It seems from your image that you keep up with details about new products and such.
[Relatively, yeah. But I don’t think that’s the case as much as it used to be.]
– As an example, what genre of thing might particularly captivate you?
[Electronics…… or drinks.]
– Among those, are there any that are hits, or that you’re totally taken with?
[Hmm, not really…… except maybe {Namacha}.] (1)
– Ah, so {Namacha} was a hit.
[{Namacha} was…… well, I still drink it once in a while. At first, it made quite the big impact. That was before all the commercials started.]
– So, basically, what kind of drinks do you like? Other than water, I mean, like tea-based drinks, or juices.
[Well, basically, I’ve gotten to like a lot of things that are good for me, but I still drink cola and stuff once in a while. That doesn’t really get me anywhere…… I mean, I’ll be drinking it and thinking “This stuff is bad for me,” but keep on drinking it.]
– Could you say you casually check out other new things?
[New magazines and stuff, yeah. But only when right that second I’m wanting to know what’s going on in the rest of the world. Especially since I work in entertainment, not keeping up is bad. But way back when, I had the release dates of new magazines memorized.]
– On that note, do you get any newspapers or anything?
[I get a newspaper, but just the one. Mainly for the arts, and for ads. I check out all the ads. Some days, I look at nothing but the ads. Somehow, it’s proportionally closer to being in real time, compared to magazines.]
-That “wanting to know” makes me think you might have a bit of a curious side to you, or something like that. That would tie in well with your “love of novelty” image, I’d say.
[But that’s a part of my personality I’ve had ever since I was born. You see, I’m a type A Libra (2), so that’s the only reason for it. I don’t think it’s special to just me or anything.]
– But, you seem to be ahead of the trends, even before people start saying something is cool. That’s very special, a talent…… with that power, you can catch a lot of things.
[I guess so. Hmm, well, with the kind of work I do, it can’t hurt me any.]
– tetsu-san, what’s the new product most on your mind right now?
[Nothing in particular, really.]
– How about cell phones?
[Not cells, either. I don’t change (units) as much as I used to. Even though the one I use now expired a little while ago. That doesn’t sound like a novelty lover, does it?]
– Do you use many of your cell’s different functions?
[Nah, I don’t use them much. Of course, it has a camera, so I take pictures, but it doesn’t seem like I’ve taken too many. Sometimes I’ll put memos in it. I think I used the features a bit more, before, but really, they ended up being a pain (laughs). I’d rather have it be simple.]
– Do you think that’s strange, eccentric of you at all?
[Well, basically, I thought they were a pain right from the start. Back in elementary school, when I was faced with the school lunch, I didn’t say anything when part of it sucked. Then, once, I said to my teacher “Isn’t it a pain to have to eat the school’s lunch?” and the answer was “Don’t eat it.” Since then, that’s how I deal with annoying things.]
– Oh, I see. So, I guess it’s similar to not liking having to wear the aprons when on lunch duty, or something like that. As if getting changed is a bother.
[Nah, I kinda liked obeying the rules. Hm, or rather, I like going as far as I can while still staying within the rules. “There’s no point in just breaking the rules,” I say. I mean, it’s so much more interesting my way.]
– But I think you might have a lot of annoyances.
[That’s cause they are annoying. Maybe because I’m so totally different from my public image. I’m such a slob. But it kind of makes me responsible, for instance as a leader, I have to tell myself “Gotta hold on!” and when I’m working, I have to keep up appearances for it, right? But if I wasn’t leader, I’d slack off. I’d tell the leader “You decide, I don’t care.”]
– So then, you think about what it would be like if you weren’t the leader?
[I think it would be so much easier if I wasn’t leader, and my good will would probably go up more.]
– Ahahahaha! That’s a bit unexpected. Back to novelty, you like moving into new rooms, don’t you?
[Moving? I’ve liked it. Moving into a new place, there’s a fresh sort of feeling to it, until you get used to the new place. That goes for everyone, doesn’t it?]
– But, tetsu-san, you’ve been called a sort of moving demon, haven’t you? As if you’re always seeking out new scenery, or something.
[Well, I do get bored easily, so I get into circumstances where I need to move a lot. That’s right, speaking of new scenery, I only move into the higher buildings in town, right? But they’re rented, always. Even though the rent is pricey, it’s a waste to always live in just one place. Well, thinking financially, it might be more of a waste to move, but from the perspective of experiencing different things in life, it’s a waste to live in only one place.]
– You have an interesting definition of “waste”.
[But if you live in several places, you’ll get to see lots of different rooms. It’s a faster way of getting different scenery, too.]
– It’s good how you can be so decisive about that sort of thing.
[Oh, no, I’m really not that good at it. I can’t ever toss things out. Really toss it for good, I mean. I’m not decisive enough, so I don’t toss anything.]
– You might toss something and end up saying “I needed that after all,” often.
[That can’t happen. If I really needed it, it’d be enough to go buy another one. However, I do have a lot of keepsakes, so once in a while I’ll have a nostalgia trip. With the stuff I got. Although, I try not to get too attached to things if I can help it.]
– Were you especially good about changing class? (3) I wanted to ask when we were talking about “new scenery,” since it is a form of changing scenery.
[I don’t remember (laughs). It didn’t matter who my classmates were; I never hung out with them much, so changing classes…… wasn’t something I dwelled on, really.]
– What about when you left Osaka to come to Tokyo?
[Ah, I didn’t like that. Tokyo’s late-night programming was boring…… and I didn’t have a car back then, so it sucked.]
– I see (laughs). Being separated from your friends, or from the scenery you’d gotten used to living with is difficult, is it not?
[Mm, it wasn’t the people. I’m rather unaffected by that.]
– Indeed, that must make that sort of thing easier. I get the feeling you didn’t want to cling to things, so that you wouldn’t exclude new possibilities, right?
[Yeah, it’s similar to how I don’t want to let useless information stay in my head.]
– Mm hmm. So, you have to make sure the information you need is always renewed.
[But then, there’s no way I can just erase everything that comes from the past. To keep only what I need, I’d have to start by forgetting everything I don’t need…… and I can’t think that deeply. New things, necessary things, even uncertain things, getting good at selecting between them is part of life, I think. It’s seeing what kind of life you can choose to have, out of all the possible choices. I think life means making choices.]
– So, making choices while going on ahead?
[As long as you’re alive, time keeps advancing. That in itself means going forward, even if you choose not to do anything, or not to think about anything.]
– tetsu-san, you don’t have many regrets?
[No, though I know I’ve screwed up a lot. I’m not always sure the path I’ve chosen is entirely correct, so of course when things go wrong, I’ll think “I would have been better off choosing a different method,” but there isn’t any real meaning to regret. “Regrets are meaningless,” that’s what Shirley said.]
– Wahahahahaha! Is that from Garbage? (4)
[And I don’t even read interviews that often (laughs).]
– Then, for instance, if you think “Ah! I messed up!” you can go straight to thinking “Then, what do I try next?” It lets you do things over, to a degree.
[Do over…… Yeah, that’s right. When I do, I don’t want to keep on repeating the same mistakes again. That’s why first, I ask myself “How come it went wrong?” and investigate the cause. If there’s a cause, there are effects, so you need to follow up on the cause if you want to avoid repeating the same mistakes…… I do that, but, I’m only human, so sometimes it can get pretty difficult.]
– Indeed, if you don’t know the cause, you can’t understand why things went wrong.
[The way I see the world, there are lots of people who won’t stop scratching at the causes of their failures. But I think there are also a lot of people who are unsure, vague about it, but advance anyway, and lots of others who keep repeating the same mistakes over and over. Especially in Japan, we have a Giri-Ninjou (5) sort of world. That makes us aware of how that sort of ambiguity can be beautiful.]
– I think your point of view is very rational, tetsu-san.
[Well, it’s not like I’m German or something.]
– Wahahahaha! So practical? Talking to you, tetsu-san, I’ve been thinking “If there were more people who thought like this, we’d be able to understand the world a bit better.”
[Maybe so. I think this way because I experience the world as an artist. If I’d entered a normal business, I wouldn’t see the world like this (laughs).]
– Then, as an artist, you want to create new things, produce something new yourself, move the world?
[There are no limits to new things, but I think only a few of them can impress people.]
– As in something no one else has done until now.
[No, that’s not what really interests me. If no one’s ever done it before, then it will surprise people, and if it was a really good idea then, of course, I think it’s great to have done it first, but I won’t not do something just because it’s been done before. Then again, “No one’s ever tried it before” isn’t a good reason to try something if it isn’t a good idea to start with.]
– Mm, hahaha, I see.
[There is such a thing as “No one would ever want to do that” (laughs). I don’t always remember reading something or seeing something so “Ideas get used over and over throughout the world,” I say. Everything does. It’s just a matter of arranging them differently. That’s something I’ve always thought, because even “the one who thought of it first” must have gotten most of the idea from somewhere else, already. It just gets changed a little. Applied and developed. Even with new things, there are always some that make me think “I figured someone would do that,” or “I was wondering when that would come out,” right? Really, there isn’t much of anything that makes me go “EH?!” anymore.]
– I see. Nothing makes you say “I’d have never imagined it.”
[Even before they had much transportation, people knew we’d be able to fly someday. And doesn’t everyone think “Someday we’ll get to the space travel era,” too? Even with new technology, it all comes from the accumulation of tiny, minute inventions. New inventions, new discoveries, they can only happen because we’ve gobbled up all the inventions, discoveries that came before until the knowledge seems obvious to us.]
– tetsu-san, are you the type who won’t hesitate to buy something secondhand, or used? Old clothes, for example.
[No, I don’t really like buying used clothes. Furniture, either. It’s just that I can’t stand the smell of used clothes. Used clothes stores stink. It’s calmed down since, but you know how a bunch of years back there was this “old clothes = cool” thing happening? I wanted nothing to do with it (laughs). There’s a reason people aren’t wearing those clothes anymore, so why go out of your way to wear used clothing?]
– Ah, I see. So which used items would be OK?
[Instruments. And cars are OK, too. Things that aren’t made anymore and rare items are OK. For cars, I buy them as soon as they cease production. I always have a lack of interest in things that are being made now. It’s like “They aren’t making this anymore… guess I’ll go buy it.” If the mileage is reasonably low, getting a used car is OK. Any vintage instrument is OK.]
– That isn’t so much a “love of novelty” as a love of having things other people don’t.
[Yeah, I like rare stuff.]
– One more thing I want to ask : “New songs.” How does it feel to perform them?
[New songs are lots of fun, it’s a very nice feeling.]
– Does that go for the creation, giving life to the song as well?
[It’s fun, creating something new out of nothing. Even though I never used to think I could make music by myself.]
-Interviewer : Honma Yuuko
Translated by Natalie Arnold.
[Relatively, yeah. But I don’t think that’s the case as much as it used to be.]
– As an example, what genre of thing might particularly captivate you?
[Electronics…… or drinks.]
– Among those, are there any that are hits, or that you’re totally taken with?
[Hmm, not really…… except maybe {Namacha}.] (1)
– Ah, so {Namacha} was a hit.
[{Namacha} was…… well, I still drink it once in a while. At first, it made quite the big impact. That was before all the commercials started.]
– So, basically, what kind of drinks do you like? Other than water, I mean, like tea-based drinks, or juices.
[Well, basically, I’ve gotten to like a lot of things that are good for me, but I still drink cola and stuff once in a while. That doesn’t really get me anywhere…… I mean, I’ll be drinking it and thinking “This stuff is bad for me,” but keep on drinking it.]
– Could you say you casually check out other new things?
[New magazines and stuff, yeah. But only when right that second I’m wanting to know what’s going on in the rest of the world. Especially since I work in entertainment, not keeping up is bad. But way back when, I had the release dates of new magazines memorized.]
– On that note, do you get any newspapers or anything?
[I get a newspaper, but just the one. Mainly for the arts, and for ads. I check out all the ads. Some days, I look at nothing but the ads. Somehow, it’s proportionally closer to being in real time, compared to magazines.]
-That “wanting to know” makes me think you might have a bit of a curious side to you, or something like that. That would tie in well with your “love of novelty” image, I’d say.
[But that’s a part of my personality I’ve had ever since I was born. You see, I’m a type A Libra (2), so that’s the only reason for it. I don’t think it’s special to just me or anything.]
– But, you seem to be ahead of the trends, even before people start saying something is cool. That’s very special, a talent…… with that power, you can catch a lot of things.
[I guess so. Hmm, well, with the kind of work I do, it can’t hurt me any.]
– tetsu-san, what’s the new product most on your mind right now?
[Nothing in particular, really.]
– How about cell phones?
[Not cells, either. I don’t change (units) as much as I used to. Even though the one I use now expired a little while ago. That doesn’t sound like a novelty lover, does it?]
– Do you use many of your cell’s different functions?
[Nah, I don’t use them much. Of course, it has a camera, so I take pictures, but it doesn’t seem like I’ve taken too many. Sometimes I’ll put memos in it. I think I used the features a bit more, before, but really, they ended up being a pain (laughs). I’d rather have it be simple.]
– Do you think that’s strange, eccentric of you at all?
[Well, basically, I thought they were a pain right from the start. Back in elementary school, when I was faced with the school lunch, I didn’t say anything when part of it sucked. Then, once, I said to my teacher “Isn’t it a pain to have to eat the school’s lunch?” and the answer was “Don’t eat it.” Since then, that’s how I deal with annoying things.]
– Oh, I see. So, I guess it’s similar to not liking having to wear the aprons when on lunch duty, or something like that. As if getting changed is a bother.
[Nah, I kinda liked obeying the rules. Hm, or rather, I like going as far as I can while still staying within the rules. “There’s no point in just breaking the rules,” I say. I mean, it’s so much more interesting my way.]
– But I think you might have a lot of annoyances.
[That’s cause they are annoying. Maybe because I’m so totally different from my public image. I’m such a slob. But it kind of makes me responsible, for instance as a leader, I have to tell myself “Gotta hold on!” and when I’m working, I have to keep up appearances for it, right? But if I wasn’t leader, I’d slack off. I’d tell the leader “You decide, I don’t care.”]
– So then, you think about what it would be like if you weren’t the leader?
[I think it would be so much easier if I wasn’t leader, and my good will would probably go up more.]
– Ahahahaha! That’s a bit unexpected. Back to novelty, you like moving into new rooms, don’t you?
[Moving? I’ve liked it. Moving into a new place, there’s a fresh sort of feeling to it, until you get used to the new place. That goes for everyone, doesn’t it?]
– But, tetsu-san, you’ve been called a sort of moving demon, haven’t you? As if you’re always seeking out new scenery, or something.
[Well, I do get bored easily, so I get into circumstances where I need to move a lot. That’s right, speaking of new scenery, I only move into the higher buildings in town, right? But they’re rented, always. Even though the rent is pricey, it’s a waste to always live in just one place. Well, thinking financially, it might be more of a waste to move, but from the perspective of experiencing different things in life, it’s a waste to live in only one place.]
– You have an interesting definition of “waste”.
[But if you live in several places, you’ll get to see lots of different rooms. It’s a faster way of getting different scenery, too.]
– It’s good how you can be so decisive about that sort of thing.
[Oh, no, I’m really not that good at it. I can’t ever toss things out. Really toss it for good, I mean. I’m not decisive enough, so I don’t toss anything.]
– You might toss something and end up saying “I needed that after all,” often.
[That can’t happen. If I really needed it, it’d be enough to go buy another one. However, I do have a lot of keepsakes, so once in a while I’ll have a nostalgia trip. With the stuff I got. Although, I try not to get too attached to things if I can help it.]
– Were you especially good about changing class? (3) I wanted to ask when we were talking about “new scenery,” since it is a form of changing scenery.
[I don’t remember (laughs). It didn’t matter who my classmates were; I never hung out with them much, so changing classes…… wasn’t something I dwelled on, really.]
– What about when you left Osaka to come to Tokyo?
[Ah, I didn’t like that. Tokyo’s late-night programming was boring…… and I didn’t have a car back then, so it sucked.]
– I see (laughs). Being separated from your friends, or from the scenery you’d gotten used to living with is difficult, is it not?
[Mm, it wasn’t the people. I’m rather unaffected by that.]
– Indeed, that must make that sort of thing easier. I get the feeling you didn’t want to cling to things, so that you wouldn’t exclude new possibilities, right?
[Yeah, it’s similar to how I don’t want to let useless information stay in my head.]
– Mm hmm. So, you have to make sure the information you need is always renewed.
[But then, there’s no way I can just erase everything that comes from the past. To keep only what I need, I’d have to start by forgetting everything I don’t need…… and I can’t think that deeply. New things, necessary things, even uncertain things, getting good at selecting between them is part of life, I think. It’s seeing what kind of life you can choose to have, out of all the possible choices. I think life means making choices.]
– So, making choices while going on ahead?
[As long as you’re alive, time keeps advancing. That in itself means going forward, even if you choose not to do anything, or not to think about anything.]
– tetsu-san, you don’t have many regrets?
[No, though I know I’ve screwed up a lot. I’m not always sure the path I’ve chosen is entirely correct, so of course when things go wrong, I’ll think “I would have been better off choosing a different method,” but there isn’t any real meaning to regret. “Regrets are meaningless,” that’s what Shirley said.]
– Wahahahahaha! Is that from Garbage? (4)
[And I don’t even read interviews that often (laughs).]
– Then, for instance, if you think “Ah! I messed up!” you can go straight to thinking “Then, what do I try next?” It lets you do things over, to a degree.
[Do over…… Yeah, that’s right. When I do, I don’t want to keep on repeating the same mistakes again. That’s why first, I ask myself “How come it went wrong?” and investigate the cause. If there’s a cause, there are effects, so you need to follow up on the cause if you want to avoid repeating the same mistakes…… I do that, but, I’m only human, so sometimes it can get pretty difficult.]
– Indeed, if you don’t know the cause, you can’t understand why things went wrong.
[The way I see the world, there are lots of people who won’t stop scratching at the causes of their failures. But I think there are also a lot of people who are unsure, vague about it, but advance anyway, and lots of others who keep repeating the same mistakes over and over. Especially in Japan, we have a Giri-Ninjou (5) sort of world. That makes us aware of how that sort of ambiguity can be beautiful.]
– I think your point of view is very rational, tetsu-san.
[Well, it’s not like I’m German or something.]
– Wahahahaha! So practical? Talking to you, tetsu-san, I’ve been thinking “If there were more people who thought like this, we’d be able to understand the world a bit better.”
[Maybe so. I think this way because I experience the world as an artist. If I’d entered a normal business, I wouldn’t see the world like this (laughs).]
– Then, as an artist, you want to create new things, produce something new yourself, move the world?
[There are no limits to new things, but I think only a few of them can impress people.]
– As in something no one else has done until now.
[No, that’s not what really interests me. If no one’s ever done it before, then it will surprise people, and if it was a really good idea then, of course, I think it’s great to have done it first, but I won’t not do something just because it’s been done before. Then again, “No one’s ever tried it before” isn’t a good reason to try something if it isn’t a good idea to start with.]
– Mm, hahaha, I see.
[There is such a thing as “No one would ever want to do that” (laughs). I don’t always remember reading something or seeing something so “Ideas get used over and over throughout the world,” I say. Everything does. It’s just a matter of arranging them differently. That’s something I’ve always thought, because even “the one who thought of it first” must have gotten most of the idea from somewhere else, already. It just gets changed a little. Applied and developed. Even with new things, there are always some that make me think “I figured someone would do that,” or “I was wondering when that would come out,” right? Really, there isn’t much of anything that makes me go “EH?!” anymore.]
– I see. Nothing makes you say “I’d have never imagined it.”
[Even before they had much transportation, people knew we’d be able to fly someday. And doesn’t everyone think “Someday we’ll get to the space travel era,” too? Even with new technology, it all comes from the accumulation of tiny, minute inventions. New inventions, new discoveries, they can only happen because we’ve gobbled up all the inventions, discoveries that came before until the knowledge seems obvious to us.]
– tetsu-san, are you the type who won’t hesitate to buy something secondhand, or used? Old clothes, for example.
[No, I don’t really like buying used clothes. Furniture, either. It’s just that I can’t stand the smell of used clothes. Used clothes stores stink. It’s calmed down since, but you know how a bunch of years back there was this “old clothes = cool” thing happening? I wanted nothing to do with it (laughs). There’s a reason people aren’t wearing those clothes anymore, so why go out of your way to wear used clothing?]
– Ah, I see. So which used items would be OK?
[Instruments. And cars are OK, too. Things that aren’t made anymore and rare items are OK. For cars, I buy them as soon as they cease production. I always have a lack of interest in things that are being made now. It’s like “They aren’t making this anymore… guess I’ll go buy it.” If the mileage is reasonably low, getting a used car is OK. Any vintage instrument is OK.]
– That isn’t so much a “love of novelty” as a love of having things other people don’t.
[Yeah, I like rare stuff.]
– One more thing I want to ask : “New songs.” How does it feel to perform them?
[New songs are lots of fun, it’s a very nice feeling.]
– Does that go for the creation, giving life to the song as well?
[It’s fun, creating something new out of nothing. Even though I never used to think I could make music by myself.]
-Interviewer : Honma Yuuko
Translated by Natalie Arnold.
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