Earlier today, I received the following question in response to my previous post.

In regards to the dating comment, maybe I’m misunderstanding, but it seemed to me more or less like Tsunku didn’t personally care whether or not the girls dated… […] I wonder if Tsunku agrees with the no dating rule for idols? Has he ever said so?

The short answer is: no, I don’t remember Tsunku♂ ever specifically stating anywhere whether he is or is not a fan of the no-dating rule. (I could very well be wrong on this subject, however. If so, please do let me know in the comments.)

But here’s a longer, more speculative answer.

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In this serialization, Base Ball Bear member Koide Yusuke
talks to his guests about idol music. In this final edition,
as per his strong request, we welcome a Japanese music industry legend!
Please enjoy this almost entirely uncut, one-and-a-half hour discussion of theirs.

Koide: I’ve been doing this serialization for around five years now, and ever since it first started I always hoped that for the final edition I could have you as my guest. Not only are you the person who made me get deeply hooked on idol music, I also greatly respect you as a songwriter, lyricist, and producer. I’d like to take this opportunity today to ask you about all kinds of things.

Tsunku♂: Let’s do this!

Koide: Next year, Morning Musume will be celebrating its 20th anniversary. That also means it has been 20 years since you first started doing producing work.

Tsunku♂: It might actually be closer to 21, if you count the auditions.

Koide: I once read somewhere that when the whole Morning Musume project started, the way you first envisioned it was that on New Year’s Eve of the year they released “Morning Coffee,” they would appear on Kouhaku Uta Gassen and break up right then and there, in spectacular fashion.

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— We were introduced to you by Komuro Tetsuya, and so I wanted to begin by asking: how do you view him yourself?

Tsunku♂: His band TM NETWORK is very good at showing us listeners new things. It’s like they picked up right where YMO left off with techno pop, but there’s also a feeling that they’re creating something that’s completely original — it’s like they’re half a step ahead of everyone else with their music. When they first came out I remember thinking “wow, now that’s an amazing band.“

I couldn’t have ever imagined that he’d later go on to becoming the producer that he is today. Shinohara Ryoko’s “Itoshisa to Setsunasa to Kokoro Tsuyosa to” — how many copies did that sell again? Something like 2.2 million? When I saw that I was going “oh man, Komuro’s really made it big time now.” Before long, he’d become one of the greatest producers out there.

— Do you have any memorable Komuro episodes you could share?

Tsunku♂: We were both appearing on this TV show one time. Back then, we didn’t really pay much attention to the music charts and things like that. Komuro, though, was very particular about the charts. He was producing Kahala Tomomi, and she was very disappointed that she didn’t manage to hit no. 1 on the charts with her release at the time. I said to her, “So what even if you didn’t make it to no. 1? You still sold an insane amount of copies!” That’s when Komuro said to me: “You don’t get it, Tsunku♂. Girls want something that is easy to understand — something like being no. 1.” I thought, “Huh. I see. That may actually be true.” He had a point: I mean, what could be easier to understand than being no. 1? Ever since I heard him say that, I personally started paying more attention to the number of “1.”

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