I haven’t seen the press event from start to finish yet, but here’s a quick translation of the couple of clips that I did see.
Reporter: Are you disbanding?
Matsumoto: We are not disbanding.
Reporter: Was there anything that stood out to you during those discussions?
Oono: After we’d made the decision to go on hiatus and all gotten on the same page, the other members told me they want us to continue with a smile on our faces all the way to the end. That really shook me.
Reporter: Were there tears?
Oono: I of course felt very guilty, but at the same time I was amazed by these people. I thought I’m blessed to be in Arashi. No words could describe how I was feeling.
Reporter: While some may simply wish you a well-deserved break, some others may feel like going on hiatus shows lack of responsibility.
Sakurai: Regarding responsibility, we’ve set a period of two years for the purpose of expressing our gratitude. This is our sincere intention. We will use our words and our performances hoping our actions will convey this sincerity to our fans. You are free to judge our lack of responsibility based on these actions.
Reporter: There is a possibility of Oono being made into the bad guy in this scenario. Were any of the other members also harbouring feelings of wanting to quit but only waiting for someone else to bring it up?
Ninomiya: I wasn’t. Likewise, zero parts of me think this is somehow the leader’s fault. Of course we’re only human, so nothing is absolute and we have our limits; in fact I find the thought of not having limits unsettling, so I did think a line had to be drawn somewhere, but I’ve been very fortunate to enjoy this job, so a hiatus was not on my mind. For us, if all of us want to do something we do it, and if none of us want to do something we don’t do it, but if one member expresses discomfort, we talk it out to find out why they feel that way and come to a conclusion together, so if our leader alone is viewed as the bad guy here, then that is a failure on our part.
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