[JO1] Nikkei X TREND 230110

https://xtrend.nikkei.com/atcl/contents/18/00754/00006/

JO1’s Shiroiwa Ruki: I didn’t know how to listen to this radio and my mission became…
(This article is a re-edited version of the one that released in Nikkei Entertainment’s December 2022 issue)

JO1 All Night Nippon X airs with Shiroiwa Ruki as the main personality and two other members of the 11 member global boy group JO1 as weekly changing personalities. “I even had no idea how to listen to this radio”, emphatically stated the 24 year old Shiroiwa regarding his mission for the program, “that’s why I felt there was a meaning in me doing this”.

Shiroiwa Ruki, born 19th November 1997, from the prefecture Tokyo. He was chosen to become a member of the 11 member global boy group “JO1” through the audition show “PRODUCE 101 JAPAN” in 2019. Their momentum continues to speed up in their third year, as their newest single “MIDNIGHT SUN” , released in October 2022, surpassed their previous sales with more than 600.000 copies sold in the first week and the music video for the lead track “SuperCali” gained more than 30 Mio views in less than 2 weeks.

JO1 All Night Nippon X (ANNX) began as a special episode in March 2022 and started to air regularly from 6th April. From the first episode on the official hashtag “#JO1ANNX” surpassed 100.000 tweets and ranked 1st in the worldwide Twitter trends. Since then it keeps on ranking at the top of the trends. Shiroiwa Ruki, who serves as the main personality of the program, said he was surprised to be chosen for this.

Even though I’m not really familiar with radio programs, I, of course, knew the name of “All Night Nippon”. Thus, I felt a huge amount of anxiety when it was decided that I would be the main personality for this big program which has a long history. However, I believe that JO1 was chosen with a certain expectation and since we made our debut in 2020, the year the Covid pandemic started, which made us a group which had troubles to interact with their fans, we felt happy to have the opportunity to share time with them through such a live broadcast.

When the program became a regular feature and I was asked to become the main personality, I honestly felt pressure and surprise to be chosen out of all the members. Because actually, when I am with all 11 members I barely talk and the same goes when I appear on variety programs. Hence, when I asked the manager “Why me?”, he told me that he has watched my activities so far (and that’s why it was decided) and it gave me a lot of confidence.

So far I had never found a role that would benefit the group activities. However, when I was appointed as the main personality, I realized that this may not have been the case. For me, "ANNX" is more than just a radio job.

When I actually tried it, I felt it was an easy to understand system as I got the reactions from the listeners in real time. I can hear through my earphones reactions such as “We are Number 1 in the (Twitter) Trends right now” and I get a sense of how many listeners we have and what they think, as if I could directly feel their enthusiasm. In the beginning I often regretted that I wasn’t relaxed enough and I couldn’t pay attention to the time, or that I focused too much on the progress and did not get into the conversation itself. One after another I kept in mind “not to do this next time” and slowly I became able to manage the pace of the talks by saying “Let’s move to the next mail”.

A part I think is interesting is the members’ recent status talk. I also find the emails we receive interesting, such as, "When you step on the alcohol disinfectant pedal with your right foot, it would be coolest if you received the pedal with your right hand.” I am impressed by all of them because I wonder “How do they come up with those?” (laughs).

During the live broadcast, the listeners decide the songs to be played via voting, the “Twitter Song Battle” also gets lively. If it is prerecorded, it’s something you can’t do, but instead you can read more letters and extend the time for free talk. So both kinds have their good points.

I actually want to do a more laid-back and calm radio, but I feel that the fans might want to see us having fun, so I can’t be cool and show my energetic side instead (laughs). That’s also because the presence of “smash” is big. Because I am always seen, I have to be energetic and can’t lose my flow. It’s also cute to see the member yawning on it, isn’t it? (Laughs)

Since my role is the MC I can’t fool around

He says that it might be because he is the main personality of “ANNX” he can show a different side of the JO1 members (to the audience).

The thing I pay the most attention to is to “say something”. When another member is lost in thoughts or doesn’t know how to react, I try to take the lead by first saying something. Even if I don’t understand something, I won’t stay quiet and instead I will say something such as “I don’t get it!” or “What do you mean?”. I try to connect the pause to the rest by putting something I would normally only think into the microphone, as honestly as I can.

Speaking of pauses, we had our first live shows with an audience in 2021, but sure enough the MCs were bad. We could not fill those pauses and it caused a mysterious silence. In this regard, I felt an improvement during this tour. I can’t say this is only thanks to the radio, but I guess the experience we made on this played a big part in it. We have come to understand the balance of “Who’s going to speak now?” or “Who will react?”.

In the introductional press conference in March, I said that “We are a group with a lot of blunders”, but the members are really trying their best. But (the leader) Yonashiro (Sho)… He keeps on cheating by leaving his mark every time he appears by talking about the prefectural boxing tournament he won without a fight because there was no opponent or the “zebra buns” which only exist in Okinawa (laughs).

But I found out by doing this myself that as the MC I can’t fool around. When I saw how Sho-kun went crazy when he joined the show, I came to understand how much he holds himself back when he is the MC but wants to fool around. It is a radio show that is created by all of JO1, so Sho-kun’s usual role falls to me here and thus I feel I can show a new side of the members. I’m happy that everyone has grown more and more and this has become a comfortable space for all of us, but I keep in mind to prevent any accidents in the future, too.

Recently, Shiroiwa had more opportunities to exchange opinions with the director. His own thoughts were also reflected during the broadcasts during the tour.

During the tour, I thought that the fans wanted to hear something about the tour, and we also wanted to talk about this, but we had concerns about spoiling something and we couldn’t make a script for it. Yet, if I was a listener, I would want to know something even if it was something small like what they ate. Hence, in the following week, I told them “In the recent status talk part, I want to talk about the door as much as possible” and it worked out. Lately, we also say things like “This one seems exciting, so let’s talk more about it”, and it became a comfortable environment to work in, and we are able to create something good together.

During the tour there was an event where we were able to meet the fans after the show and pretty much everyone told me “I listen to the radio”. It was a chance for me to feel that we are gradually fulfilling our mission to make a generation who is unfamiliar with radio listen to it. I am also happy about receiving emails and tweets from famous postcard crafters*. I feel that people who are not our fans slowly know about our program and say “If this person says it, it might be interesting, maybe I should listen to it”.
*TN: postcard crafters - As you might have seen on Twitter, fans often send their gratitude and thoughts for a program/magazine on postcards, with some people putting a lot of work into it. This has developed already in the 1980s into a somewhat subculture of people who are known simply for their elaborate and/or funny postcards. Hence, this means these people listen to (or read) various media and if they like it, they will send one of their postcards, which is in turn something like an honor for your program/magazine.

None of them have been realized yet, but I’m thinking about various projects (for the program). I would like to invite guests other than the members, I hope to do it alone once and there is more I would like to try. But the ideal stays the same - a laid back radio (laughs).

JO1’s All Night Nippon X (Every Wednesday 24:00-24:58)
It started in April 2022. Shiroiwa Ruki welcomes 2 JO1 members each week and they get excited about various topics from private conversations to school memories. One of the highlights of the show is Shiroiwa’s MC abilities in controlling members who are about to go crazy.

“Shiroiwa Ruki-kun is the best balancer in JO1, or rather he is someone who considers a lot of things, so I think he is the perfect main MC (for the program). Also when they broadcasted from South Korea, he demonstrated an excellent grasp of the situation and I felt his high potential.” - ANN program producers Tomiyama Yuuichi