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bmsgTranslated and summarized from SKY-HI's interview series with Nikkei, "Be myself, for ourselves"
Original interview, 121st installment from February 13, 2025
What start-ups have in common as their mission, “It would be nice if there was something like this”. He believes that a start-up's mission is to offer / provide innovation that a society needs. Everything that BMSG has done since it’s been founded – THE FIRST, D.U.N.K., BMSG POSSE, now No No Girls – are what the world needs, so he did them
THE FIRST and D.U.N.K. helped make an industry that used to be very closed off to become more open through positive vibes and collaboration and there is proof that it has helped clear the air from inside and out. He believes this will lead to a healthier growth to the industry and interesting content can come in the future
THE FIRST also had the meaning of being “the first” step towards a healthy and new world of entertainment and music. Kpop is leading the global market, but Japan should also do its best from here. To do that, it was essential that he created a healthy atmosphere first. No No Girls also has this ideology at its core. What both have in common is “saving talent that will be left unsalvaged if things continue as they are.” Chanmina is the only person who can do that. They may seem completely different at first glance but they hold surprisingly similar ideologies and in many ways, have experienced similar stresses in the entertainment and music industry
- There are many cases where people were forced to spend on something they didn’t really want or young people who were dreaming of making their debut but gave up on it because they were hurt by adults, leaving them traumatized. The starting point of BMSG is to save those people.
In the realm of Japanese girl groups, boss says it’s rather common for people far removed from the girls’ personas to be in charge of production and creativity. He feels like there are almost no cases where they speak of the realities of girls in this generation. Yes, there may be the girl-crush concept, but he questions whether that reflects the real attitude and expression of girls themselves.
- Obviously there are female solo artists that do this, Chanmina comes to mind, and Koda Kumi. Boss recently worked with Koda (DTTNW and NNG THE FINAL mayhaps) and not only found her singing and dancing of high quality, but also found her mentality and mind professional. She doesn’t compromise when it comes to creativity and was really impressed.
- But he can’t think of examples of girl groups that have been very successful. He thinks the reason is simply there is no soil for flowers to bloom. In No No Girls, he’s preparing the flower pots, soil, and fertilizer. Chanmina looks for the seeds, waters them, and moves them to sunny places, etc. They divide the work to make sure that the flowers can bloom.
Boss thinks No No Girls is a show that has a fairly strong message of empowerment, it could be something that saves people who feel like they are the minority or in a weak position in society. He thinks No No Girls has the potential to have an even greater impact on society than THE FIRST.
- He brings up Japan’s significant gender gap and history of people feeling oppressed, so there’s a strong sense of desire for salvation and for people to empathsize with the message of the show. In THE FIRST, there may be moments of “I want to support them” but not many elements where the general public may feel they can sympathsize with, but NNG does. Most viewers of NNG are women too.
While he thinks empathy isn’t the be-all-end-all of entertainment, he does think it’s an important element and it has the power to change the world. While he was watching NNG he thought it would be a great social loss if there is no content that can evoke empathy.
Boss has been feeling envious of serial entrepreneurs (entrepreneurs who launch a new business one after the other) around the world. Their second time is better than the first, the third time is better than the second, and so on. They make full use of their past experiences and do well. Recently, he’s been regretting the various things he did when he started his business and couldn’t sleep. Everything has gone smoothly but there are also times when he thinks if he had done x at x time, it would have been like x” When he gets like this, it makes him realize that he has been able to get to this point of his business thanks to many people who have kindly listened to his concerns and gave him advice, so he’s really grateful for them.
- He often wonders why they do so much for him, but he wants to use his experience and knowledge to help others and pass it forward.
NNG is quite different because he wanted to support Chanmina so that she can use her talents as a producer for the girls. For TLP, it’s going to be his own project so he will use all the experience he has up to this point and he’s not exaggerating when he says he’s putting his life on the line to see it through
In the case of NNG, Chanmina is the producer, the “fave artist” for some participants, and close in age with them. When he is needed on-site of NNG, he is the person in charge and mina’s partner. Half of the reason he appears is he does it for mina’s sake, the other half is he feels responsible for the girls’ lives. When he’s on site, he takes a good look around, has his own will and opinions, and goes along with mina’s decisions 100%
- Having said that, he’s not simply mina’s friend, he’s also BMSG CEO and producer for artists, so he’s aware of the possibility of him being in the position of a “man in power”. He has been able to get along with the participants, but sometimes it could be a lot of pressure for them so he’s consciously aware that he needs to be gentle. He thinks there aren’t many people who have seen him angry and he thinks it’s good that that’s just how he is as a person. No matter how much he is careful though, there’s no such thing as too careful, because no matter how little or how much he does, it doesn’t mean these impressions of him go away.
- He is aware that if he accidentally says something without thinking and it turns out to be different from mina, it will make the other participants worry. Mina and him are similar but they are also different in some ways, so he is aware that what he says, casually or not, may live on the participants’ minds forever, so he always tries to speak in a way that makes everyone aware of Mina’s existence.
- As a joke, he says his experience growing up in an all-women family while his dad was away for work is still alive. (With his grandmother, mother, two older sisters) He made an effort to be more neat and clean, even be a little bit more feminine but the attempt was futile lol
mina herself was told “No” and that’s why she’s so kind to the participants, and boss thinks even though mina has had unpleasant experiences it’s why people commented on how kind she was in THE FIRST. He finds it interesting that negative, unpleasant experiences in the industry (him and mina) don’t necessarily produce negative things.
He gets a little personal, saying that in doing NNG, his awe and fear of women has faded a little, or at least, not towards women who want to be in the entertainment industry. He’s been in the industry for years, he’s seen people who would do anything to make a living. He’s never experienced life as a woman, so if something happens that he can’t take responsibility for, he might hurt someone. In order to avoid these unnecessary accidents, he was avoiding contact with women who wanted to work hard in the industry for the last few years (prior to NNG).
- He knew that if there was a THE FIRST for women, he could save a lot of people but he knew he couldn’t do it himself. By doing NNG with mina, he thinks he was able to get rid of that trauma a little. All the girls participating in NNG were serious. He’s never seen so much passion by people before. Thanks to Chanmina, the team is able to operate under values and vibes like “working hard in earnest is beautiful” and that makes him happy and inspires him
- He learns a lot when he goes to see the girls. They’re so absorbed and focused on their performance before their debut, and they are fighting with themselves to improve even just a little – when he sees that it prompts him to look at himself and see if he can do something in his own activities. For artists who have debuted once, him included, they can continue to work even if the results of their next song isn’t good unless they retire or if they’re firmly committed to creating they won’t lose the trust of their producers easily, but for these girls each and every performance may be their last, so every performance matters, it inspires him to see the girls in that situation.
Hope you enjoyed!
Please note I translate these for free and I'm not a professional, so they may not be super perfect.
Retranslations or sharing of the summaries is fine! For retranslations, please notify me beforehand and credit once posted!
If you like my translations, you can consider tipping me on Ko-Fi!
Original interview, 121st installment from February 13, 2025
What start-ups have in common as their mission, “It would be nice if there was something like this”. He believes that a start-up's mission is to offer / provide innovation that a society needs. Everything that BMSG has done since it’s been founded – THE FIRST, D.U.N.K., BMSG POSSE, now No No Girls – are what the world needs, so he did them
THE FIRST and D.U.N.K. helped make an industry that used to be very closed off to become more open through positive vibes and collaboration and there is proof that it has helped clear the air from inside and out. He believes this will lead to a healthier growth to the industry and interesting content can come in the future
THE FIRST also had the meaning of being “the first” step towards a healthy and new world of entertainment and music. Kpop is leading the global market, but Japan should also do its best from here. To do that, it was essential that he created a healthy atmosphere first. No No Girls also has this ideology at its core. What both have in common is “saving talent that will be left unsalvaged if things continue as they are.” Chanmina is the only person who can do that. They may seem completely different at first glance but they hold surprisingly similar ideologies and in many ways, have experienced similar stresses in the entertainment and music industry
- There are many cases where people were forced to spend on something they didn’t really want or young people who were dreaming of making their debut but gave up on it because they were hurt by adults, leaving them traumatized. The starting point of BMSG is to save those people.
In the realm of Japanese girl groups, boss says it’s rather common for people far removed from the girls’ personas to be in charge of production and creativity. He feels like there are almost no cases where they speak of the realities of girls in this generation. Yes, there may be the girl-crush concept, but he questions whether that reflects the real attitude and expression of girls themselves.
- Obviously there are female solo artists that do this, Chanmina comes to mind, and Koda Kumi. Boss recently worked with Koda (DTTNW and NNG THE FINAL mayhaps) and not only found her singing and dancing of high quality, but also found her mentality and mind professional. She doesn’t compromise when it comes to creativity and was really impressed.
- But he can’t think of examples of girl groups that have been very successful. He thinks the reason is simply there is no soil for flowers to bloom. In No No Girls, he’s preparing the flower pots, soil, and fertilizer. Chanmina looks for the seeds, waters them, and moves them to sunny places, etc. They divide the work to make sure that the flowers can bloom.
Boss thinks No No Girls is a show that has a fairly strong message of empowerment, it could be something that saves people who feel like they are the minority or in a weak position in society. He thinks No No Girls has the potential to have an even greater impact on society than THE FIRST.
- He brings up Japan’s significant gender gap and history of people feeling oppressed, so there’s a strong sense of desire for salvation and for people to empathsize with the message of the show. In THE FIRST, there may be moments of “I want to support them” but not many elements where the general public may feel they can sympathsize with, but NNG does. Most viewers of NNG are women too.
While he thinks empathy isn’t the be-all-end-all of entertainment, he does think it’s an important element and it has the power to change the world. While he was watching NNG he thought it would be a great social loss if there is no content that can evoke empathy.
Boss has been feeling envious of serial entrepreneurs (entrepreneurs who launch a new business one after the other) around the world. Their second time is better than the first, the third time is better than the second, and so on. They make full use of their past experiences and do well. Recently, he’s been regretting the various things he did when he started his business and couldn’t sleep. Everything has gone smoothly but there are also times when he thinks if he had done x at x time, it would have been like x” When he gets like this, it makes him realize that he has been able to get to this point of his business thanks to many people who have kindly listened to his concerns and gave him advice, so he’s really grateful for them.
- He often wonders why they do so much for him, but he wants to use his experience and knowledge to help others and pass it forward.
NNG is quite different because he wanted to support Chanmina so that she can use her talents as a producer for the girls. For TLP, it’s going to be his own project so he will use all the experience he has up to this point and he’s not exaggerating when he says he’s putting his life on the line to see it through
In the case of NNG, Chanmina is the producer, the “fave artist” for some participants, and close in age with them. When he is needed on-site of NNG, he is the person in charge and mina’s partner. Half of the reason he appears is he does it for mina’s sake, the other half is he feels responsible for the girls’ lives. When he’s on site, he takes a good look around, has his own will and opinions, and goes along with mina’s decisions 100%
- Having said that, he’s not simply mina’s friend, he’s also BMSG CEO and producer for artists, so he’s aware of the possibility of him being in the position of a “man in power”. He has been able to get along with the participants, but sometimes it could be a lot of pressure for them so he’s consciously aware that he needs to be gentle. He thinks there aren’t many people who have seen him angry and he thinks it’s good that that’s just how he is as a person. No matter how much he is careful though, there’s no such thing as too careful, because no matter how little or how much he does, it doesn’t mean these impressions of him go away.
- He is aware that if he accidentally says something without thinking and it turns out to be different from mina, it will make the other participants worry. Mina and him are similar but they are also different in some ways, so he is aware that what he says, casually or not, may live on the participants’ minds forever, so he always tries to speak in a way that makes everyone aware of Mina’s existence.
- As a joke, he says his experience growing up in an all-women family while his dad was away for work is still alive. (With his grandmother, mother, two older sisters) He made an effort to be more neat and clean, even be a little bit more feminine but the attempt was futile lol
mina herself was told “No” and that’s why she’s so kind to the participants, and boss thinks even though mina has had unpleasant experiences it’s why people commented on how kind she was in THE FIRST. He finds it interesting that negative, unpleasant experiences in the industry (him and mina) don’t necessarily produce negative things.
He gets a little personal, saying that in doing NNG, his awe and fear of women has faded a little, or at least, not towards women who want to be in the entertainment industry. He’s been in the industry for years, he’s seen people who would do anything to make a living. He’s never experienced life as a woman, so if something happens that he can’t take responsibility for, he might hurt someone. In order to avoid these unnecessary accidents, he was avoiding contact with women who wanted to work hard in the industry for the last few years (prior to NNG).
- He knew that if there was a THE FIRST for women, he could save a lot of people but he knew he couldn’t do it himself. By doing NNG with mina, he thinks he was able to get rid of that trauma a little. All the girls participating in NNG were serious. He’s never seen so much passion by people before. Thanks to Chanmina, the team is able to operate under values and vibes like “working hard in earnest is beautiful” and that makes him happy and inspires him
- He learns a lot when he goes to see the girls. They’re so absorbed and focused on their performance before their debut, and they are fighting with themselves to improve even just a little – when he sees that it prompts him to look at himself and see if he can do something in his own activities. For artists who have debuted once, him included, they can continue to work even if the results of their next song isn’t good unless they retire or if they’re firmly committed to creating they won’t lose the trust of their producers easily, but for these girls each and every performance may be their last, so every performance matters, it inspires him to see the girls in that situation.
Hope you enjoyed!
Please note I translate these for free and I'm not a professional, so they may not be super perfect.
Retranslations or sharing of the summaries is fine! For retranslations, please notify me beforehand and credit once posted!
If you like my translations, you can consider tipping me on Ko-Fi!
