YOSHIKI Fan Conference: 15th September 2008

It was a muggy morning in Tokyo - not that that put off the loyalty of X Japan fans, many of whom had waited since the night before to gain access to the free event held by YOSHIKI in Yoyogi's Olympic Plaza. Prior to his arrival, fans were entertained with a 'video live' of X JAPAN, a compliation of videos playing on two small screens on either side of the small stage, adorned with promotional information for a new energy drink, ROCKSTAR. It was quite amazing to watch the fans reactions as they cheered and screamed members' names at the small screens almost as if the compilation were a real concert.

This concluded at around 12pm but things were not running exactly on time and so a good 30 minutes late, YOSHIKI arrived. A camera followed his car as it approached the outdoor area, flanked on either side by a motorcade. This motorcade took a few minutes to loudly show off their skills in front of the stage, then YOSHIKI rolled up in a sleek black sportscar, accompanied by a young blonde woman. The assembled media went into a frenzy of flashes as YOSHIKI climbed the stairs of the stage and then, after a quick drink of water, and the announcer in place, he began.

YOSHIKI: I haven't seen you for a long time. I don't know what should I say... when I started talking about a press conference, I suggested inviting the fans too, then it became true like this. (laugh) First of all, I'll do a count down live in Japan at the end of this year. Of course, I'll do it as X JAPAN.

Wow, you dropped a bomb suddenly! I think fans are very glad to hear that. Could you tell us the future activities of X JAPAN, which the fans are expecting?

YOSHIKI: We did a concert in Tokyo Dome in March and the hide memorial live in May, and then after that I didn't do any lives for about 4 months. I'm very sorry I made you worry.

Yes, we all worried about you. Are you alright now?

YOSHIKI: I'm still ungoing treatment. I had some problems with my health, but once I started the project, no one is to be blamed but myself.

Please take good care of yourself, otherwise fans will worry a lot about you. How are you doing now in your daily life in LA?

YOSHIKI: I go to the hospital... and I go to the hospital again. (laugh) I went to the hospital often for the first 1-2 months. There are various doctors, such as one specialising in Oriental medicine, or Western medicine, so I learnt quite a lot from them.

YOSHIKI, you seem like you went to the hospital to learn medicine, not to recieve treatment. (laugh)

YOSHIKI: No, no, I had treatment. For example, I learned how to sit down properly. Yesterday I appeared on a TV program, and the sofa was too deep to sit on, so I asked for it to be changed. I take care of my health as much as possible; even if my condition won't get better that quickly, I now spend my life eating healthy foods for a healthier lifestyle and go to the hospital once a week. However, I did start the reunion of X JAPAN, so I have no other choice but to just do it.

Whenever you come to Japan, you are accompanied by the special police (SP) with much ado, but how is your life in LA?

YOSHIKI: Well, I live there normally.

I was surprised when I heard you go shopping alone.

YOSHIKI: Oh, it's not surprising at all to go shopping alone. (laugh) As you know, we have to fill out immigration documents when we are on an airplane. For several years after X JAPAN disbanded, I wrote myself as a producer for my occupation. From this year though, I don't know why but I began to write 'musician'. This time, when I arrived 2-3 days ago, I kept looking at the word 'musician' that I wrote. I thought about my decision... I don't know many people who need to decide how to write the occupation in the document... but I thought "What should I write here? A producer? Or a musician?" I was almost going to write 'a rock star'. (laugh)

You can still pass through immigration with that.

YOSHIKI: Well, when I was a junior high school student... or a high school student... I wrote that my future dream is to be 'a rock star'.

So your dream came true.

YOSHIKI: I was called to the teachers' room and told "You should write seriously!" (laugh)

Before, you had no hesitation to write 'producer', but you wrote 'musician' recently. Does this mean you're thinking about various things such as the count down live?

YOSHIKI: We are thinking about doing lives in various places and I think we can announce these within 2 weeks. And I'm thinking about a live event around the season of Santa Claus at the end of the year.

Is it going to be in LA?

YOSHIKI: It's in Japan.

YOSHIKI, that means we can spend time with you for Christmas in Japan. Foreign fans are also waiting for you and they are expecting the next stage of X JAPAN. The official sites of X JAPAN were opened in France, UK, Taiwan, Korea and Thai, and I heard that the sites overloaded with visitors when they opened on the first day.

YOSHIKI: I think X JAPAN is interesting because it is accompaned by such words as 'blow out' or 'emergency press conference' all the time. Actually although I came back 3 days ago, the title was put as 'emergency'. I tell you it's not me who puts such titles. (laugh)

I heard the page views are an incredible number, which means we can't connect to the sites easily. I think foreign fans love you so much and are expecting you'll go to their countries.

YOSHIKI: By the way, I talked with the members who are staying in separate places now. TOSHI is staying somewhere... I can't see where he is, like he was staying in Okinawa yesterday and he is in Hokkaido today, so he is hard to catch. (laugh) I have comments from the members. HEATH said "I'll do my best this time. Let's share a pleasant time together again." PATA said "Give me the T shirt!" (laugh) And TOSHI said "I'm looking forward to doing a concert with all of you. And please take care of YOSHIKI." (laugh)

You are sending messages and informing each other of your activities, so your relationship seems very good. The postponed live in Paris was rescheduled to be held in Palais Omnisports Paris Bercy on November 22nd. It will be a long-awaited X JAPAN concert, and what's more, it's the first live of X JAPAN in Europe, so you must be excited about that, YOSHIKI.

YOSHIKI: It will be too bad if I won't go this time. (laugh) I started playing piano, and I just touched my drums, so I'll be able to do it in good shape within about 2 months.

Palais Omnisports Paris Bercy is a big hall with the capacity for 10,000 people. You are the first Japanese artists who will perform there, which is great. We are expecting you'll start the world tour from this concert in Paris. How about it?

YOSHIKI: Well, you know, after this conference I'll go to Taiwan today for the start of our Asian promotion, but a typhoon is coming.

The schedule of your Asian promotion is very tight. Today on the 15th, you'll fly to Taiwan to have interviews and do promotions, then you'll have more interviews and promotions on the following day, then you'll fly to Hong Kong on the 17th and will have interviews and do promotions there, you'll do it in Bangkok on the 18th, and then in Korea on the 19th, so you'll travel to 5 countries in 5 days. How you are so energetic?

YOSHIKI: Whoever overworks me like this? (laugh) Well, I think I'm going to eat delicious foods (laugh), because it's often said that I've become too slim. So I'll eat many different Asian foods.

This time, you are going by your own airplane! You won't have to care about flight times and can take good rest on the airplane.

YOSHIKI: I said it would be nice to have a bed, so the plane has a bed now.

I heard that in each of the countries including Taiwan where you'll visit for the first time, you'll have big events welcoming many fans like this one.

YOSHIKI: I don't know how they will be because I haven't been there yet... but I think I wouldn't drive a car like this one (referring to the sports car) anymore. (laugh)

I was wondering why you don't have China in your schedule for the Asian promotion this time. Regarding China, there was the Olympics recently, and the Paralympics are being held now. Don't you think it would wonderful if you could do an X JAPAN concert in the Bird's Nest?

YOSHIKI: Actually, I got an offer to do a concert in the Bird's Nest. I haven't been there yet, so I'm negotiating whether we could do it.

We hope you can do a concert in the Beijing National Stadium. You talked about a live overseas and Asian promotion, but can I ask you about your activities in the US where you live? [Rock Band] is a smash hit music game that has sold more than 3,200,000 copies in America and Europe, and [Rock Band 2] will be released this year. I heard you licensed a song of X JAPAN for it. Is that true?

YOSHIKI: Yes, that's true. In [Rock Band] there are parts of guitar, drums etc, but when I tried to play the drums, I was too bad to play. (laugh) I thought "I am so poor at this". (laugh)

And you'll do another activity in the US, which is a project for the 100th anniversary of the birth of the movie director Akira Kurosawa, in 2010. I have heard that you'll produce the music, is that true?

YOSHIKI: I should write 'producer' for immigration documents on airplanes. (laugh)

It's awesome. Japanese Kurosawa and Japanese YOSHIKI will do a project together in the US. Are you nervous that you'll take on such a big project?

YOSHIKI: I'm alright because I have experienced a lot of various things until now.

Fans are cheering your activities overseas, but how about your new release in Japan?

YOSHIKI: Even if I say something about that, people won't believe me. (laugh) It might be in the near future. I said we'll do a world tour and a concert in Japan, so generally speaking, it's not so hard to imagine that we'll release something. I'll just say that I wrote a new song for X JAPAN. I also have another project, Violet UK, but this song isn't for that. This new song might be more violent. When I played with TOSHI last time, I found he could shout. (laugh) When I made I.V., I didn't know how much he could shout, but this time I thought "As he can shout like that, I'll write a heavy song!" (laugh) But you know, I have to play drums. (laugh) We have a song, Silent Jealousy, and it's very hard to play drums for it. (laugh) The reason why we play that song is that it is always voted 1st or 2nd when fans vote on what they want to hear. For mobile fan votes, it's in the top stream such as 1st or 2nd place too, so we were like "Let's do it!". Then I broke my body as you know. (laugh)

Like that, you are supported by fans and you answer them. Isn't it exciting to perform like that?

YOSHIKI: I'll do whatever you want me to do, because I am grateful for fans who support me.

You're pretty busy as a musician and a producer, so we hope that while you work you take care of your health.

YOSHIKI: I think that living a healthy life is one of my duties, so I'm caring about my condition very much, except for on stage.

We are expecting so much about your new release. We might be able to listen to it in the count down live in the end of this year, right?

YOSHIKI: Well, I'll do my best.

You'll do a concert at Christmas in Japan.

YOSHIKI: It's a kind of project, as fans know. I did classical music originally, so I'll do something similiar.

So your concert at Christmas would be a classical, gentle one?

YOSHIKI: It might be a surprise if I make you think so. (laugh)

That also matches X JAPAN. Finally, please give your message to your fans.

YOSHIKI: When I reunite X JAPAN this time, I said we would climb up the stairs step by step without deciding our future goals. Even if we fell down after we climbed 3 or 4 stairs (laugh), you all provide us with occasions like this, so I'm going to climb up those stairs again. I don't know how long the stairs will continue, but I'll do my best to be able to share times like this again. Next time I would like to see you in a concert, not in a press conference. Thank you very much for being here, even though it's very hot today.

Today, it's supposed to rain but it isn't.

YOSHIKI: I might be a man of fine weather. (laugh) Ah, yesterday, I appeared on TV and it was said to me "YOSHIKI, you became slim", so I ate steak for my breakfast today. (laugh) Then I began to feel sick. (laugh) You know I can't get my weight up in one day. (laugh) Anyway, thank you very much for coming here today. I'm sorry I cause such a fuss every time, but please continue to support me.