On March 19th, 2004, tetsu’s autobiographical collection of interviews, 哲学 was published.

One year later, on March 19th 2005, the tetsugaku translation project began with the creation of a simple site on Tripod.

Today, March 19th 2006, exactly two years since the publication of the book, the translation is complete.

Since the first day, I have recieved many supportive comments from various readers. I’ve made many good friends as I became more involved in the fandom via this project. In particular, certain people have been invaluable help in pursuing this goal :

Ilán, who created this site and pays to host it, helped me out when I got sick of dealing with Tripod. Without him, this site would still be ad-ridden and much less functionnal. Thanks for everything.

Myriam, originally my only backup, beta-reader of most chapters, and banner maker. Thanks for putting up with my random and insistent demands for help.

The staff of Pieces, especially Taliana, who promoted my work to death and eventually lead to Pieces and this site affilating, no doubt giving me boosts in traffic. Thanks so much.

Too many people have been supportive readers for me to thank you all, but every kind word was appreciated. I’m almost sad to be finished with this.

Again, thanks for reading, and please don’t forget about this site. Discuss the book, post your comments, and keep loving tetsu.

– Sincerely, Natalie Arnold

– The word TETSU69 originally came from a URL, right?
[Right. First, it was my URL, “TETSU69.com”. At one point, I was really into buying all sorts of domain names.]

– How many did you get?
[About twenty or so. “TETSU.com” was already taken by someone else though, so I couldn’t get it. So yeah, “.com” is the best, isn’t it? Not “.co.jp” or anything else. I absolutely wanted a “.com” so I added the 69 for the year I was born, and got “TETSU69.com.” At first, that’s all it was. Is it okay if I go off-topic? It’s related to this, there’s just one thing I want to say.]

– I think it’s best for these talks to cover a wide range of subjects, so feel free to go off-topic, please.
[I got domain names on my own, all by myself. And, with domain names, if you’re wondering whether someone has it or not, you can easily go and check. A fan girl ended up finding out about it, that I had bought that domain name, and then went and talked about it, so I had it be claimed in the name of a staff member, that way it would seem like “Oh, it’s just the company,” when they looked it up. But even though I knew that anybody could look into it if they wanted, I had registered it with my own credit card, that has my real name and everything attached to it, so only the site itself was in the name of that staff member. And of course, it was me who paid for it. Kinda naive of me (laughs). A while after I’d gotten “TETSU69.com” we started thinking about solo projects, but just tetsu, well, there’s a lot of tetsus in the world, so I said to Mi-chan (from the record company’s board of representatives) “Wouldn’t “TETSU69″ be better?” and went with that. That’s the whole story.]

– You’re very particular about the number 69, aren’t you?
[It’s not on my mind as much, now. Like I’m getting a bit sick of it. But I showed someone I know who’s a good judge of names my “TETSU69” name. “I’m thinking of doing some solo work, so do you think this name is any good?” We had a look at the stroke count and stuff (1). It seems the number “69” is very easy to misinterpret. I could be misunderstood if I use that number, maybe. 6 and 9 get twisted around, you know? I was told that “Maybe a different number that doesn’t have this particular feature would be better?” but at the same time I was also told “It’ll take time, but ultimately you’ll be a success so it won’t be that bad, but there will be problems because it’s so easily misinterpreted.” “But if you want to use it that badly, you might as well,” they said and okayed it, so that’s what I used. I was sure it was the right thing to do. Even though it’ll be misinterpreted and troublesome (laughs).]

– It meant you needed to prove yourself, then.
[23 is a good number too. “TETSU23” (laughs). But that number means nothing to me (laughs). When I’m with L’Arc~en~Ciel, my name is written as “tetsu” in lowercase, you know? “TETSU69” is in capitals, which affects the stroke count. Adding 69 changes the stoke count too, right? Given that difference, and for the sake of balance, I changed the “TETSU” part to capitals. That way the total stroke count works out well. Lowercase letters with 69 gives a bad stroke count. It would affect my luck, so I don’t want anyone to write it the wrong way. A lot of fan girls don’t know how to use capital and lowercase properly in their fan letters, so I want them to be more careful.]

– I thought it was plainly obvious that, from a design point of view, the capital and lowercase letters were chosen for a reason.
[That’s not right, it’s for the stroke count. Because it’s different for capital and lowercase. Like e and E are different, for one.]

– So there’s a stroke count for the alphabet too, then.
[Yes, even for the alphabet. There are different ways of seeing it depending on the teacher, though. Oh, and when RARUKU AN SHIERU (2) is written with the alphabet, well, there’s been a lot of talk going around to the effect that “L’Arc-en-Ciel” with – (hyphen) replacing the ~ (tilde) is a mistake, but the truth is that it doesn’t change the name at all. Because using hyphens instead of tildes doesn’t affect the stroke count. Besides, no matter what you do, depending on the design or the font, sometimes using hyphens looks better, and sometimes using tildes looks better, so whichever fits best should be used. They both work fine. The “L’Arc-en-Ciel” logo changes with every release anyway, they change it freely. There is one thing that shouldn’t be changed though : when it’s written in katakana, there shouldn’t be any dots in. It should be RARUKU AN SHIERU, not RARUKU-AN-SHIERU (3).]

– Why is that the case?
[Some people don’t include dots in the stroke count and other people do, but with the people who do include the dots, those make for a bad total so I want them to be dropped. Some count them, some don’t, and when you don’t count the dots, the total comes up to 18 strokes. 18 strokes is very good. But then the dots would add two more, making 20 strokes. If you remove the dots, it gives 18 strokes no matter how you count, so I want them gone. That got confused with the tildes and hyphens issue when the news started going around. When it comes to changing those, there’s a good reason to do it, so it makes sense.]

– I see, there’s clear reasoning behind it all. Now, let’s talk about TETSU69, what’s the most interesting part of doing solo work?
[While working solo I met some new people, and that was great. I didn’t know anything outside of L’Arc~en~Ciel, so it was kind of like entering a different world, which was a big change to experience, for me.]

– What kind of balance do you want to achieve between your solo work and your work with the band?
[Nah, I really don’t know yet.]

– I wonder if the results of your solo work might not be reflected in your band activities now. Do you see any merit in pursuing both at once?
[L’Arc~en~Ciel’s activities were put on hold for two years, so even if I hadn’t been doing any solo work over those two years, I think I’d have grown as a person. So I don’t really know. I did some solo work, but I don’t know if it affected me or not. There’s such a thing as growth medicine, right? You could take some during puberty, and if you do that, you’ll get taller, but even if you hadn’t taken any, you’re in a growth period, so there’s no way of telling if that’s what made you grow, it’s not at all obvious what the cause was, you know? I think this is the same sort of thing. I might have grown even if I hadn’t done any solo work. However, everything I did was connected to the solo project, so the simplest way to put it is to say that I did some solo work, which powered me up, and now I’ve come back to the band, but what if I’m just putting it like that because it’s easier? I see things more coldly.]

– But during your solo project, you sang and did several other things you hadn’t done before. I think it’s obvious that it served as a kind of training for you.
[It’s just that with the solo work, I didn’t play the bass all that much. Some of my songs used synth bass instead. Because I didn’t play it myself in the shows. I played it for the recordings, but I didn’t spend much time on it. And so thinking as a bassist, it doesn’t seem like working solo helped me grow, it’s more like it stunted my growth instead. Being in L’Arc~en~Ciel is what makes me grow as a bassist. Of course, as a vocalist, I think my solo work helped me grow a lot.]

– Is growth as a vocalist in any way related to growth as a bassist? It could be seen as an increase in the number of channels you use to express yourself, so surely there must be some mutual influence.
[Well, I’m certainly not saying there’s no connection whatsoever. It’s just that I never ever think of myself and go “Wow, I’ve grown so much to get to this point.” (laughs)]

– I’m sure many things must be different when you’re making music alone as opposed to in a group of four, so do you find these differences enjoyable at all?
[As a solo artist, “Suite November” is the only album I’ve put together. For every single song, I had a different group of musicians participating. So, the process was different for each and every song, and the members were different too, but the work itself wasn’t all that different from how it is with the band. It felt as if for each song, the members involved became a band themselves. Oh, speaking of differences, the only thing was that I wrote all the music and lyrics myself.]

– But for instance, the jacket design, the album title, the track order, all of these things were decided by you alone, right tetsu-san?
[That part was fun. If it was OK with me, then it was OK. It was easy and fast. For the performances and arrangements too, I could say “Play it like this,” “Play it like that,” and that’s how it was going to be. Maybe on the inside, those musicians were thinking “I don’t like it this way, I don’t want to play it like this,” but I was the one who got to be selfish. It was my own album, so I said things forcefully and made them happen. I didn’t have to think too hard about how other people would feel. With the four of us in L’Arc, it just can’t work that way. We need to make sure everyone’s happy, make sure everybody’s feeling good about what we do. Doing that takes time, so we need to work carefully. But that’s fun in its own way too, it brings an entirely different sense to things, so I think both approaches have their good points.]

– For your solo work you get to decide everything according to your own criteria, your own sensibilities, being true to your own senses, so I think the end result will be that it reflects more about you as an individual human being. With that in mind tetsu-san, what kind of an artist is TETSU69?
[Hmm, what kind of artist? That’s a tough question.]

– Do you think you’re cool, that you do good work?
[I think my tunes are great, very much so.]

– Is there anything you don’t understand about the stage you are at currently?
[Maybe if I were more forceful about it, I could get a boost in sales, which would be nice (laughs).]

– For TETSU69, do you have anything in mind that you’d like to do later, ideas on the back burner or anything like that?
[Nah, musically speaking I still don’t have a solid concept like “TETSU69 is -this- kind of artist” or anything, it takes shape little by little as the project moves along, step by step. I’ve been working by trial and error since the beginning, experimenting with different things, and there are still lots of things I’d like to try for a bit, so if I get the time I think that’s how things will shape up. Right now I don’t have the time, so I can’t put down any specific ideas like “I’ll do this” or “I’ll try that” any time soon.]

– Then, looking at the big picture and taking the time to think it through is better, isn’t it.
[It would be nice if I could go about it like that. Right now though, I’ve got tons of things to do for L’Arc~en~Ciel, but hearing things like “Of course, tet-chan is at his best when he’s playing bass in L’Arc,” makes it seem like I don’t need to do solo work, like maybe it’s a wasted effort, and that makes me feel a little bit lonely.]

– It’s as if the more you persist, the less meaning it has. Do you have any plans for TETSU69 live shows?
[If the timing is right, and if I feel like doing something, then I might have some lives. But it’s always L’Arc, L’Arc, L’Arc, so TETSU69 doesn’t really matter does it? (laughs)]

– No, that can’t be right. Last year’s year-end event was effectively your second show on stage, so now I believe there must be some expectations along the lines of “Well, what’s going to be next?”
[As a vocalist, I’ve only just barely gotten started, and there are a lot of things I still do wrong when I’m singing, so since I still haven’t done very many lives, I think the best is still to come. I’m a member of L’Arc~en~Ciel, where my primary position is being the bassist, so as far as that goes, looking at it calmly and objectively, I think I write good songs. People might or might not like my voice, and I’m sure there are some people who can’t take the sound of my voice on a physiological level, but personally I do like my own vocals.]

– I think the feel of the songs you write and the quality of your voice match very well, tetsu-san.
[I think so too. But I’m in no position to evaluate it fairly. I’m in L’Arc~en~Ciel after all, and compared to L’Arc, I’m in trouble (laughs). hyde and I have different vocalist careers, our voices have different qualities, and our registers are different too, and of course, I think there are some ways in which we can’t even be compared. It’s kind of disappointing, really. I’ve been told things like “If hyde-san sung the songs you made solo, it would sound a lot cooler,” and that’s extremely frustrating. A lot of people say cruel things like that. Things like that make me wonder if there’s any point to my work as TETSU69.]

– I suppose that the longer it lasted, the more it would sink in to your mind, but tetsu-san, is there a source of motivation inside you that urges you on and makes you want to work on your solo project?
[Right now I’m busier with L’Arc, I don’t really have the time, so I don’t feel much desire to work on it. I think it would be best of each of us could have fun with our solo projects while still being in the band. I know that with some of the fans, as soon as we put out some solo work they think that L’Arc is over, so they won’t support the solo projects and some even badmouth them, but that’s not the case at all. Whatever we’re doing, we can still work on both things, so I want people to drop their prejudices and listen to it all.]

– Interviewer : Hasegawa Makoto
Translated by Natalie Arnold

1. Stroke count refers the number of paintbrush (or pen, these days) strokes required to form a Japanese character. Seeing as it’s also how kanji are organised in a dictionary, its an important attribute to consider.Go back.

2. The katakana version of L’Arc~en~Ciel, romanized instead of translated for the sake of clarity in this paragraph. In all other situations throughout the book I have changed the katakana version to the properly spelled version.Go back.

3. Normally there are no spaces in Japanese, so dots are often used to space out foreign words instead. tetsu is explaining that spaces need to be used for the katakana version of the band name. Go back.

– Among the products L’Arc~en~Ciel has produced, have any been interesting in the sense that they deviated from your expectations?
[Yeah, that has happened. However, it’s not limited to L’Arc, I think it would happen if other people did it, too.]

– But in L’Arc~en~Ciel’s case, the four of you each have strong, distinctive personalities, so there’s a high probability that more band magic is required, right?
[It changes a lot depending on the song. Sometimes we stay close to the songwriter’s original image of the song, faithfully building it up, and other times only the chord progression and melody will be left after we mess with the tempo and arrangements so much. It’s a case by case thing.]

– Let’s take the newly released “SMILE” as an example. How did it go for the song “READY STEADY GO”, which you composed?
[For that song, the tempo was a little slower at first. The rhythm was a bit bouncier. To me, it felt like a Prince song, and the working title was “Prince”. Then, I wanted to make it sound like Good Charlotte, wanted it to be a little more punkish. My interpretation of punk is current American punk. But for yukkie, it seems to be Damned’s “New Rose” (1). I guess we were looking at two completely different eras (laughs). So, we ended up trying out the Damned style, and this is how it turned out. That song was fun to work on while we were making it.]

– It’s an example of band chemistry, right?
[As far as that song goes, I knew from the start that it would turn out fine no matter which way it went. On the other hand, there are some songs that I’m extremely picky about and that I don’t want to see changed. For “Time goes on”, the guitar solo I played in my demo was adopted pretty much as is, with hardly any changes. So depending on the song, it can go completely differently. Both methods have their good points, though.]

– L’Arc~en~Ciel incorporates so many different elements.
[Ultimately, no matter what we play, as long as it’s the four of us, we naturally turn into L’Arc.]

– I think the band’s originality is apparent in that sense too. You say “No matter what we play we turn into L’Arc,” so what on earth is “L’Arc,” in your mind?
[The other day, I was reading the Oricon music business section, and Kameda Seiji-san(2) had written something good. “Speaking of L’Arc~en~Ciel, they are also a European soccer team, that is to say Nakata (Hidetoshi) and Takahara (Naohiro) and Yanagisawa (Atsushi) and (Nakamura) Shunsuke have assembled under the name.” Then, since I’m the leader I guess I’m Hide (laughs). I was thrilled to read that article. Because actually, I’d thought of that myself. When I thought it up, I passed it off as just a random thought, but Kameda-san thought the same thing. It reminds of what it’s like to unite four people with distinct individual talents.]

– You mean how even though they play on different teams, once united, they were immediately able to create an effective formation.
[Yep. That’s exactly what I thought of. Maybe I should wear a captain symbol during lives (laughs).]

– They play in Europe, but they came together to represent Japan, right? So, what acts as a motivation for the four people brought together to form L’Arc?
[That’s a tough question. In soccer they play to win. But music isn’t about winning.]

– Perhaps not victory, but you might have another goal in mind?
[That would be to make good music. Making our music even better. I think it’s all about putting out good songs.]

– Working with these members, you can rest assured that it will turn out nicely, right?
[Yes, that’s right. If we didn’t respect each other, we wouldn’t be able to stay on the same team.]

– When did you start to feel that you were like those soccer players in Europe uniting to represent Japan?
[I think I’ve partially always felt that way, but around the time I was working solo, I started feeling that way especially strongly. We each did our own solo work, then went back to the band, so doing L’Arc again really felt like we were representing something (laughs).]

– Certainly, hearing it from you makes it seem true.
[So yeah, I always feel like I’m a chosen representative of some kind, so I have to work hard or else, and I put my all into my solo work too.]

– Of course, you surely must have put your best efforts into both the band and your solo work.
[Take soccer as an example again (laughs): Solo work feels like playing matches in the regular league. Then, L’Arc is the special delegation. Of course, with real soccer players, even if their regular league matches weren’t broadcast on TV, they still wouldn’t catch the ball with their hands or anything. Whether it’s a league match or a special one, they’ll put the same power, the same energy into the game and play each match one at a time as best they can. It’s the same with the band and solo work. Just, people don’t pay the same amount of attention to the league as they do to the special matches. Personally, I want to make good songs for both the band and my solo work, so I put my all into both of them, and so it can be a little disappointing when only L’Arc manages to become a big success (laughs).]

– I see. Now, tetsu-san, do you feel that L’Arc~en~Ciel should always remain as it is now, or is there a particular direction you feel you should move toward?
[I think that L’Arc has members who are talented musically, technically, and also sensually. But, I think that when talented people like that get together, they generally turn into maniacs pretty quickly, so we need to have a good balance, I don’t want us to become maniacs, I also want us to have popularity. I want us to appeal to both amateurs and experts. I think that’s an incredibly difficult thing to do, though. However, I do think that L’Arc truly is one of the few bands that can do it.]

– Is that direction something that came from discussions among the members? Or is it instead something that came into play naturally, on its own?
[When L’Arc first got started, our catch phrase was “Dual Nature in White and Black.” It’s not that we tried to live according to that phrase or anything, but it seems to me that we somehow did that anyway. The band’s name is L’Arc~en~Ciel, which means Rainbow, so we started in black and white, then all the other colours came in later. We aren’t black and white, we’re a band that spreads out into all seven colours.]

– It seems like it was a prophetic band name.
[I think it happened unconsciously, though. When L’Arc formed, on our first demo tape, there were two songs. L’Arc has never once sold a single copy of our demo tapes though, they were made so we’d have something to play for the live house owners when we were booking places. Back then, we had one really pop song and one really dark song on the tape. Going to both extremes (laughs). We’ve been doing that since the start.]

– The reason you go to both extremes, ultimately, is that you’re musically greedy right?
[I guess so. By doing that, we’ve even been able to infiltrate the layers of society that don’t listen to much rock, and from a sales point of view we’ve increased our figures, so in a way it’s rapidly brought us to the point where we could be maniacs if we wanted to be. Not even the record company people could complain. We steadily built up an environment where we could be free to do whatever we wanted.]

– To most of the world, “winter fall” is probably considered your break point, but what’s your personal take on that, tetsu-san?
[So that’s what most people think, is it? To me, it was always the album “True”.]

– When you got your break, did you become consciously aware that lots of people were listening and that you’d finally achieved popularity?
[Nah, my sense of awareness hasn’t really changed much since the beginning. Personally, I’ve never thought that this band called L’Arc~en~Ciel was lacking in popularity. So when I was told that we’d had our so-called break, I just thought “Oh, so they finally noticed.” (laughs) I was always sure that number of people who thought “L’Arc is good” was going up.]

– Do you think that L’Arc~en~Ciel particularly needs to be supported by many people?
[I do have a personal taste for being flashy, and so as far as being able to be flashy goes, I think we do.]

– This is rather sudden, but do you think about the band breaking up?
[This band will last as long as I live, I can’t say when it’ll end any more than I can tell when I’m going to die.]

– One more thing, tetsu-san. To you, what’s the fun part of being in L’Arc~en~Ciel?
[Hmmm, it feels like going home for the holidays.]

– Do you mean that you feel at ease?
[No, not quite. People react to me differently. The staff seems to be having fun, and the fans seem to enjoy it too. Giving everyone the chance to have so much fun makes me very happy. As long as I can make an environment everyone can enjoy, that’s enough for me. Combining that fun with the ability to make good music isn’t a problem at all.]

– Interviewer : Hasegawa Makoto
Translated by Natalie Arnold

1. Released in 1976, this song by a British group was actually the first British punk single ever released.Go back.

2. Born in New York, he has long been involved in the Japanese music industry, first as a bassist, then as a producer. He has worked with many artists on the production side of things, including L’Arc~en~Ciel.Go back.

– During your childhood, how did you imagine the world would become by the 21st century?
[I imagined myself as an upstanding adult, actually (laughs). Well, it’s pretty common, but I thought there would be floating cars; I guess I thought the world would be like it was in old sci-fi movies I’d seen.]

– You weren’t the kind of kid to let your imagination run away when it came to the future?
[What kind of kid was I? I guess I was the realistic type.]

– tetsu-san, when you were in elementary school, Gotou Tsutomu’s “Nosutoradamusu no Daiyogen” was a huge hit (1). According to that, there shouldn’t have been a 21st century at all. What are your thoughts on that?
[I think I partially believed in it. Like, in 1999 I’ll turn thirty, I’ll have lived long enough already, or so I thought back in elementary school. You know, I read Gotou Tsutomu’s “Nosutoradamusu no Daiyogen” again in 1999. The newest edition (laughs). There is one. It came out just before July of 1999. “It’s soon. Wonder what’ll happen,” and “What’s the point he wants to make, now?” But you know, even I thought something might happen. Even if it wasn’t in the seventh month. I didn’t think it would be that accurate. I thought something sort of similar would probably happen around that time. In the end “it” turned out to be 9.11 right? “From the sky will come a great King of Terror,” it said. And somewhere else there was a line about “two” of something, that would be the Twin Towers.]

– However, that happened in September of 2001.
[There are other ways of counting dates, and even so it’s very close for something predicted that long ago. In the end, predictions from the past always get distorted, don’t they? So if you take that distortion into consideration, it’s not all that far off. Besides, it doesn’t say anywhere in that prediction that the world will end or that humans will go extinct or anything like that. Just look at the line “From the sky will come a great King of Terror,” that part happened, after all. Over a long span of time, being off by a year or two doesn’t mean a whole lot. Considering its a prophecy from thousands of years ago (2).]

– That’s true. The 21st century started in 2001, so do you have any memories of the instant the 21st century began?
[The first moments of 2001? What was I doing again? Were we on “Kouhaku (Utagassen)”(3)? I think we were, doing “STAY AWAY”. So yeah, I guess I was somewhere in NHK Hall.]

– I suppose you don’t remember it very clearly. Do you perhaps have stronger memories of the initial moments of the year 2000?
[Yeah. Because we were having our “RESET>>LIVE*000”. It was our first countdown live, in fact it’s the only one we ever had.]

– I see. Ah, why is that? Was there actually some kind of tangible feeling the moment the year changed over?
[Nah, there really wasn’t. Oh, there was the Y2K bug, wasn’t there? As soon as 2000 hit, all the power was gonna to go out, or something. Right before the live, we rode around in a helicopter, so I wondered “Is this helicopter gonna crash?” and stuff. After that, the helicopter won’t be able to fly anymore, right? That sort of talk. We were last. Going from NHK to Odaiba (4) by helicopter was so much fun. Because there was so much traffic congestion underneath us. Up above the traffic, we went wooooooosh all the way to Odaiba in ten minutes. The NTT Docomo building in Yoyogi (5) was in the middle of construction, and I remember thinking “Hey, what building is that?”]

– It’s actually been over three years since the 21st century arrived, so how does it compare to the image you had when you were a child?
[It’s pretty different. We haven’t gotten that far. The world isn’t like a sci-fi movie or anime. And Atom hasn’t been born yet, either (6). It means we haven’t quite caught up yet. And there’s no cure for baldness yet, either.]

– You thought about curing baldness? When you were a kid!? (laughs)
[I did think about it when I was a kid, yeah. I thought I’d hate to get bald when I grew up. But, I figured that by the time I got that old, there would be a cure for baldness so I didn’t have to worry. But it doesn’t exist yet.]

– On the other hand, what aspects of the 21st century are close to what you imagined?
[Let me see… Is there anything at all? The world today isn’t that different from how it was then, is it? There was already a shinkansen (7). Airplanes haven’t changed much, either. I guess there haven’t been many changes since when we were young.]

– Then, how about you yourself? Are you anything like you thought you’d be in the 21st century?
[I had no idea I’d be doing this kind of work, for one thing. I didn’t think I’d be able to make a living with music. It’s strange, isn’t it? I never really thought that far ahead. Like about what I’d be when I grew up. I must have written boring essays (laughs).]

– So, if 20th century young-tetsu met 21st century adult-tetsu, what would you say?
[Probably “You gotta do stuff right, or else.” “Do it right now, it’ll get easier later.” And I’d make sure I look healthy. “Play more sports.” “Do more training.”]

– I think you’re plenty stoic enough as it is, though. How about the opposite? What message would your younger self send to your current self?
[Message? “Think things through,” “Do things properly,” probably. “Fight to the death,” or something like that (laughs).]

– Interviewer : Kikuchi Keisuke
Translated by Natalie Arnold

1. The title means “The prophecies of Nostradamus.” It was a movie based on a book movie released in 1974, and Gotou Tsutomu was the writer. Set in 1999, it was an immensely popular film depicting the end of the world, supposedly based on the predictive writings of Nostradamus.Go back.

2. Actually, Nostradamus made his predictions in 16th century France, making it hundreds, not thousands of years ago. It is a mistake on tetsu’s part, not a translation error.Go back.

3. NHK’s annual New Year’s program. The title means “Red and White Song Battle”. Go back.

4. Odaiba is a group of artificial islands in Tokyo Bay. Originally build for protection against attacks by sea, it has since been developed into a futuristic business and entertainment district. Go back.

5. tetsu mentioned this building back in Chapter 47 as a building he dislikes for seeming fake.Go back.

6. Tetsuwan Atom, known in English as Astro Boy. Robot star of an anime from the 60s that has enjoyed immense popularity around the world. Go back.

7. Japanese bullet trains. The system was built in 1964.Go back.

– tetsu-san, you play survival games, right? (1)
[Yup. When I play those games, I think “This is so scary.” At first, I got this kind of imprudent feeling from playing, you know?]

– Ah, yes. It’s a sign of the times.
[Of course, it’s all model guns, just holding guns and playing war, you know? So grown-up. It felt a little imprudent, but playing also made me think about how much war sucks, and how we really shouldn’t do it. Playing these games isn’t supporting war in any way, and I don’t think it’s something war lovers play, either. Well, maybe war lovers play too, sometimes (laughs).]

– Then, playing survival games actually served to develop your anti-war sentiments?
[Yes, I think it did. War absolutely sucks. When you get hit in a survival game, you go “Ow!” and that’s it, but if it were a real war, that one hit would kill you. In the end, war is just wrong.]

– What with the military intervention in Iraq, we’re living in a period of war nervousness, plus there have been several wars even within your own life time, tetsu-san. The Falkland Island dispute (2) for instance, even without directly experiencing it, there were moments where it felt like a realtime war. What kind of views do you have on war?
[Love and peace. No, I don’t have any real views to speak of. Well, I think anyone can see that war is bad, but wars still happen despite that.]

– For example, there’s the current situation with Iraq, where even though the U.N. was opposed to it, ultimately America wouldn’t give up and ended up starting a war. The U.N. resolutions were originally meant to create a universal world, but in the end they were useless.
[That’s the kind of country America is. They’re the type to do whatever they feel is in their national interest, you know?]

– Japan followed them too, in the end we sent out the self-defence forces (3). Well, it’s for the sake of undertaking the reconstruction of Iraq.
[I don’t think there was any point in going, but I guess it can’t be helped. There was pressure on the country, so we couldn’t not go, you know? But, I don’t like the way some members of the self-defence force are opposed to it. It would be kind of like if firefighters said fires were too dangerous, so they won’t go. They’re supposed to be the first people to rush into this kind of emergency, aren’t they? That’s the kind of work these military people chose to do. But I have to wonder what kind of person would sign up without actually intending to go if anything like this comes up.]

– Now, what do you think about war and music? It’s always been connected to love and peace, which means that the topics can’t be separated, in my opinion.
[I’ve never written an antiwar song or any antiwar lyrics. I have no intention of ever writing any, either. I don’t like message songs. Even leaving the antiwar theme behind, I’ve never written any message songs. That’s not what music is about, to me.]

– So, you go out of your way to not write any?
[That’s right. I don’t like things that make a strong statement in my world. For example, because they’re our fans, there are a lot of people who’ll take our opinion on anything we bring up at face value and believe it to be true. Unconditionally. Because they’re fans. Because they like us. So that means that even if we’re wrong, they’ll go “Yeah, yeah” and believe it anyway. Even if we were wrong or prejudiced. That just seems a little too much like brainwashing. So, message songs and stuff like that really aren’t fair. I want my fans to have their own opinions and their own ideas.]

– How about songs that don’t have a direct message, but rather are vaguely themed about global love instead of singing that message? How do you feel about those?
[That kind of song, yeah, I have some. Up until now? I’ve made some. SCARECROW was that kind of song. That song wasn’t about feeling love, though. What the heck was it? It wasn’t love. It was “anti#%&@”. I didn’t name the #%&@ part, though. But, I think that when people listen to the song, they won’t understand its true meaning. It was written up to look like a love song. I think most people interpret it that way.]

– I have no idea what you might mean, but this does make it seem like the song has a certain spice hidden within it.
[Yeah, inconspicuously. Antiwar or love and peace, those are so easy to write about that anybody can do it. It’s like, of course, completely obvious. However, there are other things to society, to the world. Disputes never end, anyway. Because everyone involved in the fight is convinced they’re right. They each have their own idea of what’s fair and just, you know? They say a world without war would be peaceful. But if you look at history, people have always been fighting, haven’t they? There’s no such thing as a war-free era. I mean, even if there isn’t a massive war on, there are still individual massacres. Incidents like that. So yeah, peace is just so… difficult…… Argh, it’s so hard!]

Interviewer : Kikuchi Keisuke
Translated by Natalie Arnold

1. Outdoor games, like paintball wars and the like, where participants must survive the obstacles of the environment as well as outperform other players. Go back.

2. In 1982, Argentina and the UK fought over possession of the Falkland Islands, which were disputed territory in the South Atlantic.Go back.

3. Since the end of World War Two, Japan is not allowed to maintain an army any more substantial than the tiny self-defence forces.Go back.