Ohkura Tadayoshi's Letter to the fans ANN 190907
To the eighters,
This time I wrote a letter in order to convey my feelings & thoughts. I appreciate it if you could listen to it.
This time, Ryo-chan decide to leave and Kanjani8 had become 5 members. The members that got accepted into Johnny’s the same day with me, Ryo-chan, Yasu, Maru, I’ve been together with them for 22 years, for me, their existence are like childhood friends to me. I’ve spent a lot of time sharing joy, sadness, experiencing a lot of things with them and now it reach this moment.
Because we are a combination of each people with strong feelings and personality, we have collided with each other a lot of times up until now. Even so, after Uchi left, the 7 of us had been running forward all these while.
We’ve had a lot of our dreams come true, and we get to see a lot of wonderful scenery. At that time, I thought it is a matter of course that a group goes on forever. However, with Subaru-kun resigning, I come to realize again that there is no such thing as forever. With Yasu’s illness, I come to think really deeply about the value of a life. I’ve gone through a very deep 2 years.
When the 7 of us becomes 6, in the eyes of the society, we only reduce 1 person. That’s the end of the matter when it’s written in words, but truth is, it wasn’t that easy. When 1 person disappear, the delicate balance collapsed suddenly. From then on, Yasu in his state of being unable to move, we did 5 dome tour. We tried our best to not make everybody realize it, but our hearts were frayed to the edges and we were reaching our limits.
And in that state, in such condition, we start to make a discussion about with what approach should the 6 of us continue on from now on. But at that time, we gave out of everything and very best and we couldn’t even think of next year, since 2004, this was the first time we come to a pause.
From then on, the direction of the 6 of us, in the midst of unable to see what we could do next year, we fumblingly discussed, we talked about taking a hiatus or disband the group completely. But having a discussion with such emotional condition, we could see nothing but negative outcome. Even so, we spend a lot of time discussing, and we come to this decision.
It’s the direction of things we want to challenge that is different. Ryo-chan is not someone who talks much, so he will show what he wants to do from his actions from now on. We’ve made this final decision at the end of March, about half a year, after much consideration about how we should makes eighters feel at ease, we decided to someday we’d like to try 47 prefacture tour once again and meet everyone and we discussed it with the staffs.
We must show our new directions no matter what. To the complex number of eighters, we must show that this is where we decide to head to and we must show our determination. Truth is, I think the hurdle is really high. But even when we’re full of wounds, even if we’re full of muds, we want to focus on looking forward and aim for the top. We are after all, kids who are bad at giving up. The 5 of us unites that we want to try our best to move forward even in this condition.
It’s still only 2 days after it got announced. I think the eighters feelings right now are still in turbulence. I think there’s some who could no longer honestly support us. Truth is, even for me who have the preparation to be 5 members, my heart seems to have a hole. Un, it’s lonely right?
But, it’s okay to move forward slowly step by step, we must walk on no matter what, and we decided to walk forward. But for you guys, I think it’s okay to still be at a pause. And it’s also okay for you to look back to the past. When the times to look to the future comes, we’re preparing to stand by your side and welcomes you.
Truth is, these 2 years where a lot of things had happened had been really exhausting. But, it becomes a time for me to reaffirm and realize once again that I love Kanjani8.
For me who had spend 15 years having my dreams come true, it was the 15 years that is shining brilliantly like a treasure and it is my youth. Which is why I want our 15th year to be celebrated, for us it’s a tour that we wants to be joyous and not turn into something sad. And we want eighters to enjoy themselves from the bottom of their hearts, and that is why we decided to announce it after the concert ends.
15sai tour, the setlist, the detailed productions, this is the first time I did the whole thing on my own. I didn’t plan to lie about any one thing at all, I did it with the thoughts of wanting everything single thing to have a meaning. And so, the members did nothing wrong. If there’s something you’re unsatisfied with, then it’s my planning that went wrong. If you want to blame someone, blame me. But I have comrades with me by my side. I have big brothers who shares the big burdens with me.
Which is why, it’s okay. When I want to cry, I cry and when it gets tough, I get to be able to properly say it’s painful. And I hope all of you won’t lie to your own feelings too, and it’s okay for you to face the 5 of us with your most honest feelings.
The song that SkaPara-san sung about what happened to us one year ago, in the lyrics of Memory Band, it says, “On the stage of our lives, all of us are lined up together” and it was like what the lyrics say, from now on, that doesn’t change for us. For me, and for the members, we live only once. So I want to work hard so that the current decision is the correct one.
However, we have just finish our tour and then it’s been only 2 days since the announcement, truth is right now, I think it’s the same for you all too, I’m really mentally and physically exhausted. And the listeners of this radio, some of them are actually Yu-kun’s fans, so I’m thanking you all so much that I get to have some time to speak about this.
Well, I think there’s all sorts of reporters, I’m thankful if you would not chase the 6 of us anymore further from now on (lol).
Also, I’m really, really thankful to the eighters. It’s because of you guys that I have been able to spend these whole 6 months with a smile. Even for you guys, you encounters painful things and sad things in your daily life too, right? But because of that, when we meet during the concert with a smile, that moment was a really a moment of happiness right? So from tomorrow onwards, let’s each of us work hard together, when we meet during the next concert, it’s okay if you cry but I think it’d be nice if we could meet with a smile. We (Eito & Eighters) have given each other encouragements and support each others backs, for me who feels like I have come this far, from now on, we’re (eito) are really a difficult group but, please continue taking care of us.
And this is truly, not related to the members, not related to the agency, I’d like to give my own personal opinion, whenever this sort of things happened, it caused a lot of anxiety right? So, if this sort of thing happen again, for me, I think it’s fine for this group to end and I’ll announce it in a way so that each of us are able to prepare ourselves emotionally.
To the listeners, thank you for listening to my personal letter.
Ohkura Tadayoshi
2019.09.07
This time I wrote a letter in order to convey my feelings & thoughts. I appreciate it if you could listen to it.
This time, Ryo-chan decide to leave and Kanjani8 had become 5 members. The members that got accepted into Johnny’s the same day with me, Ryo-chan, Yasu, Maru, I’ve been together with them for 22 years, for me, their existence are like childhood friends to me. I’ve spent a lot of time sharing joy, sadness, experiencing a lot of things with them and now it reach this moment.
Because we are a combination of each people with strong feelings and personality, we have collided with each other a lot of times up until now. Even so, after Uchi left, the 7 of us had been running forward all these while.
We’ve had a lot of our dreams come true, and we get to see a lot of wonderful scenery. At that time, I thought it is a matter of course that a group goes on forever. However, with Subaru-kun resigning, I come to realize again that there is no such thing as forever. With Yasu’s illness, I come to think really deeply about the value of a life. I’ve gone through a very deep 2 years.
When the 7 of us becomes 6, in the eyes of the society, we only reduce 1 person. That’s the end of the matter when it’s written in words, but truth is, it wasn’t that easy. When 1 person disappear, the delicate balance collapsed suddenly. From then on, Yasu in his state of being unable to move, we did 5 dome tour. We tried our best to not make everybody realize it, but our hearts were frayed to the edges and we were reaching our limits.
And in that state, in such condition, we start to make a discussion about with what approach should the 6 of us continue on from now on. But at that time, we gave out of everything and very best and we couldn’t even think of next year, since 2004, this was the first time we come to a pause.
From then on, the direction of the 6 of us, in the midst of unable to see what we could do next year, we fumblingly discussed, we talked about taking a hiatus or disband the group completely. But having a discussion with such emotional condition, we could see nothing but negative outcome. Even so, we spend a lot of time discussing, and we come to this decision.
It’s the direction of things we want to challenge that is different. Ryo-chan is not someone who talks much, so he will show what he wants to do from his actions from now on. We’ve made this final decision at the end of March, about half a year, after much consideration about how we should makes eighters feel at ease, we decided to someday we’d like to try 47 prefacture tour once again and meet everyone and we discussed it with the staffs.
We must show our new directions no matter what. To the complex number of eighters, we must show that this is where we decide to head to and we must show our determination. Truth is, I think the hurdle is really high. But even when we’re full of wounds, even if we’re full of muds, we want to focus on looking forward and aim for the top. We are after all, kids who are bad at giving up. The 5 of us unites that we want to try our best to move forward even in this condition.
It’s still only 2 days after it got announced. I think the eighters feelings right now are still in turbulence. I think there’s some who could no longer honestly support us. Truth is, even for me who have the preparation to be 5 members, my heart seems to have a hole. Un, it’s lonely right?
But, it’s okay to move forward slowly step by step, we must walk on no matter what, and we decided to walk forward. But for you guys, I think it’s okay to still be at a pause. And it’s also okay for you to look back to the past. When the times to look to the future comes, we’re preparing to stand by your side and welcomes you.
Truth is, these 2 years where a lot of things had happened had been really exhausting. But, it becomes a time for me to reaffirm and realize once again that I love Kanjani8.
For me who had spend 15 years having my dreams come true, it was the 15 years that is shining brilliantly like a treasure and it is my youth. Which is why I want our 15th year to be celebrated, for us it’s a tour that we wants to be joyous and not turn into something sad. And we want eighters to enjoy themselves from the bottom of their hearts, and that is why we decided to announce it after the concert ends.
15sai tour, the setlist, the detailed productions, this is the first time I did the whole thing on my own. I didn’t plan to lie about any one thing at all, I did it with the thoughts of wanting everything single thing to have a meaning. And so, the members did nothing wrong. If there’s something you’re unsatisfied with, then it’s my planning that went wrong. If you want to blame someone, blame me. But I have comrades with me by my side. I have big brothers who shares the big burdens with me.
Which is why, it’s okay. When I want to cry, I cry and when it gets tough, I get to be able to properly say it’s painful. And I hope all of you won’t lie to your own feelings too, and it’s okay for you to face the 5 of us with your most honest feelings.
The song that SkaPara-san sung about what happened to us one year ago, in the lyrics of Memory Band, it says, “On the stage of our lives, all of us are lined up together” and it was like what the lyrics say, from now on, that doesn’t change for us. For me, and for the members, we live only once. So I want to work hard so that the current decision is the correct one.
However, we have just finish our tour and then it’s been only 2 days since the announcement, truth is right now, I think it’s the same for you all too, I’m really mentally and physically exhausted. And the listeners of this radio, some of them are actually Yu-kun’s fans, so I’m thanking you all so much that I get to have some time to speak about this.
Well, I think there’s all sorts of reporters, I’m thankful if you would not chase the 6 of us anymore further from now on (lol).
Also, I’m really, really thankful to the eighters. It’s because of you guys that I have been able to spend these whole 6 months with a smile. Even for you guys, you encounters painful things and sad things in your daily life too, right? But because of that, when we meet during the concert with a smile, that moment was a really a moment of happiness right? So from tomorrow onwards, let’s each of us work hard together, when we meet during the next concert, it’s okay if you cry but I think it’d be nice if we could meet with a smile. We (Eito & Eighters) have given each other encouragements and support each others backs, for me who feels like I have come this far, from now on, we’re (eito) are really a difficult group but, please continue taking care of us.
And this is truly, not related to the members, not related to the agency, I’d like to give my own personal opinion, whenever this sort of things happened, it caused a lot of anxiety right? So, if this sort of thing happen again, for me, I think it’s fine for this group to end and I’ll announce it in a way so that each of us are able to prepare ourselves emotionally.
To the listeners, thank you for listening to my personal letter.
Ohkura Tadayoshi
2019.09.07