Translation of the June 11th 2022 Interview with Tatsuro Yamashita by Yahoo Japan News (Page 5)

 

Continuing from yesterday's part of the article where Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）was fighting for "DOWNTOWN" and giving his opinions on voice training, we come to Page 5 where he talks about what he would say to the younger generation.

What to Say to Young People Chasing Their Own Dreams

Interviewer: There is one track "Jinriki Hikouki"（人力飛行機...People-Powered Plane） on Yamashita's first album in 11 years. He sings about stepping on the pedals and flying into the sky although there's no more money or energy, and about whether one can live without pursuing dreams as a means to encourage those with dreams. I asked him why he wrote this song now.

Yamashita: "Jinriki Hikouki" is a song about how the young without any attachments can rise above. If the question is on whether dreams aren't necessary, then the answer is that it's not really the case. However, it is not easy to say at all that "dreams will definitely come true" like the words of a song. The important thing in education is not to make you dream about what you can do, but to teach you what to do when you make a mistake. Things like ability and talent aren't equal in all people. Philosophically and ethically, it's to not teach about winning and losing and the satisfaction of one's stature over another. Otherwise, when it's made clear who the winners and losers are, then the losers may have it in for the winners which might also have the winners getting scared of the outcome. That's been the case since the beginning, but right now, I think that has been really amplified within the anonymity of SNS. The timid ones are bashed online and it ends up that these people quit because they feel that they have no talent.

"Jinriki Hikouki" is about taking that first step but it's also really about having to think about what's ahead, although if the song went too far, it would get preachy. To put it in a nutshell, I wanted to reflect all that as a sort of philosophy as completely as possible.

Interviewer: Yamashita also has some thoughts for young musicians.

Yamashita: I wonder how young people express themselves musically since at my age, I feel that responsibility of bringing them up. When we were young, we were able to do so in a fairly generous environment when it came to attaining musical expression. You know, there's some doubt on whether today's generation have been able to do so. It's frequently been the case that reputation and money have come first over musical expression. The time of making money through music has continued and there are remnants of this now, especially from the 90s. But in reality, it's also been a difficult time for the last 10 years.

I'm also getting on in years and yet I'm still full of myself (LOL), so though I'm currently not so involved in it, I wonder how I can find young talent and give them a chance. When it comes down to it, I think that's the role for older people. I have no desire whatsoever to lecture them with "Listen, you young whippersnappers!" like some ancient fart. I want to be able to encourage them and kick their asses on occasion.