Death of Maki Goto's mother followed downward spiral
Back in 2000, journalist Ryuji Watanabe had his first interview with Tokiko Watanabe, who is believed to have committed suicide by leaping from her home on the third floor. The interview took place shortly after her daughter Maki became the central figure of the pop idol group Morning Musume and their hit song “LOVE Machine” sold 1,600,000 copies.
At the time, Tokiko owned a small izakaya (pub) in downtown Edogawa. Watanabe continued to keep in touch with the mother for a year and a half and may be one of the few who knows about the woman whose daughter became a popular TV figure overnight.
The interviews that Watanabe recorded tell much about the experiences of the mother. On the day of the interview, the journalist visited the izakaya where Tokiko was busy preparing for the evening’s business. The uncommon name of the izakaya perked the journalist’s interest - he was told her late husband had come up with the name from a location where he had once gone rock-climbing and fell. Her husband passed away shortly after the izakaya opened.
“I didn’t want to start an izakaya, but my husband insisted. He managed to get the finances and set everything up… but now that I think of it, if it weren’t for his decision, I wouldn’t have been able to raise my children,” said Tokiko, who once had a dream of becoming a singer herself. “It’s hard to believe Maki commutes to work by train. And you’d think there would be free concert tickets for family and friends, right? Nope. I have to buy one myself and watch her performance among the fans. Her pay? She’s a salaried worker. I can’t say the exact figure but around 400,000 yen, which is a bit cheap, I say,” she said with laughter.
Asked if Maki would live on her own once she entered high school, the mother answered that her daughter preferred to stay at home, which was her wish as well. Tokiko also mentioned that she wanted her daughter to complete her education and at least get a high school diploma. Apparently, Morning Musume had certain regulations about discussing their work with outsiders including family, and Tokiko said didn’t discuss the subject with her daughter very much.
On a different date, Watanabe went to see the mother for another interview, and bumped into Maki’s younger brother Yuki, then 13 years old. “You want a picture of my sister, don’t you? Not for free, though. You want to buy one for 50,000 yen?” No one would’ve imagined that the boy would later make his debut as a singer only to end up serving a prison term for robbery and assault. Tokiko refused to be interviewed in 2001 when Maki dropped out of high school. Heavily intoxicated, she told Watanabe to get lost, shouting that society made her daughter quit school.
After her brother’s arrest in 2007, Maki was forced to stop all activities in the entertainment business and made her comeback as a singer in 2008 with a different agent. In the meanwhile, her mother Tokiko developed liver problems and had to close her izakaya in 2009.
Watanabe comments on how cheerful Tokiko appeared at the time of their first interview. Upon hearing about her death, according to the journalist, he felt as though she had “fallen from grace.”
source: japantoday(shukanpost)