I knew it, this was bound to happen someday. Arashi is THE best, so happy of their achievements! Doesn’t this make you proud to be a fan?! :up:
Arashi (嵐) have been appointed as the Japanese Tourism Promotion Representative volunteer (観光立国ナビゲーター) of Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. On the press conference on April 8, Sho Sakurai (櫻井翔), Masaki Aiba (相葉雅紀) and Jun Matsumoto (松本潤) made their appearance and announced: “We are waiting for your coming in Japan.” with Sakurai I n English, Aiba in Chinese and Matsumoto in Korean. Both Sakurai and Aiba made impressive announcement, but Matsumoto was the only one tongue-tied. “I screwed up at the most important situation. I have to practice more!” said Matsumoto.
Sakurai showed his confidence: “I am honored to be chosen as ‘Face of Japan’. When I was told about this, I was totally surprised. I will work hard for this important duty!” and Aiba said: “I want to impress all the tourists who come to Japan with Japanese wonderful culture and tradition.”
In 2009, there were 6,790,000 visitors come to Japan. And Japan Tourism Agency has targeted 15,000,000 visitors by 2013 and 30,000,000 in the future. Arashi, as the Japanese Tourism Promotion Representative Navigator, are having various promotion activities in China and other East Asia countries with the new catch-phrase “Japan. Endless Discovery.”
When they were asked which feature of Japan you want to express, Sakurai answered: “Drift ices can be found in Hokkaido at the north, and coral and beautiful ocean can be seen in Okinawa at the south. With spring, summer, autumn and winter, I want to let everybody knows the rich nature of Japan.” Aiba said: “Fashion and Anime are properties of Japan as well, and they are what I would like to show.” Matsumoto: “I have traveled in Japan twice by now in this year, and found that the food cultures differ from place to place. I will try to impress people with different culture of different places of Japan.”
The new TV commercial of Arashi is prepared, for their future activities in Asia. As the “Face of Japan”, will Arashi add more splendors to Japan’s charm?
From Music Japan Plus
MatsuJun, Aiba and Sho-chan had attended the press conference, here is NewsZero’s coverage:
I wasn’t uncertain of Jun-kun’s Korean, however, I did flair at Sho-kun’s English and Aiba’s Mandarin; both were understood very clearly. It probably would have been more hilarious if our Birdman-san used his Engrish (doubt the tourism bureau will let him though ), but Newscaster-chan was certainly cute. Might I say that the boys quite smexy in their suits?!
I wonder why the PR was only to East Asia, Japan appeals to the Americas and Europe too ne!
Possibly Related Posts:
- Arashi’s Refrain
- Arashi’s Face Down
- Arashi’s Tokeijikake No Umbrella
- Congrats to Aiba-chan and Sho!!
- Arashi’s Ninomiya Kazunari Announces Marriage
