FIRST TRANSLATION

AN・AN  Vol. 1654   2009.4.8

"Unsatisfied, unflinching: Matsumoto Jun's definition of 'tough'"

A serious look, a sometimes-displayed smiling face... As a man, the always high-spirited Matsumoto Jun who continues to move with all his strength. Where is the one source of that strength? Because of our infiltration of the photoshoot greenroom and our interview, we approach Matsumoto's way of fighting himself through a pinch.

Reporter: A pinch that visits at various human scenes. Matsumoto Jun, in what way do you face and overcome them? 

MatsuJun: If you brood without doing anything about it,  it only becomes too scary. So anyway, you make efforts to do the best you can at that time. That's so for me too, but just from times of worries about "What do I do if I fail?" you won't do the things you have to do. I think that because you can't do them, the pinch in front of your eyes becomes bigger than reality and you lose your nerve.

Reporter: Even if you become scared, you don't run away?

MatsuJun: If I have in place measures to become myself (again), I think it's okay, isn't it? In my case, if it becomes physically hard, I sleep. If it gets mentally and spiritually awful, I drink alone at home! (smiles) Still, during times of frustration when I don't have anywhere to go to, I do things like write the things I am thinking about. Watch out to not write in a journal for that (reason). I haven't been progressing from many years ago, but I write in that journal how I think and words that have come floating out of my head, someone's words that left an impression (lit: remain left in my impression). The contents? They're a secret. (smiles)

Reporter: Surely, in what is written in there, there are a lot of gems that saved you in a pinch.

MatsuJun: To say this isn't true and that isn't true, it's like a Zen dialogue, isn't it? But I have taken another look afterwards before and I have thought that the words of those times were important. I have also said this to my friends (for their benefit) when they are worried. If those words properly reach that person, I think they will become material to raise tension. (sentence I can't translate) There are sometimes people who don't receive support from anyone and stand alone. This is probably because a helping hand can't be held out to these kinds of people. Thinking that always receiving help is normal is also troubling because I'm not that nice and I won't become so for their sakes... right? It's important for relationships to properly be able to stand alone as the basis of toughness. 

Reporter: Even if you want to be strong and high-spirited, but can't... What do you do to bring out the "tough type" from inside yourself?

MatsuJun: Even though I'm always thinking about Arashi's concert production, that period of time never comes to a conclusion. But because the fact that good ideas won't come without thinking is scarier, I continue to earnestly think about it. I think it's not useless. However, if it is useless, in the end it's linked to persuasiveness. The result of examining various plans, this I think, is that if you have the confidence for the circumstances and can appeal, even if you are opposed a little, you can firmly be yourself.  

Reporter: Of what you continue to do, you personally train yourself and successfully become tough. And one more thing you treasure is "jumping" from yourself.

MatsuJun: For example, I think that if you move/cross tens of times at an intersection with diagonal crosswalks (AN: he's speaking metaphorically here, I believe), the things you can see will change. But, on the contrary, even if you are stopped, the things that stand out to your eyes will change. This is because the surroundings change.  The image will change in any direction, and time will pass. However, more than being on the defensive, I think the joy of discovering something is bigger when you move (away) from yourself. I want to always be moving in that way. I don't want to be satisfied with myself now, and I like the type of person who turns his eyes to weak parts inside himself and continues to greedily/hungrily challenge them. 

Reporter: For women, too, what do they have to do to quickly become tough?

MatsuJun: No matter what work, women who powerfully work hard are unmistakably more charming. The other day, I saw a woman who was working in the kitchen on TV. She had to wash a hot metal plate, and so her arm was burned all over. (yet untranslatable sentence) Cool, right?  (another yet untranslatable sentence) Men like the toughness of women who confront anything with all their power. I think that would be very cool if my girlfriend was like that too.

End. That only took two whole days.

I'll work on those untranslatable sentences, especially because he sounds like a jerk in that last paragraph. He's actually talking about how someone eventually helps the woman out because she's worked so hard, but I didn't include those parts because I haven't finished them yet. 

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