Singer Iruka appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on May 8. She talked about the advice of her late husband that she remembers as a company president, and the background behind naming the 60-year-old generation the "dessert generation."
As a producer, her husband had a strict policy that artists, especially, should never think about money. "I've always lived on an allowance. My husband told me not to touch anything about money," she said.
When her husband's condition worsened, her father took over all of the accounting. However, his father suddenly broke a bone and was hospitalized. He asked her to go to the bank to pay the salary, and she wondered how to go to the bank. In 2019, she saw her bankbook for the first time. "I've taken over the bankbook ever since, and I go to the bank every month to record the accounts," she said.
"No matter how much I sing or do other things, I believe I still have to understand money, so I'm also the president of an office. I'm the president in name only. My husband always says, 'Put the money you earn into good work,' and 'Do good work so you can spend lots of money on work.' I totally agree and I understand that," she said about her work as a president.
People over 60 are called the dessert generation. "In cooking terms, the main course may be over, but the best part, dessert, comes at the very end. The dessert generation is free to do what they like," he said, explaining his opinion, "but this isn't really acceptable until after they turn 60. Gradually they take off the armor from the things they dreamed about as boys and girls, the things they wanted to try, and do what they like and live life the way they want."
