Mayu Fujii (23), a Japanese member of AKB48 TeamTP, appeared as a guest on NHK radio “My Asa!” on June 6. She appeared in the program’s “World Eye” corner on the theme “Ask an Idol from overseas.”
When the announcer asked her to introduce herself, she greeted the audience in Japanese and the announcer complimented on her fluent Chinese.
“There are 38 members in total, including 3 Japanese. We just held a handshake event this month, and now we are preparing to release a new single, “Nemohamo Rumour” (根も葉もRumor) and, we are preparing to shoot a music video for it” she explained the current situation.
–What do the members think of you since you are Japanese?
“I am known as a person who loves Taiwan, and I eat a lot of local food that the other members have never eaten or visited to tourist places that they have never been to, I am often asked by the members, ‘What should I eat there?’. I usually speak in Chinese, so sometimes when I speak Japanese, they are surprised. They see me as a Taiwanese person even though I am Japanese.”
–We have been told that Ms.Fujii started attending a university in Taiwan 5 years ago.
“When I was a 2nd year high school student, I went to Taichung for a week as an exchange student. I fell in love with Taiwan there and decided to go to college in Taiwan.”
–Did you audition for AKB48 after moving to Taiwan?
“Yes, I had always loved dancing and performing and I had a strong interest in being a star presence.”
–Did you manage to graduate the school while balancing activities of idol and your studies?
“Yes, I was able to graduate without incident (laughs). All my classes were in English, but I had a lot of difficulties with Chinese in my daily life.”
–I heard now days you have appeared on TV programs by yourself.
“I did my best to learn a lot of grammar and vocabulary on my own, but I also learned a lot of Chinese from my fans. Fans would leave comments in Chinese on my live broadcasts, and I would ask them, ‘What are these characters? What is this word?’ They went out of their way to teach me how to read them in katakana, so fans were truly my teachers”.
–It’s hard when you can’t speak, isn’t it?
“I had to prepare my speech material and vocabulary before I started the live-streaming.”
–Have you had any failures?
“I had a lot of failures and some embarrassing ones. In Chinese, if you use different tetrachords, the meaning will be completely different. For example, when I meant to say, ‘I’m going to do it’m, I said, “It’s the garlic.!’ “
–(Laughs) – Are you still studying Chinese?
“I study idioms. There are many four-character idioms that don’t exist in Japan. There is a four-character phrase that is written as ‘water falls and a stone comes out (水落石出),’ which means that the truth of the matter has been revealed.”
–How many do you remember?
“I memorize about 30 a day.”
–That’s a lot! That’s amazing, you are really making an effort to study. What are your goals for the future?
“I would like to participate in more cultural exchange events in Taiwan-Japan relations, and I would also like to try my hand at translation work. And now that I will be playing the center role in “Nemohamo rumor” I would like to be a person who can cheer people up.”
The program ended with Team TP’s latest single, “Tick tock promise” being played.
▼Archive：NHK Radio Radiru★Radiru
マイあさ！My Asa! “World Eye” aired on June 6 2022
（Streaming period: 8.28 am JST, June 6 2022）
▼AKB48 Team TP｜《一秒一秒約好》Official MV