Arashi’s Press Conference Gets 100 Points: The Reasons Are?

[barbosa2007]

Hi, friends! I know the past few days have been difficult with the announcement of Arashi's hiatus. I just wanted to say that you are not alone in your sadness. I'll be translating celebrity tributes and reactions to Arashi's hiatus on my Twitter. I am definitely an Arashi fan, come 1 January 2021.

Here's an article from a public relations professional who analyzed the press conference announcing Arashi's hiatus. It's an interesting read!

Arashi’s Press Conference Gets 100 Points: The Reasons Are?

Kubota Masaki, ITmedia

The members of Arashi at a press conference announcing their hiatus on 27 Jan 2019.

I’ve rarely seen a press conference that went as well as this one. The day before yesterday, the hugely popular idol group Arashi announced that it was going on hiatus. The members had an emergency press conference to explain what went on.

The author of this article has helped out in rehearsals for press conferences for top executives, politicians and celebrities. He hasn’t kept count, but he has handled over 300 cases.

How does one avoid making verbal gaffes? How can one speak so that as much of their audience could understand them? The author has assumed the perspective of the speakers in press conferences and directed them towards the best solution.

From the perspective of a “press conference professional”, Arashi’s press conference has scored 100 points.

Not only did they firmly convey the message that “all five members discussed this matter thoroughly before coming to this conclusion”, they also handled tough questions solidly. While they were termed the “model students” of idols during the press conference, it was a very smart and faultless press conference.

Top executives, corporate CEOs, and people who have to speak to a large crowd could learn quite a number of things from this press conference.

That being said, there might be ill-natured comments like, “They’re national idols, surely their fans would fawn over them no matter what kind of press conference they gave,” or “The media tends to easily believe Johnny’s jimusho.” However, this press conference had multiple risks which couldn’t be overcome by the fans’ protection and the media control of a influential entertainment agency alone.

Despite the protection of the fans and media, if Arashi hadn’t explained themselves in a way that would be accepted by the public, there was the risk of weird conjectures. In addition, from the rumors of SMAP’s independence which led to an apology via press conference, and the departure of TOKIO member Yamaguchi Tatsuya due to his scandal, if Arashi hadn’t made clear the reasons for their hiatus, there might be people who would speculate marriage or bad relations between the members.

However, they brilliantly managed to hold down such negative undertones. Although the reason for Ohno’s desire to rest wasn’t very concrete, the public did not harbour any dissatisfaction whatsoever. Instead, there were people who supported Ohno-san’s decision and public opinion was swayed in their favour.

In today’s Japan, public opinion can turn on popular celebrities who make a single misstep, even though they are fawned over by their fans. It’s not possible to garner such support with the backing of fans and their agency alone. I think Arashi has communicated in such a way that their message struck a chord in the hearts of the listeners, who accepted it.

As for how Arashi’s press conference struck a chord in the hearts of the public, the first factor of importance was how their roles were clearly divided.

The press conference was aired on television from morning to night, and some of you might have noticed, if you looked closely at this press conference, depending on the type of questions and comments that they received, you should have noticed that the members’ roles were clearly defined. I would categorize it as follows:

Ohno-san: The process by which they came to a decision, how he felt about the hiatus

Sakurai-san, Ninomiya-san: Handles the “unpleasant questions”

Matsumoto-san, Aiba-san: Followed up when the mood became heavy

There might be Arashi fans who would angrily say, “They didn’t decide on these roles! Stop picking at the members who spoke honestly from their hearts!” But I’m not saying that it’s bad or sneaky to decide their roles at the press conference.

Conversely, when multiple speakers are at a press conference, it would dramatically reduce the risk of verbal faux pas or misleading comments. I’d normally have to rehearse thoroughly with CEOs and other top executives before the press conference. It speaks of Arashi’s wonderful teamwork that they managed to pull it off so smoothly.

The key persons who led to this success and shone brilliantly were Sakurai Sho-san and Ninomiya Kazunari-san. One obvious case was how Sakurai-san brilliantly handled a question from a reporter, who asked, “Although there might be people who’d thank you for your hard work, there are others who might call you irresponsible.”

I won’t quote the reports, which the media have covered extensively, but Sakurai-san emphasized that Arashi would spend almost 2 years expressing their gratitude to their fans, and want the public to assess whether they have been irresponsible, based on their actions and words.

A portion of the press were jeering at the reporter who seemed to be refuted (by Sakurai-san), but that was not the case. There is a speech technique called “bridging”, whereby the speaker entrusts the public to judge if the criticism is true. By countering the criticism in a positive way, the speaker avoids having a conflict with the person who levelled the criticism. If Sakurai-san had replied by saying, “I don’t think we were irresponsible,” it would have been cut off right there, and given people the impression that they left their fans behind. As you would expect of an experienced news caster, Sakurai-san avoided that situation admirably.

However, while people may pay attention to Sakurai-san, actually the way Ninomiya-san handled the unpleasant question was wonderful too. The reporter who asked the question about being irresponsible also said, “This time, Ohno-san might bear the brunt of the criticism, or be made into a villain.” Ninomiya-san was the one who managed the question well.

“When one of us doesn’t want to do something, we would discuss why he thought that way, and then decide accordingly. If Leader is seen as the villain, then it is our inadequacy that caused it.”

As with the previous question, if he had gotten worked up and refuted the reporter by saying, “He’s not a villain,” it would have led to an uncomfortable atmosphere. He simply emphasized their shared understanding and by stating that their communication could be inadequate, he arrived at a conclusion that did not hurt both the interviewer and interviewee. I can only say it was impressively handled.

These weren’t the only risky situations that the Sakurai and Ninomiya combination have confronted.

For example, Sakurai-san immediately refuted about whether this was a disbandment. Ninomiya-san then supplemented him by saying, “By respecting Leader’s wishes, we’ve discussed this with each other and came to this conclusion.”

Ninomiya-san also responded to negative questions about which members opposed to Ohno’s departure. “Rather than oppose (Ohno), we discussed about whether we could avoid this.” They gave the impression that Leader thought about it right up till the last minute, and by switching out a negative term like “opposed to”, Sakurai-san closed with the words, “It’s hard to categorize our reactions as being for or against it.” “We’re sorry, it’s difficult (to describe).”

Like two mochi makers* who interchangeably swing the pestle and stick their hands into the mochi, the two of them superbly extinguished the questions of reporters who sought to bring the tone of the conference into a negative direction.

Ninomiya-san also served as the host of Kouhaku Uta Gassen in 2018; while he’s known for his quick wit and stability, he also hosts his own variety, Nino-san. Together with Sakurai-san, who has a wealth of emceeing experience, both members played excellent defence in this press conference, don’t you think?

Their rapid comebacks in response to unpleasant questions were extremely skilled, regular people like us could learn a thing or two from them.

That being said, I think fans of Matsumoto-san and Aiba-san might start to chide me, “Are you saying that Matsujun and Aiba-kun did nothing!? Aiba-kun is a Kouhaku host in his own right too!” Rest assured, the two of them played an indispensable role.

That would be the mood makers.

When Ohno-san seemed to be at a loss for words at the tough questions, when the Sakurai-Ninomiya pair pressed back with their defense and the atmosphere  became slightly uncomfortable, the two of them lightened the mood with their words or changed the topic.

For example, when a reporter asked about how long the hiatus would last, Ohno-san had difficulty answering and said, “I don’t know.” In that situation, the reporter pressed on and asked, “Is it around 2 years?” Matsumoto-san then, without skipping a beat, chimed in and said, “You don’t know, right? If you’ve decided, please tell us.” And that stopped the flow of questioning.

It’s the same with the question I mentioned earlier, where a reporter asked, “Which member opposed this?” Sakurai-san cut it off by saying, “This is a little difficult.” When the media are faced with these kind of responses, they tend to dig even deeper because they recognize that this area is a sensitive topic.

In fact, the reporter ignored Sakurai-san’s reply and continued with the unpleasant questions. “Did you fight or quarrel over this?” Then Matsumoto said, “No. You seemed like you wanted to write about it though*,” and turned it into a joke. Aiba-san also chimed in, saying, “Even though it’s fake, we should started a fight!”

They predicted conjectures that Arashi was fighting or quarrelling, and brilliantly extinguished the flames of speculation with the harmonious mood.

Matsumoto-san and Aiba-san played important roles in following up, after Sakurai-san and Ninomiya-san had fended off persistent questions at Ohno-san.

Naturally, at a press conference where apologies are scheduled, speakers cannot use jokes to insert levity into the situation, Aiba-san and Matsumoto-san’s follow up actions were important in preventing a storm of online criticism.

For example, at press conferences where corporations had to apologize for their mistakes, there are many top executives, who, when faced with questions about taking responsibility, just explain away the facts of the situation without taking into account the anger and uncertainty of customers, business associates and the general public.

Because of that, they are often criticized with words like, “I can’t sense their sincerity” or “Are they really sorry?” Not only do you need speakers who answer the questions and explain the situation, you need people like Matsumoto-san and Aiba-san who can care for the feelings of others, so as to avoid online criticism.

I think you can understand why Arashi’s press conference deserves a perfect score.

Although they perform the unique work of an idol, regular people like us can learn a lot from how they take great care to communicate their thoughts and smoothly deflect unpleasant questions.

For those who need to take questions from a crowd in a press conference or presentation, do learn from them.

*T/N: Most of you might be familiar with the Japanese art of mochi making, but here's a video to help you visualize the process.
**T/N: The author misattributed Nino’s quote to Jun. Nino was the one who said, “You looked like you wanted to write about it though.”


Source: Itmedia