This article was originally published by i-D Japan.
Yuki Beniya
@beniyayuki
What do you do
I’m an artist.
What is your current focus?
Today. Now. The relationship between the world and I.
How would you express yourself in one phrase?
Change.
What would be a dream come true for you?
Having a parallel world I can travel back and forth to.
Who’s a person you respect?
Kyoko Okazaki, [the 90s avant-garde comic artist, who’s still in a post-vegetable state as he recovers from a car accident].
What do you believe in?
A physical object — not an intangible asset, but an object.
What kind of place is Tokyo?
A chaotic one.
Where do you often hang out?
Where there are people. Places with live creatures.
Which person should we give an ear to right now?
Human beings, (regardless of race, occupation, and other societal boundaries humans created).
What do you want to convey to the rest of the world?
Cross boundaries. Humans create too many boundaries. Time, people, living creatures, we’re all living in commodity within the self-created boundaries. Maybe breaking down all those boundaries is what humanity needs most right now.
Takuma Fujie
@fujie_takuma
21-years-old
from Shizuoka Prefecture
What do you do?
I’m an actor.
What is your current focus?
How to make the person in front of you laugh.
How would you express yourself in one phrase?
Hipster.
What would be a dream come true for you?
I want to go to the desert.
Who is someone you respect?
Old guys in the city, like the Beastie Boys.
What kind of place is Tokyo?
It’s a place that makes you develop good eyes, because there’s a lot of fakes.
Where do you often hang out?
Shibuya, Shinjuku, Setagaya.
Which person should we give an ear to right now?
Someone who is truly cool, or me.
What do you want to convey to the rest of the world?
The best thing is to have fun. A person not laughing is boring.
Miki Ehara
@miki_ehara
21-years-old
from Saitama Prefecture
What do you do?
I model.
What is your current focus?
Porsche Cayenne’s new model. I love Cayenne more than any other car.
How would you express yourself in one phrase?
The gap [between how I’m perceived versus how I really am].
What would be a dream come true for you?
I want to time travel to the Warring States period [of Ancient China].
Who is someone you respect?
Yasu [Yasunori Hayashi, the vocalist of the Japanese band Janne Da Arc].
What do you believe in?
That I was a samurai warlord in a previous life.
What kind of place is Tokyo?
[A place where] everyone’s so busy that it makes it difficult to relax.
Where do you often hang out?
My hometown.
Which person should we give an ear to right now?
Yuriko Koike [the governor of Tokyo], maybe.
What do you want to convey to the rest of the world?
I wish for earthquakes and terrorism to disappear.
*Ed. note: Morgan’s name was printed incorrectly in “i-D Japan No.3” p.57. Please accept our sincere apology.
Morgan
@claude0417
21-years-old
from Japan
What do you do?
I model.
What is your current focus?
Having a charm as a human being. I’m not sure (what that is), but I think it’s an element I need right now.
How would you express yourself in one phrase?
Weird.
What would be a dream come true for you?
To do everything I want to do in life, and everything would go well.
Who is someone you respect?
I haven’t met that person yet. I want to meet someone I feel electric about.
What do you believe in?
That effort leads to success.
What kind of place is Tokyo?
A place of new encounters.
Where do you often hang out?
Shibuya.
Which person should we give an ear to right now?
[That idea isn’t] exactly the same among [other] people.
What do you want to convey to the rest of the world?
I want to make fashion more exciting with everyone.
Erino Makiya
@eno_tokyo
What do you do?
I’m a painter.
What is your current focus?
Donald Trump’s activity.
How would you express yourself in one phrase?
Free.
What would be a dream come true for you?
To move on to my next dream.
Who is someone you respect?
Salvador Dalí.
What do you believe in?
I believe in what I believe in to the end.
What kind of place is Tokyo?
All in all, it’s the all.
Where do you often hang out?
Anywhere people ask me to go.
Which person should we give an ear to right now?
Me.
What do you want to convey to the rest of the world?
Try to really know what you think of yourself.
Bunta Shimizu
@bunta.r
19-years-old
from Tokyo
What do you do?
I go to evening high school and I work at children’s center. I’m also a freelance model and own a site called 0caloriefood.
What is your current focus?
My singer-songwriter friend’s debut on a major label.
What would be a dream come true for you?
I want everyone to live peacefully.
Who is someone you respect?
My current family.
Where do you often hang out?
The Four-Eyed, [a clothing store] in Shinjuku.
Which person should we give an ear to right now?
A trustworthy person close to you. That would be different for each person, but I think one should give an ear to the person they trust the most.
What do you want to convey to the rest of the world?
There are many wars and sad incidents in various places throughout the world, and I want all of that to end. Peace is best.
Akitaka Nakata
@akitakanakata
22-years-old
from Chiba
What do you do?
I own the bar Daitokai.
What is your current focus?
[Virtual reality].
How would you express yourself in one phrase?
Alcohol.
What would be a dream come true for you?
I want to get together with someone sexy.
Who is someone you respect?
I haven’t met [that person] yet.
What kind of place is Tokyo?
A fun place with a lot of friends.
Where do you often hang out?
Daitokai.
Which person should we give an ear to right now?
An icchy [an older friend].
What do you want to convey to the rest of the world?
I want more fun places to hang out.
Natsumi Sekine
@_n_a_t_s_u_m_i_
19-years-old
from Saitama
What do you do?
I’m a college student and a model.
What is your current focus?
The Oscars, because I love movies.
How would you express yourself in one phrase?
“A story of a dream without awakening.” It’s the title of my Tumblr.
What would be a dream come true for you?
I want to travel all over the world and take a lot of pictures.
Who is someone you respect?
Manami Usamaru (@noraneko).
What do you believe in?
My challenging spirit.
What kind of place is Tokyo?
A place where dreams come true.
Where do you often hang out?
Harajuku, Shimokitazawa.
Which person should we give an ear to right now?
Me.
What do you want to convey to the rest of the world?
We need to understand the importance of seeing things with our own eyes. I also do photography, and there is greatness in printed photos that can’t be communicated through screens.
Ayumi Turnbull
@ayumiturnbull
18-years-old
from New Zealand
What do you do?
Self-discovery.
How would you express yourself in one phrase?
Awkward.
What would be a dream come true for you?
I wish New Zealand was closer to Japan.
What kind of place is Tokyo?
A place where there’s so many people.
Where do you often hang out?
Canada.
What do you want to convey to the rest of the world?
Be yourself.
Inru Kobayashi
@baobeishanghai
24-years-old
from Tokyo
What do you do?
[I’m currently] looking for an outlet to express myself.
What is your current focus?
Classical Japanese dance. I just want to try it.
How would you express yourself in one phrase?
I can’t express it in one phrase.
What would be a dream come true for you?
I want to go to Cambodia.
Who is someone you respect?
Nina Simone and Martin Luther King.
Is there something you straight believe in?
Finding the person I want to be.
What kind of place is Tokyo?
A foreign land.
Where do you often hang out?
Shibuya.
Which person should we give an ear to right now?
It can be anyone, and it depends on who you’re looking at and talking to in each and every situation.
What do you want to convey to the rest of the world?
Recognize the little [pieces of] happiness around you. In today’s world, it’s all about your phone, social media, and the internet, and we’re overlooking the unordinary occurrences in our everyday lives. We’re not seeing the good things around us.
Kiki
@_2black4you
18-years-old
from Saitama
What do you do?
I express myself.
How would you express yourself in one phrase?
Legitimate distortion.
What would be a dream come true for you?
To reborn as a man who looks like my ideal type.
Who is someone you respect?
Malcolm Mclaren.
Is there something you straight believe in?
The fact that Hide, [the former guitarist of X Japan] was once born, has lived, and is already dead.
What kind of place is Tokyo?
A period of adolescence, beauty, and ugliness.
Which person should we give an ear to right now?
“Us” would be hard to define, but [it would be] those people creeping in the underground.
What do you want to convey to the rest of the world?
Stop and “just exist.” We, in part, lack the actual sensation of “rawness,” myself included. So we over-pursue this “rawness” and don’t blend in with the normal public, the general. But that’s where we learn the truth and feel our own pathos, and that’s what I want to share with other humans on Earth. Because I love people. Human love.
Credits
Photography Ko-Ta Shouji
Styling Chie Ninomiya
Hair and Make-up Daisuke Mukai
Photography assistance Koihei Iizuka
Styling assistance Chihiro Imabori