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Ohira Shosei (JO1)
Endless dreams and a questioning mind.

An appearance for Ohira Shosei
from JO1 who have just released
their 2ND ALBUM ‘KIZUNA’!
We asked him about his feelings towards expressing oneself
and his continuously expanding dreams.

My dream was “to become an artist who can express everything”.

Interview
Ohira Shosei took part in the shooting by changing his expressions and aura all of sudden depending on the costume he was wearing. There was no confused expression like the one he showed during the ‘anan’ shooting on the day after he was selected as a member of JO1 and he matured into a true pro artist in the two and a half years.

“Thank you very much for watching over us since the debut. Thanks to you we were able to have various experiences. I felt embarrassed about barely posing and I started to learn. I memorised poses by watching pictures of various people, watched the shootings of the other members and copied what I liked. This time, I expressed myself as I turned into a different person depending on the costume. I guess I like the word ‘expression’. My long dream is to become an artist who can express everything.”

During his high school years Ohira-san began to aspire to become an artist. After watching a DVD of Sandaime J Soul Brothers, he thought ‘I also want to dance!’ and started going to a dance school.

“I started in the beginner’s class, but immediately advanced and I danced for about 6 hours each day both in the intermediate and advanced level. The environment was also good and I guess I was fast in absorbing the things. Two years after watching their live performance, I was dancing in the back for Sandaime-san. I believe that if you take action you can make all your wishes come true, but on this day I felt it for real. I believe because I made this experience, I was surely able to debut.”

Ohira-san has been a super positive kid since his childhood. His family principle was ‘wanting to show him a lot of things while he was young’ and from an early age he was able to have various experiences such as going to concerts or travelling abroad.

“I think going to study dancing in America during my high school years is connected to the present. I stayed alone in North Hollywood for a month, but generally speaking I enjoyed that people were talking to me just because we were riding the same elevator or someone was performing in the train. Moreover, food that I thought of as ‘what’s that?’ was delicious. I feel that it is indeed true that it is better to see a lot of things in the world while you are young. It is absolutely better to know than not to know. Even if you fail, you will learn something from it.”

Thanks to him doing a lot of sightseeing by riding trains or buses alone, he also became able to speak English.

“Back then I was able to speak English, but I do not use it nowadays so I keep on forgetting it… Right now, Junki-kun appears on ‘Hangul! Navi’ on NHK E, doesn’t he? I like Chinese and I like studying languages so I am studying Chinese, so one day I could also… those high ambitions have budded. I believe that if you just voice your dreams, they will come true, so I tell you those (laughs).”

In the two and a half years since JO1’s formation, the period of being unable to be as active as expected due to the Corona pandemic was longer than the one of standing in front of the fans. However, he reflects back on it that such a time was not completely bad.

“In the time we were unable to meet JAM, we diligently prepared and JAM also did their best at work for example in order to meet us so I believe it was a really romantic period in some meaning. Exactly that’s why, I said ‘We all worked hard, didn’t we!’ when we were finally able to meet, which also moved me deeply.”

In this period he kept on challenging various things such as a documentary movie, a drama or the job of a voice actor. During the filming of the movie he also directly asked the director Inagaki Tetsuro to teach him video editing.

“Together with Syoya I am appearing as a voice actor in ‘Gunjou no Fanfare’ which is currently airing. Because I was together with Syoya, the recording had been a lot of fun. The drama was the same, but I felt that I expanded my range of expressions through experiencing acting. By completely turning into another person I was able to see various perspectives, so I thought ‘This person is feeling like this?’… I want to learn video editing simply because I always liked cameras (laughs). Moreover, I like to preserve memories. I want to leave happy moments on video and I would be even happier if JAM enjoyed these, too.”

The new album ‘KIZUNA’ is full of the growth of JO1 running from their debut to now.

“Especially ‘Algorithm’ is a song in which you can feel our growth as it incorporates a technique we did not know in the past. From now on I want to make all JAM happy by touring through Japan and the world. Personally, I want to train my abs and be on the cover of ‘anan’!

Ohira Shosei, born 2000.4.13 and from the prefecture Kyoto. His special ability is his dancing that can reveal cuteness, strength and gracefulness.
“Recently, I got caught by JO1’s three musketeers of shyness, Mame-chan, Takumi-kun and Ruki-kun, as they said ‘Shosei isn’t shy!’ (laughs).”

I believe that if I just voice them all my wishes will come true.