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Billboard Japan’s Women in Music initiative launched in 2022 to celebrate artists, producers, and executives who have made significant contributions to music and inspired other women through their work, in the same spirit as Billboard’s annual Women in Music celebration since 2007. This interview series featuring female players in the Japanese entertainment industry is one of the highlights of Japan’s WIM project.

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For the latest installment, the four members of ATARASHII GAKKO! — MIZYU, SUZUKA, RIN, and KANON — spoke with Billboard Japan at Amazon Music Studio Tokyo in Shibuya. There’s no other act quite like this unique group anywhere in the world, including its home country. Their concept is to “stand out” and true to this motto, the “Otona Blue” members put on fierce performances clad in their signature sailor-style school uniforms. Having toured internationally to great success and secured fans of various genders and nationalities, what’s their current mindset and where are they heading? The four young women who have been fearlessly standing out from boundaries over the years looked back on their careers and spoke about their future goals in this latest interview.

SUZUKA

Megumi Omori

The concept of ATARASHII GAKKO! has been to “stand out” from the beginning. Why did you choose this theme?

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SUZUKA: I think the premise was that “ordinary is boring.” We wanted to create something new instead of copying something made by someone else. When we explored that idea, we ended up with the concept of “standing out with our individualities and freedom.”

RIN: We were still in junior high and high school when we formed the group, so we were actual students. That’s why we really wanted to become leaders who were half a step ahead of other students. That feeling is also reflected in the “leaders” part of our group’s name. [Translator’s note: The group’s name in Japanese means “the new leaders in school.”]

Now that a decade has passed since the group’s formation, has your way of thinking about standing out changed?

KANON: I think my understanding of it has deepened. At first, I just sort of intuitively tried to stand out, but now I think about what I can do to push boundaries in a meaningful way.

SUZUKA: Yeah, standing out sounds easy but it’s actually quite hard. At first, I was simply rebellious, like, “I don’t like stuff that is exemplary,” but now I have respect for the background of why those boundaries were created. I often say, “It’s OK to stand out, but not to go overboard.” [Laughs] Instead of taking off on a stolen motorbike like the late Yutaka Ozaki sings in his classic song, “The Night,” our group places importance on inner freedom and liberation. We’ll follow rules but push boundaries and add our own new essence, that’s how we feel now.

RIN: In the past, we were like, “Let’s stand out!” on a single straight line that we’d drawn, but now that line has split and spread out in various directions and we look forward to it intersecting with various things.

KANON: To explain in sensory terms, it feels like it started out as a cool color, but now it’s become a warm color. Ten years ago, we were standing out in a pointed way, but now the way we stand out is like a permeating warmth.

KANON

Megumi Omori

What’s the public reaction been like to the way you’ve been standing out?

MIZYU: In Japan, it feels like if you’re even slightly different from the norm, people will ask you, “How come?” But I’ve always wondered who decides what is “normal.”

SUZUKA: We often use the phrase “intolerance is stifling” in our activities and this has been a theme since the group’s formation. There are rules in school and society that you have to follow, of course, but they include things that make you wonder, “Why isn’t this allowed?”

RIN: I think I’ve probably felt pressure to behave in a certain way because I’m a woman.

KANON: But we shouldn’t have to feel that pressure, you know? We want to convey through our music and performances how we can free ourselves from such pressures.

It takes courage to stand out from boundaries. What advice would you give to someone who can’t muster up that courage?

RIN: “Standing out” doesn’t necessarily mean sticking out, and taking that first step towards doing the things you like or want to do is what’s important. That small first step will lead you to your own unique way of standing out. This isn’t really advice, but I want to tell people to cherish the things they really like.SUZUKA: I think one of the main reasons why people can’t muster up the courage to do what they want is because they’re worried about what other people think. But the truth is, no one is really paying that much attention to you. [Laughs] If you do something you like and it’s within the rules, then the people around you have no choice but to accept it. So trust yourself more and do what you like.

RIN

Megumi Omori

So that’s the solid common understanding you all share.

KANON: What SUZUKA and RIN said has become the norm among the four of us. Because we’re accepted by the other members of the group, we can also accept everyone else. So when you come to our shows, you’ll understand what I mean. It’s a space where everyone becomes free and we can all say to each other, “This is the best!” We and all our fans have become a community that sticks out.

RIN: The members have completely different characters and our personalities and appearances are diverse as well. But because four such people got together and grew up respecting the things that we each like, the ATARASHII GAKKO! community has become a place where everyone can feel at ease. That’s why we can express ourselves with confidence even when we go out into the outside world.

MIZYU: I’ve never felt that I had to be the same as everyone else. If you like cute things, for example, you can pursue that to your heart’s content, and even if your tastes are different from the people around you, the important thing is to explore that. The members of our group can respect each other even if we can’t relate to certain aspects, and we’ve come this far because we can enjoy our differences.

MIZYU

Megumi Omori

As female artists, do you ever find yourself thinking about gender?

KANON: We’re women, but it’s a given that we don’t want to be bound by gender. Sometimes we wear sailor-style (girls’) school uniforms, sometimes we wear gakuran (school uniforms for boys), and we have male fans who wear sailor-style school uniforms. Both in Japan and elsewhere, many people express themselves in ways that transcend gender boundaries. We feel like we just express ourselves as human beings without being bound by gender.

MIZYU: Yeah, it seems like our fans freely choose what they like instead of thinking that men should be like this or women should be like that.

KANON: That’s why we want to live as individuals and as human beings instead of “being strong as women.” If people take our expression on a more essential level, like in their souls or senses, rather than being bound by our gender, that would make me happy.

SUZUKA: When I was little, I used to behave in ways that were so different from what was considered “girly” and really hated the feeling of being pushed into a stereotype of what a girl should be like. Now I’ve come to think that it’s fine to just be the way I am.

Is there anything the four of you want to take on in the future?

SUZUKA: I want to make my life wonderful, and I want to make everyone else’s lives wonderful, too. It could be about attaining happiness, or about accomplishing something amazing, but I want to make it so that I can look back and think, “That was one hell of a life!”

KANON: We often use the word “seishun” (youth), but for us, seishun isn’t about age, but about living life to the fullest right now. I want to keep living life to the fullest with these members.

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