Eric Fukusaki’s Instagram account

Interview Video

Interviews

Shunsuke Ochiai
Hi, I’m Shunsuke Ochi. This is World Insight Interview. Today we have Eric Fukusaki joining us. Welcome, Eric. Hello. Hi. So Eric, you’re a musician living in Tokyo. And this is your 14th year in Japan?

Eric Fukusaki
I guess so, yeah.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow, and active musician for more than a decade now.

Eric Fukusaki
Yeah, yeah. I’ve been a professional musician for 11 years.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Mm -hmm.

Eric Fukusaki
Yeah, and that’s all I’ve been doing my whole life.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow. So we’re going toAsk you about, you know, your life. So you’re originally from Peru, right?

Eric Fukusaki
I was born and raised in Peru until I was 19, I think. Yeah. And my native language is Spanish. Well, I can speak some English, as you can see. And I learned Japanese basically here.

Shunsuke Ochiai
But your family is originally from Japan.

Eric Fukusaki
Yeah, well actually I’m half Japanese, half Chinese.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Oh, really?

Eric Fukusaki
Yes, and my great grandparents from Japan are from Kumamoto.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Oh, OK.

Eric Fukusaki
They came to Peru through Nipponmaru, you know?

Shunsuke Ochiai
Oh, really? Wow, 100?

Eric Fukusaki
Five years ago.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Yeah. Well, what about 85 years ago?

Eric Fukusaki
135

Shunsuke Ochiai
135 years ago, wow.

Eric Fukusaki
Wow. Yeah. So it’s been quite a while. Yeah.

Shunsuke Ochiai
So Nipponmaru is one of the famous Japanese ships that actually first took off to the world when Japan opened the borders back in 1860 something right?

Eric Fukusaki
Right, right.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow, so since then your family has been living in Peru. And are you the first one of your family to actually make come to Japan?

Eric Fukusaki
I am the only one maybe. Well, my father came when I was a kid. He stayed for a couple years. And my mom has visited me. And my grandma used to live here. But the only one that’s living now in Japan, it’s myself.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Oh, okay. So you have an interesting path that you came to Japan because you wanted to pursue music career, particularly in Japan. Why was that?

Eric Fukusaki
In Peru, we have many Nodojiman competitions.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Karaoke Singing Competition.

Eric Fukusaki
And when I was 12, I participated in one and I won it. And I sang Morimasako’s Sensei. Yeah, after that, Sensei. Yeah. And then I fell in love with the Enka music. So I started singing Enka. And yeah, I sang Enka almost every week in this Japanese community event.

Eric Fukusaki
And that’s it. Yeah.

Shunsuke Ochiai
So how do you describe Enka to those who are not familiar with Japanese? Because that is like really different from J-pop.

Eric Fukusaki
Yeah, it is totally. I would describe Enka as one of the most powerful music you can never listen to. For foreigners, I would say it’s like Japanese blues.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Okay, yeah.

Eric Fukusaki
It’s very soulful and very strong. So I fell in love with that. And then, uh, there were many competitions and I won all of them. There were like seven competitions. Yeah. I improved. And then I went to Brazil and I won two cups.

Eric Fukusaki
Okay. Yeah. Uh, me representing, you know, Peru and, and then I, I represented Latin America in and when I came to Japan, I really enjoyed the country. So that’s why I decided to come a year later and I was, I was here, you know, yeah.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Those competitions were like basically focused on Enka music.

Eric Fukusaki
Not just Enka, well really, just the Japanese music itself.

Shunsuke Ochiai
for singing Japanese music only.

Eric Fukusaki
only Japanese music.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow. But Mori Masako, you know, she is very well known as being a mother of this huge Japanese rock group, One OK Rock, main vocalist, Taka’s mom is actually Mori Masako and his her ex -husband, Mori Shinichi, is a huge Enka singer as well.

Eric Fukusaki
Yes, I used to sing his song Erimo Misaki

Shunsuke Ochiai
Erimo Misaki was written by Yoshida Takuro, Takuro Yoshida. Yeah, who is actually like the Bob Dylan of Japanese music. So those guys were very active in like 60s and 70s. But were born in the 90s, right?

Shunsuke Ochiai
How did you encounter with those music?

Eric Fukusaki
Well, my father is a fan of Japanese music. He himself wanted to be a singer, right? And then he kind of gave me his dreams. And well, when he came to Japan, he used to go to karaoke and buy a bunch of CDs when CDs were back then a thing.

Eric Fukusaki
And then he bought tons of them and then he brought them to Peru. And then I would fall in love first with the jacket of the CD. And well, I started singing songs like Hikawa Kiyoshi. Oh, OK. Hikawa Kiyoshi.

Eric Fukusaki
You Know, Kiyoshi. And also Kitasakaba, you know, those songs.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Yes, yes, yes, very popular.

Eric Fukusaki
Yes, yes. Hosokawa Takashi san. We started with the very popular Enka songs. Not just me and my brothers. I have two siblings. I have an older brother and a younger brother. And yeah, we enjoyed singing Enka, Misorahibari, Eri Chiemi, those songs.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Those are some old school like… Wow, how would I describe Misora Hibari? She is… Man, she’s like Dolly Parton, I guess, of Japan.

Eric Fukusaki
Ella Fitzgerald.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Wow. So, and then you decided to come to Tokyo or Japan and yeah, that was about 14 years ago, which is almost like 2010. How was it? How was it? Yeah. You know.

Eric Fukusaki
How was it? Well, first I had this image of Japan being like more, you know, what we see abroad, you know, like samurai type of, you know, and, you know, Asakusa was a reference for me, you know, I thought it would, everywhere would be like that and, you know, people wearing kimono, you know, like, geisha type of, you know,

Shunsuke Ochiai
Really?

Eric Fukusaki
Yeah, that’s what I thought, but when I came here, it was a big city. And there were lots of foreigners too. I used to watch a lot of Japanese TV dramas. And that was another image I had, like an exaggeration of what Japanese culture is.

Eric Fukusaki
Yeah, that was my first impression.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Yeah, a lot of people in Peru or like generally they have that kind of stereotypical thing about Japan like you know kimono samurai you know sushi

Eric Fukusaki
or anime, you know.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Okay.

Eric Fukusaki
Yeah, well, so yeah, but I started learning from culture, like little by little, and then I got used to it. I speak some Japanese too now. Back then I couldn’t…

Shunsuke Ochiai
So like how did you start out your career music career in Japan? You just did you have an offer to come?

Eric Fukusaki
from an audition, you know this company called UpFront?

Shunsuke Ochiai
Yes, they’re very famous for managing Morning Musume.

Eric Fukusaki
Morning Musume, you know, Japanese idols and stuff. And they wanted to make a unique, well, I participated in the audition first. And then they asked me if I wanted to make a duet with another person.

Eric Fukusaki
And so I accepted and we did it. That project lasted for maybe three years. And after that I became a solo singer. And after then I decided to quit company and be independent. So that’s what I’m doing now.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow, so you’re on your own now? I’m on my own, yes. How is it like working in Japanese music industry? Music industry itself is quite unique around the world, but… Yeah. And Japan, Japanese music industry is I think very unique in my…

Shunsuke Ochiai
Yeah. …view, but how do you feel about that?

Eric Fukusaki
Well, mainly I sing Japanese music and Latin music at the same time. So it makes it maybe harder for me to have one target audience.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Mm -hmm.

Eric Fukusaki
And yeah, so I see Japanese industry, there’s always gonna be a market for any type of music. Because the population is so big. And I have people from old ages, you know, coming to my concerts and also from many countries.

Eric Fukusaki
So right now that we have internet, you know, you can promote your stuff through Instagram. That’s what I use. Yeah. Yeah,I would say I have it very much. Yeah, I really like small gigs, you know, very intimate space.

Eric Fukusaki
And I usually perform at this place called Bodeguita, which is a Cuban spot, Cuban bar, that’s in Shimokitazawa.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Mm -hmm.

Eric Fukusaki
And I make small shows from, you know, 10 to 25 people there. So, and, but I also sang when they invite me to other types of concerts, like bigger ones, halls, you know, back then when I was an artist for Upfront, I used to perform in bigger places, like even with performing in stadiums and stuff, but I enjoy music.

Eric Fukusaki
Like, if I’m able to sing and there’s one person there listening, I am happy.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Yeah, that’s great. Yeah, so yeah, you mentioned about the type of music that you do. You started out from Enka, but you’re doing different things. What style of music are you doing?

Eric Fukusaki
I would call it myself because you know I just compose what it’s what comes from my heart and I would say it’s kind of like like a Latin ballad type of song and some of them are in Japanese some of them are in Spanish some of them are blended I mix Japanese music Japanese with English and Spanish all at once in one song and I would say I have many influences from funk to jazz well obviously J-POP and even Enka so you might find some riffs that I use in my music that comes from Enka

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow, so you mentioned very, I wouldn’t say old school, but classic, you know, artists like Mori Masako or Misora Hibari, Eri Chiemi Who are you interested in? Who would you recommend to listen right now?

Shunsuke Ochiai
Who would you recommend to the people who doesn’t know Japanese Music? Right now.

Eric Fukusaki
Well, Yamashita Tatsuro is one of them. Tamaki Koji. Oh, okay. Yeah, I love his music. You know, I love their music. I think it’s because at that time Japanese people were like, involved from Enka to this new thing that they only a or what wasn’t the thing.

Shunsuke Ochiai
AOR or Yamashita Tatsuro is known as like city pop right now. And Tamaki Koji was considered as new music or something like that. That’s the 80s. Yeah.

Eric Fukusaki
Yes, yeah, I really like soulful music. I like when you listen to that song and it makes you, you know, give you chills, makes you want to cry. Those kind of music is what I like. And Yamashita Tatsuro is very deep.

Eric Fukusaki
Yeah, I would recommend totally Yamashita Tatsuro. And Misora Hibari.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Of course, of course, legends. And yeah, well lastly, how would you like describe, well, it’s probably really hard to articulate it, but how would you describe the uniqueness of Japanese music?

Eric Fukusaki
Oh, melody -wise and harmony -wise, there’s a pattern. I think there’s a pattern for Japanese music. But I think it’s very connected to the culture itself. You know, Omoi -Yari dattari toka. I don’t know how to say Omoi -Yari in English.

Shunsuke Ochiai
It should be like universal language now. It’s like, it’s more than little, it’s little more than taking care about others or thinking about others, right?

Eric Fukusaki
Yeah, thinking about others. So the tempo of the music itself, when you listen to some J -pop, there’s always gonna be that thing that’s connected. Omoi-Yari, you know? I, when I listen to J -pop and J -pop, I feel that energy, you know?

Eric Fukusaki
That, you know, you’re adapting to some, it’s like even Kizukai, right? You adapt the music to be your tempo. And I think before I misunderstood that, I thought, oh, that’s quite simple, you know? For me, it was simple, but then I realized it was more than that.

Eric Fukusaki
It was like this connection, wow, that has, you know?

Shunsuke Ochiai
That’s a very interesting way of thinking. I’ve never listened to it like that. Omoi-Yari and Kizukai is more like a kindness or thinking about others. It’s more in the soul than in the pattern of the beats or the melody, I guess.

Eric Fukusaki
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel it everywhere. You know, when I listen to any Japanese music, I feel that and I also want to apply that into my music. So, for instance, you know, TamakiKoji san said one time that when he sings, it’s like he’s singing a Komoriuta, you know, lullaby.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Mm -hmm.

Eric Fukusaki
right? And that kind of feeling is something I want to apply in my music. I also have a song called Yume Miru Toki that’s a lullaby and it has this tempo, the Japanese tempo, the Japanese type of vibe.

Eric Fukusaki
And yeah, so that’s it.

Shunsuke Ochiai
All right, cool. Thank you. Thank you for sharing us with that. That was a very new perspective of, for me, the take of Japanese music. So thank you very much for joining us. If you have anything that you want the viewers to know or any information that you wanna kind of give out to,

Eric Fukusaki
Oh yeah, so please follow me on Instagram. I am ＠ E -R -I -C -F -U -K -U -S -A -K -I, Eric Fukusaki, that’s my name. And follow me for more info. I’ll be uploading shows, information, and other stuff too.

Eric Fukusaki
Like I do live streaming every once in a while. So yeah, that’s it.

Shunsuke Ochiai
All right, thank you Eric for joining us. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you.