[JO1] Fandom 230221 (Ruki solo interview)

All Night Nippon X
“Spending the same time with JAM”
A blessed communication
JO1’s All Night Nippon X is a popular radio program, of which Shiroiwa Ruki from the 11 member global boygroup JO1 is the main personality.
Now, as the program reaches its first anniversary, he talks about the various endeavors of the media called radio.
Furthermore, he confesses for the first time about a “surprise” in his very own way.

The efforts of one year led to a stable self confidence

“JO1’s All Night Nippon X” will celebrate its first anniversary this year in April. Since the start of the program, the hashtag “#JO1ANNX” has shined on the top rang of the Twitter worldwide trends and in no time it joined the ranks of popular programs.
Ruki: I hadn't noticed that we had reached nearly one year since the start of the program until I was told about it. In the beginning I was, well, restless both before the program and afterwards. I thought quite a lot about things such as “I have to somehow prepare for it” or “What guests will come and what kind of talk should we have?”. But compared to back then, it became easy for me now. I feel I became relaxed, rather than being not eager about it anymore? What both the members and the fans often mention is the time distribution. For example, in order to end it at the 58th minute right with the ending, you have to try to think and talk in this way. Also, I began to think of everything from the listener’s viewpoint and became able to change the topics of the radio by discussing those with the staff. In terms of parts that make me feel “The listeners are loving this” or “Everyone seems to like this topic”, I will dig deeper into those. I became able to judge this. I became able to think of the structure of each episode and talk with Kaneko-san, who is always at the side, during CMs like “Let’s extend the recent events talk by playing the third song only up to the first chorus”, so the radio became pretty easy to do. So far, I’m relieved that we are going to celebrate the first anniversary without any “wow, we messed up” moments during a live broadcast. During the press conference at the beginning, I made the joke “Because we are a group with a lot of verbal slips…” (laughs). But all the members really did their best and I’m thankful to them that nothing happened in that one year.

Are there any future tasks or challenges that you have come to see exactly because you have grown used to it?
Ruki: Right now the setting is that two members come as guests, right? I would like to try it, for example, all alone or like some time ago when there were 6 people talking. I would like to do all kinds of interesting projects in the program. I think during this one year pretty much all pairs have joined, so if we added some change, everyone might enjoy it even more. If I did it all alone… I haven’t thought deeply about it, but all alone I would be free with the time management, so I think I could communicate with the listeners even more. I would read a lot of messages in real time and sing, too.

Since you started with the radio program, it seems like your connections with other artists have also increased.
Ruki: We appeared especially with Ryokuoushoku Shakai-san at a lot of places such as “NHK Kouhaku Utagassen”, so we greet each other each time, saying “Let’s all do our best!”. I’m really happy about forming these connections and those are one reason why I am glad about doing this radio program.

If in the future guests other than JO1 came, what would you talk about?
Ruki: We are still very much beginners, so if it was an artist with a long career, I would like to learn a lot from them. We are often involved with comedians, but some time ago Kamaitachi’s Hamaie-san took us out for dinner. I think the fans want to know more about this, and I would like him to talk about this in the show. And Hanya’s Kanada-san said he always liked us. Also, I only got to know about it recently, but it seems like NewYork-san also watched us since the audition! I hope one day we can do the show together.

A surprise he made for JAM in the span of six months

What do you think is one of the strengths of the radio, Shiroiwa-san?
Ruki: I think the radio is a very special time to get to know about us, JO1. JO1 is made of 11 members, so when we shot content with all of us or shot variety shows, it is rare for one member to take the spotlight and talk a lot, right? But when a member who comes as a guest on the radio talks about his recent events and you get to know about his favorite song because of the song voting battle, you can delve deeper into him. I also want the two guests to go home with the feeling that they had fun and I try to direct the talk in the direction that they can take the spotlight. Isn’t that a real strength of a radio done by a few people? I think JAM also got to know lots of information through the radio in this one year. There also had been someone telling me at the online talks (=yonton) “I became a fan because of the radio!”. Knowing that more people listen than I expected, made me happy. I feel for both JO1 and myself, I'm glad that I’m doing it and I’m glad that I tried it. Also, I only noticed it midway, too, but only during the radio I use honorifics for everyone (laughs). When I thought “It’s surely not just JAM listening”, it happened that I ended up using honorifics with the younger members, too. When I wondered “What kind of impression of JO1 do people have when they listen to the radio for the first time?”, it happened naturally like this. There is the worry whether this is something good or whether doing it like usually would be better… I was thinking that my usual way of talking might come off strongly to those who hear it for the first time, or it might give a bad impression depending on how they hear it, even if I don’t even intend to say it like this, so once I noticed it I started to really use honorifics. But as a year has passed, I feel pretty much everyone has understood that by now, so it might be better to do it more “naturally” in the future.
Speaking of recent things, we had the radio right after the “Kouhaku” press conference and the arena tour shows, so we talked about the behind the scenes stories that we felt that JAM would like to know and said things like “Actually, at this time it was like this.”. To be able to share these behind stories is fun as it somehow feels like we all live together in real time and I feel everyone else is happy about it, too. The radio is a really good type of content because it connects us with JAM. In addition, what everyone often says is that the radio makes them able to check regularly on my condition (laughs). “Is he eating well?” “Is he feeling well?” I can show these things regularly through the radio, so I hope I can give them some peace of mind (laughs). Also, I’m not sure how many people have noticed it but.. We upload a picture on Twitter each time before the show starts, but I felt just taking a normal picture would be boring, so actually I always did “hidden letters”. For example, the “good”-pose seems to match the hand sign of one letter in the English alphabet. Every single letter combined brings out a text. Actually, I worked on this surprise for a long time! I think I haven’t talked about this yet. I’ve made a quite long text, which took more than half a year. I wonder if anyone is able to read it? You wonder what it is, right? I don’t know whether it reached everyone, so I guess I will try to ask (laughs). Each week we take a picture and upload it, so I hope you will not just enjoy the radio itself but this, too.
Well, after all I have been born as an entertainer… Please write this in bold letters! (Laughs)