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— While Morning Musume is now acknowledged as being one of the most well-established idol groups, were you feeling any sort of irritation at society for turning their attention to all these new groups who’d suddenly come out of nowhere?

Tsunku♂: The first thing that I just found bewildering were the multiple versions of the CD’s. I could accept having a first-press limited edition and a regular edition, but suddenly you’d have five, six different versions. By the time it reached something like ten different versions, I was thinking “okay, that’s a little disgraceful.” And yet, fans of those groups from other offices would be buying tens of copies of the same CD as if it was the norm, moving that group up in the Oricon rankings. And we couldn’t just stand idly by with our fingers in our mouths. We’d found ourselves in a bit of a dilemma. Especially as an artist with some self-respect, I was wondering if this was something we should really be engaged in. But looking at it more from a producer’s viewpoint, or from a more managerial, bird’s-eye viewpoint, I could recognize that we’d entered an era where it was necessary to make those sorts of decisions in order to actually have the members as well as the staff make a living out of this. Idols in the 1980’s, too, had done handshake events for fans who had bought their records… but now, in this era, that had become the main thing.

— You obviously want people to listen to your songs. It must make you sad how CD’s have suddenly become like a substitute for handshake tickets.

Tsunku♂: Well, refusing that sort of thing would just be letting my ego as an artist get in the way. It’d be pointless. Handshake tickets or no, it’s the people who stand out in each era who are the winners. If that sort of thing is what society and the fans want, then it’s the entertainment industry’s job to respond to that demand.

But I also felt that it was important for someone to write the hits that would go on to represent that era — it’s necessary for people to remember each era. Dwindling CD sales is something that’s happening all over the world, and yet, you’ll always have stars like Taylor Swift popping up. You’ll watch a music video from someone like that, and of course it’s going to look cool — even if they didn’t spend millions on it like on Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” it’ll still be well-made. And that’s because there’s an idea in there somewhere. If you want to get people to listen to your song, you need to have an idea. In that sense, I don’t think this new method of selling CD’s was a mistake.

Tsunku♂: My health did not have much to do with it at all. It was more an issue of a difference in values. The office had their image of what Hello! Project should be, and I as the producer had my image of what Hello! Project was. As a result, I felt that I was left with no other option but to step down. It was a mere coincidence that I was also sick at the time.

I still had plans in regards to things I wanted to try with Hello! Project at the time, so it was not easy to accept the fact that I had to give up on those plans midway. But it was also thanks to all this happening that I was able to begin my life in Hawaii, as well as create so many non-Hello! Project works. You can never predict what life is going to throw at you.

With all that said, I do constantly worry about the mental well-being of the members.

— Recently there’s been a rapid increase in the number of female fans of the group. Is that something you need to be mindful of as well?

Tsunku♂: I’m always mindful of the fans. But while it’s nice that the group now has more female fans, at the same time you also need to recognize the danger that that represents — after all, the fact that there are suddenly all these female fans means that there’s now some kind of a chink in the group’s armor; something that has made them more easily approachable. And ultimately, if a group ever loses its wildly enthusiastic male fans, that’s like a death sentence for the group. That’s not to say that I was always producing the group only for them… but those guys are very sensitive.

— So just because there are more female fans, you shouldn’t start trying to cater to them more?

Tsunku♂: Absolutely not. I’d think if you were to do that, you would end up drifting very, very far from what the market actually demands. Girls are even more discerning, and thus more sensitive, than guys. Their likes and dislikes can change at the snap of a finger, so if you start making music only for them, or you start doing other things just for them, you’ll soon discover that you’re suddenly standing on very shaky ground.

I have never once met Tsunku♂. I’ve never been able to meet him in-person, and I’ve never gotten the opportunity of being taught anything by him.