Togasaki and Saruobasan Interview ~ The past and future of AKB48

-From TOKYO DOME, AKB’s 2nd Season will start.

Togasaki: “I think it’s not that our fan base has changed over these 7 years, but it’s that AKB48’s fan base has expanded so much. Our old fans still kindly come to watch theater performances. It’s great to see AKB now has an increasing number of female, children fans and there’re many families to come to our events. But it makes me feel uneasy at the same time. I kinda feel because everyone calls AKB48 a national idol, they join the long lines of handshake events…”

Nishiyama: “I think it was over the last 2 years that I’ve started feeling that AKB48’s fanbase is expanding. It’s because every team can fill the theater for their women audiences only stage. As I’ve been watching AKB48 at the theater from the fixed point, I feel that AKB48’s fan ba

se has been becoming very broad.
What I’ve been thinking recently is that we’ve been climbing the mountain over these 6 or 7 years, but some day, we need to climb down the mountain we’ve climbed up.”

Togasaki: “But TOKYO DOME concert is not a summit for us. It’s just a passing point for us. I’m often asked that after the DOME concert, will we break up? But Akimoto-sensei told me. ‘I’ve never climbed beyond this point, too.'”

Nishiyama: “I think so, too. It’s more like a mountain range than one mountain, and the current situation of us is like we can’t clearly see the next destination of us because it’s covered with thick mist.”

Togasaki: “But I have a feeling that Tokyo Dome will be the start of AKB48’s 2nd season. Winning Record Taisho or achieving Million sales can be considered as an achievement but when we visit the tsunami hit area, people really enjoyed our performance and pleased by our visits. I can feel this is the reason why we’ve been striving everyday.”

Nishiyama: “I think we want AKB48 to be Brand rather than being artists. If this Brand has become a culture, it’s a great thing, isn’t it.”

Togasaki: “AKB is totally not a group where you appreciate their outward beauty like ‘Wow she looks so cute with that hairstyle! or ‘She looks so Kawaii!’. What I want to convey people is the fact that they take sweat and work like hell, clenching their jaws. You know what? They’re full of sweat during the lessons.”

-Now Maeda Atsuko-san is graduating AKB48. Do you have a feeling that AKB48 has made a path or exit for Maeda Atsuko-san from AKB48 to the mainstream Show-Biz world?

Togasaki: “Exit is not something we make for girls but it’s a result that they’ve earned confidence over their years in AKB48. And I have a feeling that AKB48 has gradually become a place where they can earn confidence to work as an individual in Show Biz.

When I saw Maeda, hearing the announcement of the 2nd spot in the last year’s election, I realized maybe she won’t join the next year’s election. I felt she won’t be able to stand the same pressure again.”

Nishiyama: “What I felt as I was watching Maeda at the theater is… Usually members are returning their home with a feeling of content or nice sense of exhaustion after they finished theater performances. But since some time ago, I haven’t been able to feel this from Maeda. And I figured probably Maeda has chewed gum, called AKB48, until she can’t extract any flavored substance from it.”

Togasaki: “But it doesn’t mean she has become disliking AKB48, I think.”

Nishiyama: “Yes. It just means that she has realized that time has come to head for the next place.”

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