A hostess in Ginza invited me, "Mr. Hachimine! There's a 50th anniversary festival of JJ, let's go.
JJ is the one with Miwako Kakei, Kika Fujiwara, Meisa Kuroki, and Karen Takizawa in it," Hachimine replies, "It reminds me of my youth. It reminds me of my youth," Hachimine replied.
When he entered the event hall that day with a sense of nostalgia in his heart, he found that the attendees were all young people in their teens and twenties, and he hardly knew the names of the artists. 50th anniversary may be 50th anniversary, but what Hachimine knew was JJ from 10 to 20 years ago.
What is JJ and what is this event?
JJ" is a fashion magazine published by Kobunsha, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year since its first issue in 1975. To commemorate this milestone, "JJ 50th Anniversary Fest 2026" was held. The venue was Pia Arena MM in Yokohama, and the two-day event was held on April 18 and 19. As a special event combining music and fashion, the event consisted of live performances by artists, stages collaborating with movies, booths, and a variety of other activities.
Hachimine visited on Saturday the 18th, the first day of the "Music Fest".
I counted the names I knew and there were only four.
The MCs for the day were Hidetaka Kano and Hikorohee, with Erina Iwata as the facilitator. Artists lined up included iKON, QWER, THE RAMPAGE, ≒JOY, MIYEON ((G)I-DLE), RYOKI MIYAMA, and WILD BLUE. In addition, a special collaboration stage with the movie "TOKYO BURST - Crime City" featured cast members including Sota Fukushi, Tsuneji Mizukami, and Tatsuya Ueda.
Hachimine knew the names of four of these performers: Hidetaka Kano, Hiko Lohi, Sota Fukushi, and Tatsuya Ueda. After checking the program for the lineup of performers and gently ticking off the names he knew, only the MC and movie cast were filled in. The artist column was almost blank. I was completely left behind by the times.
MC Hidetaka Kano was talking about his one-liner gag "Ramen Tsukemen Boku Ikemen". As Hachimine watched the young audience members laughing, he thought to himself, "This gag is still active. Among all the up-and-coming artists, Hidetaka Kano was completely at home.
Young, just young.
The age range of the visitors was quite young; the majority of them were women in their teens and twenties. As I began to wonder if this was the place for me to come, I came to the conclusion that there was no point in thinking about it, and decided to concentrate on the stage in front of me.
Each audience member has a "guess". The quality of their voices changes when the artist they are looking for comes out. The demographic that had been quietly watching when an artist was unfamiliar to them would raise their voices the moment the next artist came on. Hachimine was unable to ride the wave, but continued to applaud with an almost uniform temperature for everyone. He interpreted this as a positive: "Not knowing makes you fair game."
Stage with film cast
During the course of the event, a special collaboration stage for the movie "TOKYO BURST - Crime City" was developed. This stage brought together Sota Fukushi, Koji Mizukami, Tatsuya Ueda, Kijun Ohm, Shin Hasegawa, Yuyo Iuchi, and Hikorohee and the cast members.
This is where Hachimine's face finally came up. More than one person recognized the name. Only at this moment, I was able to watch with the same enthusiasm as the rest of the audience. I was a little surprised to see how active I could be just by knowing a few people.
When iKON came out, the venue changed.
The headliner of the day was iKON, a Korean male group from YG Entertainment. I had heard of them. There is a big difference between "know them" and "have heard of them," but Hachimine spent the entire day in the latter state.
The moment iKON appeared on stage, a fever that was clearly different from the previous ones enveloped the venue. The atmosphere of "only my guess's turn gets excited" changed drastically, and the entire venue turned in the same direction. Hachimine, too, found himself speaking out. For the first time in five hours, the audience was at the same temperature as him.
It was quite a unique experience to spend almost five hours in a place full of unknown artists. I kept applauding everyone at an even temperature, and finally finally agreed with the audience: even though I came to the event knowing only four people, by the time I left, I had memorized the names of all the artists who performed. Next time someone asks me about them, I'll be able to answer. That's what I got out of this day.
