2014.10.03

“Postscript” for my comeback press conference *2nd October, 2014

Yesterday evening, I held a press conference at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre’s big hall to

announce my returning to concert performance activities. I had decided to do it only about

ten days before, but around 70 people from the classical music world kindly came.

All I could do was to honestly “expose” to them the state of my mind and the condition of

my body.

Because if I had showed my “formal face” while hiding behind something, like a Kabuki

actor or a large company’s CEO, I know that everyone there would have known.

Therefore I dared to tell them the truth, saying “I realized that music is not helpful for people

with the most serious diseases” and “Honestly speaking, I am still thinking of doing

something other than music” and so on. I was trying to simply be honest but I didn’t want

to come off as ridiculing…

I said honestly that the reason why I felt like coming back to the stage only recently was the

power of the messages from numerous people writing “I am waiting for you”.

Thank you all so much for your collective message cards, letters and postcards. Actually, I

have been reading them all quite recently, as it was impossible to do more than skim

through them during the most painful medical treatment period.

One month ago, I had been thinking of giving up everything and going completely into

retirement… but as my body got back energy, my mind was getting a little bit positive.

Then, among the words of encouragement that I got during the press conference, I will

never forget for my whole life the amazing speech by Mr. Kuwabara, ex-chief executive

officer of the New Japan Philharmonic. Thank you!

Among the attendees, I met a person who, after having car accident, was wearing a neck

brace, and a person who had been seriously suffering from stomach cancer but was fine

now.

In general, really there are only a very few people who are completely healthy.

Every person finds their own support for something weak in them, but I myself felt

yesterday that it was “love”, after all.

I was quite exhausted afterwards and fell asleep fast.