Ten thousand university students came to Nippon Budokan on November 23rd, 2009. There, they got a chance to rock to famous groups like AI, CHEMISTRY, Shota Shimizu, and Morning Musume. 48 companies, among them, Fuji Television, sponsored the event. Such a big event with a staff of over 200 is managed by the student organization, Age. Hayato Mitsui, the founder and first general manager of Age, and the leader of the executive committee of AGE STOCK ’09 explained his vision to us.
An Event of the Students, by the Students, For the Students
Age comprises about 360 students from 32 universities. It has hoped to hold an event in Nippon Budokan in Kudanshita, Tokyo since the organization began in 2006.
However, it took three years for this dream to come true. What stood in front of them was the enormous cost. “We asked thousands of companies for sponsorship to hold the event,” said Hayato Mitsui, the leader of Age. “Companies doubted whether we could manage such a big event well. Even though we weren’t certain ourselves, all we could do was answer, ‘Yes.’ When we gave that answer, the companies understood that we had no evidence. The biggest event we had held up to that point had been in the Memorial Hall of Waseda University. It was very hard for them to agree to take part in our plan, but some companies felt we were more of an opportunity than a risk, so they took us seriously. It was lucky that we met such companies,” said Mitsui.
Age planned one of the main events, NEXT AGE MUSIC AWARD 2009, a band contest which pits student bands from all over Japan against each other, when they decided to hold the event. “Budokan is, after all, a sacred place for musicians. I had been anxious about whether the contest of student bands would hold people’s attention in a big hall. However, a lot of students seemed to enjoy it, and I felt quite relieved,” the leader said.
Radio Cassettes, a group with vocals done by a student of Hosei University, showed their joy from winning the contest. The vocal said“Budokan is the place where our favorite musicians like The Beatles, The Who, Kiyoshiro Imawano and so on played live concerts. We had never dreamed that we might appear on the stage in Budokan, and we came there many times as members of the audience. We will never forget what happened today and start refining our music. We will be back to Nippon Budokan again at any cost.”
Radio Cassettes
won the championship at the contest. They jumped from the stage.
The band said they wanted to entertain the larger audience.
The student presses were asked to cover the event. Mitsui told us why he did so. “When I thought who the event belongs to, it is solely the property of the students. That is why I wanted just the students to see, and convey how they felt seeing the event.”
Waseda Was How It All Started
The school festival at Waseda University, the most influential event of his school life, made him found Age. He was really shocked by the finale of the festival. “They were singing ‘Konpeki-no-sora,’ one of Waseda’s school songs, arm in arm even they didn’t know each other at all. I felt admiration and jealousy of the school spirit at Waseda. Only Waseda students can enjoy that sort of environment. Then I thought that a system like this can open students’ eyes and help them notice their potential. So, I wondered whether I can manage an ideal stage like an all-students’ festival and it was the start of everything.”
Mitsui thought the previous students’ event could be classified into two types. One is the event which aimed principally at entertainment, like a students’ party, and the other aimed at empowerment that would help to develop oneself, like business contests. “I thought both types of events were the extremes, and I wondered about an event where the entrance focuses on entertainment and the exit focuses on empowerment. School festivals appealed to me as a foundation, and I began to form Age by going to see some friends who had been an general manager of a student organization, for example. I asked each person ‘Don’t you want to vitalize Japan?’ and the students who felt sympathy with me gathered.”
After he succeeded in the first event, the joint entrance ceremony for all students in Tokyo at the biggest disco in Japan, he declared to hold an event at Nippon Budokan another day, and had thought he had been able to do, but it turned out that the costs were beyond his imagination.
“I thought that we need results and to be well-known, so we held an event at Shibuya 109 and the school festivals of Keio University and Tokyo University,” he said.
Hayato Mitsui
is a Keio student.
He told us he had 2000 friends and this network helped him.
Keeping Ambition Is the Hardest
They had failed sometimes before they held the event at Budokan. “The number of the members had decreased from 30 to two. I was afraid I would have to break up Age.”
When being disappointed by the turnout at it, they realized that the different student classes had different values. “The freshmen want to make a lot of friends, the sophomores want to be free because they will do job hunting next year and are having fun being with the senior and younger students, the junior wants to focus on after graduation, and the senior wants to spend the rest of his half a year having a good time. The sense of values changed as the school year passed and the member changed. It was very difficult to believe in the ambition I had decided to keep on trying for four years.”
His Challenge Has Just Begun
“I didn’t consider the event at Nippon Budokan to be a goal, but my project started through that event,” Mitsui said.
“I am going to be a boss in the world of entertainment and move ahead with my next plans step by step. Though I have retired, I want Age to achieve its original works making up for what I couldn’t finish during time there.”
BY Aya Sakaguchi
EDITOR Ayuko Kiyoshi
