginations. He dirtied the sound up, in a good way, and gave it a bit of an edge.
I’ve heard you’d also had your eyes on DPR for a while?
YU: Yes. Whenever they came to Tokyo to perform, we’d always go see them. They don’t even need to be categorized as K-pop anymore, they’re a new global standard. Their creative output is always sublime — not just their sound, but their music videos, everything. I often talked with the other band members about how I’d love if we could perform with DPR sometime. This was our first collaboration, and we did it remotely. We made our demo with the idea of working on it together with DPR, so we provided them with our demo, and they created a new arrangement for it. It came out as a wonderful track.
YU, how did your approach to writing lyrics change on the new album? How has your worldview changed?
YU: For better or for worse, I decided not to overthink things. I feel like in our last album I did all I could with the approach of expressing the darkness within in a raw, honest way. This time, it was all about the sound, so I wrote the lyrics based on how they felt going along with the music.
That’s because I felt like there’s a limit to how much you can weave words using an intellectual approach. It felt like on the last album, I’d taken too much of a cerebral approach and didn’t place enough importance on feeling. But it’s important for there to be a sense of allure in things that might look haphazard from outside. Music is what enables us to express things that can’t be put into words. That’s the kind of approach I wanted to use in the new album.
It feels like you arrived at that aesthetic approach precisely because of how much deep thought you put into your last album.
YU: Exactly. In the past, I’d always written lyrics that followed the music, picking words with a focus on how they sounded. Then, with the pandemic, it was like I needed to place greater weight on the messages of our songs — on the meanings of their words. I felt like I was driven to take that kind of approach. I got a lot of new input and took a trial-and-error approach when writing the lyrics. With this album, the lyrics have gone back to being inspired by the sound of the music.
On the other hand, “conversation,” the song I wrote with CREAM, made a really profound impression. To think that the day would come that I’d write this level of hip-hop lyrics. It was like I was using a totally different part of my brain than when I wrote lyrics for other songs… It’s easier to pack in more words with hip-hop, and I found it really fun how I could put my thoughts into words so much faster, without scrutinizing them so closely. It also re-impressed on me how the pleasure that comes from rap differs from that of other songs, focused on the sounds of the words and the flow. I got to experience both the new joys and new difficulties of writing hip-hop lyrics.
Changing gears a little, I Don’t Like Mondays. has recently been putting on more overseas shows. What have the audience reactions been like?
YU: At Anime Friends 2022, in São Paulo, Brazil, the crowd went wild for “PAINT,” which makes sense given that it was an anime convention. But even at Spain’s BUBBLEPOP festival or the YANTAI YOMA FESTIVAL in China’s Shandong province — both music festivals — the audience was even more excited than when we played “PAINT” in Brazil. It felt great seeing that the course we’d taken over the years had been the right one, and it gave me a lot of confidence. In the future, we’ll continue to do what we feel is best, confidently sharing our music and our whole aesthetic with the rest of the world.
—This interview by Takanori Kuroda first appeared on 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 […]
Ado’s “Show” rises 3-1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Sept. 27, charting the week ending Sept. 24.
Ado collaborated with Universal Studios Japan for its Halloween event “Halloween Horror Nights” for this track, featured as the theme for the event’s dance show “Zombie de Dance” continuing through Nov. 5.
“Show” dropped digitally on Sept. 6 and debuted on the Japan Hot 100 at No. 8 on the week of Sept. 13. It hits No. 1 this week from No. 3 the week before, giving the enigmatic songstress her first No. 1 since “New Genesis” as Uta from ONE PIECE FILM RED.
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The song is powered by streams, which increased 1.3 times from the previous week to 12,058,768 weekly streams, rising 3-1 for the metric. Downloads increased by 0.8 percent from last week to 13,430 units (No. 3). “Show” comes in at No. 2 for video views and No. 8 for radio airplay.
YOASOBI’s “Idol” holds at No. 2. The former No. 1 song (21 weeks) is currently at No. 2 for streaming (10,346,854 streams), No. 8 for downloads (6,242 units), No. 3 for video, No. 68 for radio, and continues to rule karaoke.
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King Gnu‘s “SPECIALZ” rises a notch to No. 3 this week. The Jujutsu Kaisen Shibuya Incident story arc opener debuted on the chart four weeks ago on Sept. 6. The accompanying music video for the track dropped last week (Sept. 21) and the song debuts on video at No. 5, while coming in at No. 32 for physical sales, No. 5 for downloads (8,958 units), No. 3 for streaming (9,598,943 streams), and No. 15 for radio. Although slowing down overall, the “Ichizu” band’s latest single collects points in a balanced way to hit its current peak on the Japan Hot 100.
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The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Sept. 18 to 24, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
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 […]