Kawashiri Ren – the performance leader who leads the group with a high amount of abilities Profile Kawashiri Ren born 1997.3.2, from Fukuoka Has experience as a back dancer for domestic and foreign artists like DREAMS COME TRUE and Pentagon. Made his dream come true by participating in PRODUCE 101 JAPAN and placing 2nd in the final. His role is the performance leader of JO1. Proud to be the strongest of the group in the werewolf game.
Kawashiri Ren was the center of 101 trainees for the theme song of PRODUCE 101 JAPAN and his beautiful dance captured the hearts of the fans. His merit of having worked as a back dancer for popular domestic and foreign artists and his honest and serious personality with a high awareness of his goals made him keep always his place between 1st or 2nd. In the final he placed 2nd and made his debut come true as a member of JO1. While working as a back dancer, the feeling of wanting to stand in the artist place budded, so while taking vocal lessons I started to challenge auditions. Also because of my age I was a little impatient “Time is running out soon” and I was prepared to take this as my last chance. I’m too serious which is good or bad, thus during the audition I thought a lot about what to show of myself, what should I convey to the viewers and what not. I have lived for 22 years, so I thought it’s very important for me “to keep thinking” to keep acting” and “to keep doing”. In any case, I shouldn’t forget that, so the most important thing might have been to show that I’m doing it with all my might. Among that, there were people whose heart I’ve moved, who thought that my dancing is necessary for the group and who voted for me, thus I was able to become a part of JO1. Personally, there is a point that I have schemed with. There were a lot of opportunities for me to choose the songs myself, so each time I chose the song while thinking that I wanted to show my strengths and a new side of myself. It’s something small, but for each song I changed my hairstyle and during the final I dared to go back to my hairstyle from the beginning of the program. I did that because I thought that I could express my change over the months.
Although that in March 2020 the long awaited debut was accomplished, due to COVID-19 the planned artist activities all became a bland paper and the self restrain period began. The creative part of JO1 was handled from the Korean side since the time before the debut, but while not being able to travel there, Kawashiri was entrusted with the big role of teaching the dance to the members as the performance leader. Since the debut a Korean choreographer named Choi Young Joon made the choreographies for our songs, but because of COVID-19, we weren’t able to take direct coaching from him. Instead, he send us conscientiously choreography videos and I was entrusted to coach the members. He told me “Just in case I will send you the video, but if there is something you want to change, do that. The formation transfers and the standpoints are decided, but I will entrust you with the everything else like the method of transfers.” I’m really thankful because it’s a responsible job. Since I call myself the performance leader, I want to do that properly. The dance ability of the group is still on a rookie level. When I point out things that need to be revisioned, the members who are good in dancing can response on the spot, but there are also a lot of members who forget it on the next day. I understand that it’s difficult, but your body has to memorise it by practising repeatedly. I hope that while accumulating experience, everyone can master things like dance skills.
The group leader is Yonashiro Sho, the performance leader is Kawashiri and Kono Junki shoulders the role of the vocal leader. This system of 3 leaders seems to enhance the group’s unity power. Us three leaders are different personality-wise, so Junki takes the lead, speaks loudly and leads everyone, I take everyone’s hand and unify them, Sho wraps us up and pushes from behind. Those roles were completed naturally and we even say “unexpectedly we are leaders with a good balance” -laughs- there is also a a line group リーダーズ (leaders) of the three of us and we talk together there like “today’s practise was like that, so let’s try this tomorrow“, so I think it‘s really good relationship. Because the members also all live together, we gradually became closer. Everyone’s first impression was a different personality, wasn’t it ? Especially interesting is Mame. He is a cute little brother who is serious, gentle and with a stable personality, but when he wants to fool around, he will do that with his full power. I will think “that’s a high schooler” and he is super cute and always makes me laugh. For JO1, the fans have been attached to each of us before the debut and even after the debut they continue to support us. I kind of feeling like they are raising us and their way of supporting us is very passionate. Like advertising at the Time Square in New York for birthdays or writing the name into the sky with a flying airplane. Each time we appear in a program, the tweets enter the twitter trends, the products we use become sold out… Because our power is that big, it also makes me feel that we have to do our best to return the favours and I believe it’s a strong point. I feel like it’s a really blessed environment, but personally our performance skills aren’t satisfying and when we appear in variety programs, we are in the middle of learning how to talk, react and interact with the staff. We help each other by talking about the things we’ve noticed. Right after the debut in March, there were a lot of things that didn’t proceed as planned which is different from how I envisioned our first year. But if I look at the bright side, a live that was planned for a small venue, has the possibility of being watched by 10.000 people because it’s online. I think that even when COVID-19 has settled down, Online lives will continue in the future. We often say “We want to become people who to do new things and are copied”, but in that sense I think we could start early on. However, of course we want to perform in front of JAM. Besides not knowing when, we prepare hard, so that the people can think “I’m glad that we waited.” once the environment has finally become like that. And I think that should be done now. Personally, I’m studying how to write songs right now and I want to be able to perform a song that I wrote myself and made the choreography for. Also, I want to create a lot of people who think “I want to become like JO1”. I want to try to produce a group that will exceed us as we will grow bigger in the future.
Something that you bought recently and that was a hit for you? It’s an electrical toothbrush. I saw Takumi whose teeth are neat using it and I think pretty much everyone copied him. I bought two ones, one for carrying around and one for home use. Brushing my teeth takes a lot of time, so my arms were always quite exhausted from that until now. Because it’s electrical, I just trace my teeth slooowly and I don’t get exhausted at all. I can proceed the day with a refreshing feeling from the morning saying “Today they are shiny, too!”
The oldest member and leader who guides the members gently Profile Yonashiro Sho born 1995.10.25, from Okinawa. In Highschool he was the vocalist of a band. He was chosen as one of members, placing 11th in the final while being inexperienced in dancing. Is the oldest and leader of JO1 which has members between 18 years and 24 years old. His nickname is “Big brother with beautiful muscles”.
The oldest member Yonashiro Sho who became leader of JO1 by votes from the members after being chosen as a candidate. It is a large group in which both the age spanning from 18 years to 24 years and the environment of growing up had been different. In order to unify this group, he is the embodiment of the image of "the leader who calmly guides the path”, instead of being of “a leader who takes the lead and leads aggressively”. Right after the debut, there was also a feeling of a gap in values because there were members who were far from my age. Because suddenly we entered the artist world after being normal people, there were also matters like that especially the younger members were in high spirits. In that situation, even when I said this and that, there were some things that I couldn’t understand just by talking. Being an eye witness is worth more than words. Without hurrying, I’ve talked to them each day, pointed out stances at various settings and investigated how to change the member’s consciousness. Now, I came to understand what everyone thinks more than in the beginning and if I say something, they will listen. It’s like a school class –laughs- I think the more time you spend together, the more naturally you can understand them.
Before the debut between January and February 2020 the fan meetings took place. It became a hot topic that the ca. 20.000 tickets were sold out on the spot. Towards the debut, it was necessary to strengthen the bonds of 11 people in a short time, so regular meetings between the members happen since that time. At first the feeling that each one “wanted to stand out” was dominant. But while talking with each other, the topic that we can’t go to the top unless we become one as a team came up and finally, we did become one. I told everyone at the time of the release of the second single “If I threw away the name JO1 and did activities as an individual, what can I do?” Right now, I’m receiving attention as a part of the team JO1 and without that, there is also no way that I could fight on my own. We talked that each one should act with a strong sense of crisis. Because of such talks, our team strength steadily accompanies us. To keep our feelings high all the time is surely difficult. Of course, there are waves. When we feel that the waves go down, the older members like me, Ren and Junki work together and talk to everyone, so that the wave won’t become too big.
Yonashiro who is the reliable leader especially now used to be inexperienced in dancing when he signed up for PRODUCE 101 Japan. Due to his earnest approach of engaging with his full power into the next song at any rate, he gained the debut in the very last moment by placing 11th in the finale. It was something hard, so I thought of it as unpleasant. For example, if I was a student, it would be something like homework. But if you push it off, it actually becomes worse, right? During the first single, I could feel for real that what I did was returned to me. To specify that, also back during PDJP you had to be absolutely good enough in singing and dancing on the day of the shooting of the evaluations. I learned that if people decide on a date, they will move towards that in their way –laughs- So rather than feeling that you make an effort, it’s “You have to do that”. The approach that focussing on the things right in front of you instead of messily thinking about various things, is due the influence of what my parents taught me. About the time when I was in middle school, I fussed a lot over my look, and back then I was conscious of the showy long hair I had. What my parents told me about that was “If you only care about your looks, nothing will change.” Back then I didn’t understand it and called it of “No, if I change my look, I will change”, but when I grew older, I understood that there is no point in only strengthening your other walls (when the problem is actually inside). During the course of PDJP, while challenging various things, I had no choice but to become bare after all. Because I have this experience, I came to have that stance.
“My Friends” his first attempt of writing lyrics is included in the second single “STARGAZER”. In the future he also wants to try composing. That we can do this now is thanks to the fans. Since the time that the JO1 members were chosen, I wanted to express this thankfulness in song lyrics, so I wrote down my thoughts in my notebook each time. We response to the things that requested and just the same the fans support us. JO1 has established a relationship that is no one way street by all means. This expression is included in the lyrics. I thought that the sales of the second single would be lower than the ones of the first one because the self-restrain period had passed and that the amount of attention would be surely lower compared to the timing of the debut. But that the gap wasn’t that much, surprised us. I really experienced that the fans support us. Our aim is to become a group that doesn’t just sings and dances, but that also known abroad. Speaking of the things we can do now, naturally there is that we have to raise your dance abilities. However, because I originally wanted to become a singer, I have the strong feeling of “I want to lead the group with singing”. I want to know more about singing and pure curiosity of becoming better is connected to the desire of wanting to write both the music and the lyrics. If there is the smallest possibility to stand on the stages of the world, I will surely do what I can for that.
A big strength as a group that comes from an audition is that there are a lot of passionate fans even before their debut. However, there is a change of thoughts regarding this. Recently, I have come to think that I’m relieved at this place and that I can’t go higher (just by having those fans). By showing our growth, we invite people who don’t know us well yet to become interested in people chasing their dreams and to look us up. Then, I hope that they think “Ah, those people are the ones who worked hard to make their dreams come true. I want to support them, too.” I would like to continue our future activities with the awareness that such developments will occur.
Something that you bought recently and that was a hit for you? Summer sandals. It’s not something from a brand, but something for the daily use. I think that’s the only thing I bought recently –laughs-
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