Ai Kago Interview, Part 6

Alright fellas, here’s the final installment of OhmyNews / Ura Channel’s exclusive interview (<– original video here) with mega popular former Morning Musume and Hello!Project artist Ai Kago aka Aibon. And thanks for your encouraging comments…it’s good to know that the effort I put in is worth while!:)

“Morning Musume aren’t idols”

Aibon started off the final portion of her interview with famous Japanese showbiz reporter Masaru Nashimoto by saying the super popular Japanese girl unit “Morning Musume” wasn’t meant to be an idol group, but was viewed as such. Instead she considers Morning Musume to be a female singing group. Back then she was given the kiddish “Kago-chan” role so she had to play along. But now she’s starting anew and would like to be considered other than an idol.

Masaru proceeded to ask her if she still smokes now that she’s turned 20 and is legally allowed to smoke in Japan. Aibon replied, “Actually I’ve already quit before this. But even though now I can smoke freely I no longer feel like smoking. And nowadays I also feel it’s not so good manner wise to smoke.”

Aibon gave an interesting analogy to the situation. She said, “It’s like when you’re a small child you’re not allowed to go on some of those bigger rollercoaster rides and you really want to ride them. But once you’ve grown and passed that height requirement you don’t really feel like getting on them anymore.”

When the veteran interviewer Masaru Nashimoto mentioned that the reason he doesn’t smoke (honestly I was shocked, I imagine Masaru to be the typical chain smoking, yakitori eating, shochu drinking Japanese old geezer…guess I was wrong) is because when he visited a shrine while on a school trip in high school some people next to him were smoking and it made him feel ill, Aibon told him she felt the same way. She explained that by smoking and being around smoke it made her voice coarse, and added that it’s not okay for underage kids to smoke, even if they don’t get caught. Haha it sure sounded like Aibon was doing an anti-smoking campaign!

Toward the end Masaru quipped that he is more than 40 years Aibon’s senior (he’s 63). Aibon expressed genuine surprise and said she didn’t think he’s that old. When he told her he was born in 1944 Aibon said, “Oh that’s the same year my grandma was born!” which drew a bunch of laughter. Country side people sure have kids young!

Best of luck to the older and wiser Miss Ai Kago…please don’t cut yourself anymore