Kazunari Ninomiya recently attended a press conference in Tokyo for his first new book, "Dokudan to Biyon" (Shueisha), which will be released on June 17th. The popular group Arashi, of which Ninomiya is a member, announced that they would be going on hiatus at the end of 2020, and would end their activities after their tour in the spring of 2026. Ninomiya spoke frankly about Arashi's current situation.
"Doctrine and Prejudice" is a book in which Ninomiya, now in his 40s, talks freely about what he has thought up until now and what he is thinking now. His longtime friend and editor, Nozomi Noro, conducted the interview, and he faced a total of 100 questions on the theme of 10 four-character idioms.
When asked in the book about "what it means to be a member of Arashi," Ninomiya said, "I don't think about Arashi that much." The interview for the book was conducted in December of last year, about five months before Arashi announced their resumption and end of activities.
It was a time when it would not have been strange if the decision had already been made to resume activities, but when asked by a reporter "What was your aim in making this statement at this timing?" he explained, "There weren't really any medium to long term plans, and even now when I think about it, I wonder 'why now' when Arashi resumed activities. It wasn't a time that someone decided on it. We just got together and resumed activities when we were like 'let's do it now,' so there was no clear reason."
"The release date of the new book is June 17th, which is my birthday. We first decided on June 17th, and that was the only option. Once we decided on that and moved forward, from our perspective it was like Arashi was getting back together without us even realizing it (laughs). It was a surprise, but even if they had gotten back together at the time of this interview, I think we would have said the same thing."
Regarding Arashi's current situation, he said, "Even if you ask me what I'm going to do now, I'm still meeting with everyone and talking about what to do. We're all still discussing what form the concert will take, the timing, where and when. So the timing just happened to coincide (with the book release), it wasn't something I was aiming for, it just happened that way."
"Doctrine and Prejudice" is a paperback book with 192 pages. The price is 1,100 yen.
