Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009

By DAVID McNEILL and MIGUEL QUINTANA

Special to The Japan Times

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You work so hard. Does the pressure ever get to you?

Life's a beach: Norio Minorikawa, as the star was born, pictured on holiday, aged 9, with his sister. NIKKOKU LTD.

Well, live TV is a lot of fun. I don't really feel the stress. In the beginning, sure there was some stress. For example, I worried about ending the show within the time limit, or not saying anything that could get me in trouble. But now I'm just enjoying myself.

Is it true that you only sleep for three hours a night?

It's true that when I'm at home I only sleep three hours, but then I have a couple of hours on my way to work and back. And then if you take today, for example, I finished working at 2 p.m. My next assignment was at 6 o'clock, which means I had another four hours to go to the gym, run and swim a little, have an oil massage and sleep for a good hour. So all in all, I am able to sleep for five hours if you add it all up.

How many hours a week do you spend on camera?

The average daily figure for live shows is about 5 hours 10 minutes. Add another three hours of recorded shows, and that makes about 8 1/2 hours a day; about 45 hours a week.

How do you spend your Sundays — the only day of the week you are not working?

No matter how late I finish the day before, I'm always up by 7 in the morning. Whether it rains or not, I go out in the garden and take care of my plants and the lawn. In any case I go outside, and as you can see I get a suntan — even though it's worn off right now.

I hate staying idle, so when the rain is really heavy I'll be indoors cleaning the bathtub, doing things like that. I enjoy cleaning around the house, and I get credit for that! I'll organize the books on the shelves. I'm always doing something.

I heard rumors that you have half a bottle of beer mixed with juice for breakfast. Is that so?

Tomato juice. It's good for the stomach and gives me an appetite. So I mix a drink of 50 percent beer, 50 percent tomato juice and then I have a shower.

And it doesn't affect you?

No, I stay sharp. When my stomach is empty food doesn't taste good. In any case, I really enjoy alcohol and I'm ready to drink anytime. Sometimes alcohol is served during a TV show. The staff say "please don't drink, please don't drink," and then I wonder: Is this really whisky? (laughs) It's so much fun. Whisky is my favorite, Scotch whisky.

Two years ago, you made a speech at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo, where the journalists in the audience seemed to be mainly interested in why you work so much, and whether you're typical of Japanese people in general.

Past glories: Mino Monta in his pre-TV incarnation as a radio presenter, when he got his break on the mike in his 30s and 40s (left), a skill he keeps honed to this day with a two-hour live radio show every week on Saturday afternoons. NIKKOKU LTD.

I believe that if someone needs me, then it is my duty to honor that. Japanese people worry about the possibility of not being needed anymore, and the feelings of redundancy and loneliness that accompany such a situation.

When Japan was left in ruins after the end of World War II, Japanese people reconstructed the country from scratch. They volunteered for all kinds of activities. When I was a child, my father used to do all kinds of jobs to secure food and clothes. With the gradual improvement of the economy, we could afford to be choosier.

Choosing is fine, but in the case of a profession, if you choose only one job and then lose it, you are left scrambling to find something else. And then maybe you end up doing something you don't really like, and you lose interest in work. It becomes painful, and you start to complain. Then you jump from one job to the other. In the end, people don't try to stick with a given job and develop their own environment within it.

I think that's how we reached the current situation where we have NEETs [people Not in Employment, Education or Training], and people working as temporary staff, which allows them to work just as much as they want. But does that bring good results? I don't think so.

So when I'm told: "Mino-san, you really work a lot" — it's not that I mean to work a lot. I wake up at 3 in the morning for my show because people need me. That's what drives me to do all those programs. Originally, I started working on radio and . . . I'm still doing a two-hour live program on Saturday afternoons. That was my starting point. When someone says to me "good night," I feel like answering: "I don't know what you're talking about."

You have a lot of influence in Japan. What kind of pressure are you under?

Sometimes an industry leader complains about what I've said on air, and asks to be removed as a sponsor. These people have an incredible amount of influence, you know. So you have to be careful with what you say, and I think that's unfortunate.

In my case, I am completely opposed to war. That is why I strongly criticized a top official of the Self-Defense Forces who recently attempted to justify Japan's invasion of Asia during World War II. That may sound like an obvious reaction, but the reality is that the Japanese government does not openly recognize that Japan invaded its neighbors during the war. Top officials and graduates of the National Defense Academy refuse to accept the term "war of aggression." These people defend the idea of revising the Constitution. This is also a serious issue.

I would like to add, however, that the United States, France and Great Britain also enjoyed extraterritorial privileges on their concessions in Shanghai. China was not only invaded by Japan, but also by all these other countries. Therefore, I think it is fair to expect each country to recognize this as a fact. In turn, this would be a proper basis for Japan to express regret over its own actions.

Many people agree with this perspective, but they are keeping rather quiet, almost silent about it. Those who oppose this idea, on the other hand, make the most noise.

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