[JO1] Nikkei Entertainment 220204

Kawashiri Ren
The future challenge the dance leader has set for the team

As the performance leader Kawashiri Ren leads JO1 with his high level dance skills. He detailedly understands each member’s dancing and strives to achieve the highest synchronization level in Japan. With a smiling face that had some relief mixed into it, he said “As a group we are finally on the same page”.

We are a group born from an audition program, so we did not debut upon having a system as a team to some extent. In the beginning, there were also difficulties because we were careful of each other and there was a difference in our experiences. But, finally I feel our self consciousness as a group has solidified. I felt that the most at our lives “OPEN THE DOOR” (November ‘21). I was really happy to see that we have become one as a group and this was tangible. Finally everyone holds the same assets, so I feel like we should do everything more aggressively from now on.
Speaking from the performance side, I personally think that in addition to aligning the dancing, our task is to bring out each one’s qualities more. It’s the era of enjoying music not just with your ears but also with your eyes. Thus, I want to go to the bottom of making the dance like the 11 members are aligned from afar, but when you get closer the best of each one’s individuality stands out. So far, I had been so desperate that I had no room to think about that far ahead, but now we also have a junior group and I want to move to the next level.

I want to be a good influence to the lives of a lot of people.

I was happy that I was able to appear along with my former dance companion Kimura Masaya from INI at the Korean music awards “Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS” in December. Once, when we ate together, he said “I also want to do this” after watching my activities with JO1. Since before I was performing, hoping that someone would think “Music is so much fun. I should try it too”, after watching my performances. Thus, that someone close to me actually thinks like this makes me emotional (laughs). In the future I want to take more responsibility and change the lives of more people for the better.
Right now, Sukai is taking a break. We are in contact and also see each other from time to time. Sukai is a really kind kid and thinks a lot, so it could be that he ends up feeling guilty. Everyone also talked about how important it is for the 10 of us to work together so that Sukai can come home feeling at peace after taking his time. Moreover, if our degree of recognition or our friendships decrease during Sukai’s absence, we wouldn’t be able to face Sukai.
Our biggest strength is truly that amazing fans are at our side. No matter what we do, they support us with a huge enthusiasm. Thus, I strongly feel that “I want to surpass JAM’s expectations”. Also at the lives we noticed a lot of people crying, so we felt once more that we want to be someone who makes them think “I’m glad to be with them”.

Kawanishi Takumi
I want to seize everything positively and enjoy life

At 22 years he is in the middle of the member’s ages. He says that receives smiles and energy from the younger members and learns a lot from their high level professionalism. The days of just desperately doing what he was told have passed and nowadays his determination and hunger have come out. His goal for the third year is that no matter under which situation, he wants to have a positive mind and “enjoy life”.

In these two years, my way of approaching my work has slowly changed. In the early times, I felt like I just did what I was told without understanding what was happening. Now, my own determination has come out just as a lot of things I want to do. The hunger of wanting to become even better, of wanting to bring it to even more people has appeared. I want to improve my singing and dancing skills, and also my talking skills even more. Because in the beginning I couldn’t say anything (laughs). Compared to back then, it has become better, but I think there has to be more improvement.
I’m pretty much in the middle in terms of age in JO1, but the younger members always cheerfully make me laugh and I receive energy from them. I really respect the older members’ high level of professionalism to get things done when they have to. It made me think that I need to be more aware of what I’m doing. Originally, I treasured my time alone, but nowadays the members’ presence has become something natural, so each day is fun and no matter what happens I talk and laugh with everyone, and I’m enjoying my life.

If you want to entertain people, you have to enjoy it yourself

Additionally, my personal goal for the 3rd year is to experience various things and whatever comes, I want to seize it positively and enjoy my life. I think everyone has the feeling of not enjoying to keep looking back at the same thing, but in the midst of this, I want to focus on the small blessings and enjoyments and be active to make people feel happiness. Since starting this job, I think that if I want to entertain people, I have to enjoy it myself and I’m conscious of thinking as positively as I can. I think if you just show the same side of yourself over and over, JAM also won’t enjoy it, so also as a group we should show a completely different JO1 and raise our performance level.
A new side of JO1 is us appearing in a drama and movie, right? It was the first time to do full-scale acting in Amazon Prime Video’s “Short Program” (Stream start on March 1st). Before the acting job I used to say recklessly “I want to do acting!”, but through this job, I realized how difficult acting is and how amazing our seniors are, so I started to feel “It’s not something easy to say(laughs)”. What I need to put first, are JO1’s performances, but I think acting is the same thing in terms of conveying something to people or moving them. No matter what I do, I do not want to forget this feeling.

LAPONE ENTERTAINMENT CEO Choi Shinhwa
2 years of continuing to evolve. Challenging to strengthen the “individuality” and making a full-scale entry into the overseas market in the 3rd year.

JO1 made the record of surpassing half a million for the first time with their 5th single WANDERING. Groups born from an audition program tend to have their peak in popularity right after their debut, while JO1’s popularity and fame are soaring. How would one analyse the reasons for that?

Regarding this trait of groups from audition programs, I also felt fear the whole time. I think you can sum up the main reason for their continuous growth in sales and recognition is that each one of the 11 members is always working hard. They are really greedy. With the constant attitude of “We are not satisfied with ourselves”, they go through their practises over and over and I often have the opportunity to talk with them, but they frequently tell me their opinions and suggestions, such as “If we did it more like this, it would be better”.

I think a big factor is also that the 11 members have been unified as a team. It is a part that the members themselves, me and the staff always keep in mind. What I told the members since the moment of their formation, is that “You are one group made of 11 members“. So if someone does well, it benefits all members, and on the other hand, if someone does badly, everyone is at fault and they are jointly responsible. If there are 11 members, there might be arguments, too, but I want them to properly talk with each other and solve it. Nowadays, the atmosphere at the locations is also really good.

It was something created through the efforts of each day, but I think (Kinjo) Sukai’s hiatus is also a big factor. The mindset that when Sukai returns we want to prepare a place to properly welcome him back was born. Also at their first solo live shows “2021 JO1 LIVE ‘OPEN THE DOOR’” I said, “In reality only 10 people stand on stage, but I want you to think of it as 11 people standing there.”, but I believe that even when I didn't say so, they had exactly the same feeling. I think that the accumulation of such feelings unifies the team and leads to improving the performance, and increasing the number of fans, creating a virtuous circle.

Another thing is that there was a synergy with “PRODUCE 101 JAPAN SEASON2” (from which INI was born, who debuted on 3rd November 2021). I think when SEASON2 started, the JO1 members felt anxious. However, I was clearly convinced that there will be a synergy between the two groups. Indeed, while watching SEASON2 there were quite some people who got interested in JO1 and the previous season.

Writing this, it sounds like everything went well, but in fact, right after their debut Covid-19 had a huge impact and they started with a completely different schedule. With an unclear future change after change was made, but what was the priority in this situation?

The first thing we did was to utilize SNS, including YouTube. I remember that about 130 videos were uploaded on YouTube in the first year, 2020. To say it in another way, we thought that our task was to reverse the industry wide stagnation due to Covid, and to establish JO1’s popularity as much as possible during this period, so we did a lot of video content and Instagram livestreams. This is something we are still working on with the same awareness.

Further, in order to make full use of sending out what we can, we actively work hard on TV and other broadcast appearances in addition to SNS. I think the number of programs in which the members have appeared separately has quite increased.

We wanted to provide a spectacular stage.

However, the hard thing was, besides the fact that they had achieved their dream of debuting, the members could not do any of the activities they had dreamed of. I was worried that their mood would go down, and I especially feared that not being able to perform would have a big impact on their motivation. Thus, it was really good that they were able to have lives this time, and their motivation was also raised by them, saying “I want to do it again.” or “I want to tour throughout the whole country.”.

The reason for letting them wait and limiting it to Makuhari Messe only was my desire to provide them with a proper and spectacular stage for their two years of hard work. Whether it’s better to let them stand on a half finished stage or to aim for a spectacular one even if the number is small, I think this depends on your way of thinking.

The third year of increasing challenges. Choi CEO always said “The top priority in the first two years is to strengthen the group itself and to expand the individual activities in the third year” but…

The job of us, as their agency, is to find and develop their abilities. Hence, we want to provide opportunities for the members to actively learn what they want to do.

To be concrete, a lot of them talked about wanting to learn languages. There are some members who want to do voice acting and (Kawanishi) Takumi and (Shiroiwa) Ruki said they want to try acting. There are also a lot of members who learn song and lyrics writing, but I don’t know if they will be able to immediately release it just because they made it. I’m also telling them to submit their work beforehand and that I will treat them as one of the creators and that it will be screened and decided whether it will be released.

(Kawashiri) Ren spends his time teaching the members as their dance leader, but he is thirsty to have more time and opportunities to improve his own dancing as well. Mame (Mamehara Issei) also said he wants to improve his dancing.

We are always thinking of expanding overseas. In 2022, we are advancing the strategy of using YouTube and other media to reach a certain county. There are a lot of parts that depend on Covid, but if everything goes as planned, we expect to show real performances in various countries.

Starting with JO1, a series of audition programs have started to follow and the boy group industry is prospering.

It is an interesting phenomenon that the whole industry is stirring up, isn’t it? It’s something good for the people who are aiming to become an idol or artist to have a wider range of choices and it makes it easier for new talented people to emerge. I hope that not only us, but also various other companies and groups could come together and bring it to the max.