Yuta Tomikawa
Hello to our Voice-Only Toyota Times listeners, I’m Yuta Tomikawa. For today’s special episode, I am tagging along on Akio’s summer vacation.

Akio Toyoda
No, not at all. It wasn’t meant to be a summer vacation, though it ended up feeling like one.

Tomikawa
Thank you. And of all places we are in…

Tomikawa/Toyoda
Okinawa.

Tomikawa
On top of that, we are recording in an izakaya.

Toyoda
Yaninju.

Tomikawa
That’s the name of the establishment.

Toyoda
I’ve been told yaninju means “family” or “cherished companions” in the Okinawan dialect.

That is perfectly fitting for the two days I have spent in Okinawa, with wonderful friends who are like family.

Surrounded by blue skies, and best of all, this stunning water. And to top it off, an Okinawan school won the Koshien high-school baseball tournament.

Tomikawa
Okinawa Shogaku High School was the winner.

Toyoda
That’s right. I heard the news while snorkeling.

Tomikawa
I would like to hear more about that later.

I think the reason why you used the words “family” and “friends” will soon become clear as well. Despite this being a summer vacation, you still did a lot of work.

The first job you were asked to perform was for Ocean Style, Toyota’s marine magazine. You shot the photos that will be used as the main visuals for the website.

Akio, do you know your way around a camera? You were asked to be the photographer.

Toyoda
I am not a cameraman or anything, but I have professional photographers who take my smiling pictures. They tell me that my composition is good.

Tomikawa
You take quite a few with your phone, don’t you?

Toyoda
I do, don’t I? Then I show them off and tell people these are photos by Morizo.

Tomikawa
At Super Taikyu events, we have the photographer Noriaki Mitsuhashi taking pictures, and you like to shoot beside him, seeing whose composition turns out better. There have been times when people pick yours.

Toyoda
There have.

It’s sense, that’s all. Not effort, but sense.

Tomikawa
Your subjects for this shoot also have something to do with yaninju, these…

Toyoda
Members. The word “members” is a hint.

Tomikawa
The pride of Okinawa, and this year, celebrating the 30th anniversary of their major-label debut!

Toyoda
Congratulations!

Tomikawa
The four-member dance and vocal group, MAX.

MAX（NANA,MINA,LINA,REINA）
Hello! Welcome to Okinawa.

Tomikawa
We are very glad to have you on the podcast.

MAX
Thank you.

Toyoda
I think it was two years ago. Rally Challenge.

Tomikawa
Held in March.

Toyoda
That was the first time in Okinawa, and you performed live.

Then, when we did Arigato Fes for Toyota dealerships, you took part at short notice, and this time you have joined us for the boat promotion.

Being Okinawa natives, I assumed you would know how to enjoy the Okinawan marine life, but it turns out you know nothing about the ocean. Or marine sports.

Tomikawa
Doesn’t everyone in Okinawa enjoy marine sports?

LINA
No, surprisingly enough even when I lived in Okinawa, I never did marine sports. It was only after I moved to Tokyo as an adult that I started enjoying such activities during visits back to Okinawa.

NANA
When I lived here, all the locals would go to the beach, but normally, people didn’t do sports there.

MINA
It’s because the ocean is always right there. If it seems like you can do it any time, you don’t feel the urge.

Toyoda
Just like people who live in Tokyo rarely visit the Tokyo Tower.

LINA
That’s what it’s like.

Tomikawa
Akio, I’ve just realized—here we are chatting away normally with the four MAX members, but this is a podcast, right?

We have to give their names.

MAX
Oh, right.

Toyoda
That’s true.

Tomikawa
First, I have a question for you, Nana.

NANA
That’s me.

Tomikawa
How were Morizo’s directions and his moves as a photographer?

NANA
He even gave us directions for facial expressions that just naturally worked better.

Tomikawa
Oh really! Such as?

Toyoda
For example, photos are snapshots, right?

But even within a snapshot, I think you need to have a story. The narrative before and after the image. We are capturing a moment in that narrative, so I lay out the situation, the story, and the part they play.

Tomikawa
So, each of the four members had their own story?

Toyoda
It wasn’t so much that they had stories, we made them up on the spot.

Tomikawa
Looking on, I wondered what you were saying. It seemed like a lot of fun. You set out a theme for each one, didn’t you? Can we remember them from the shoot? What was your theme, Nana?

NANA
I was hanging out with everyone on the boat but had slipped away for a bit.

Tomikawa
Looks like a great time.

NANA
Everyone is smiling.

But if you imagine the narrative in that way, it comes out in your expressions and looks natural. It’s a lot of fun. I like thinking about that in my mind.

Similarly, when we were taking our solo shots, he would give me directions to look a few meters into the distance, for example. Doing that really softened my expression… We had all kinds of stories.

Tomikawa
What about you, Lina?

LINA
I was attending my first school reunion in a while…

Toyoda
Not a while—17 years.

Tomikawa
So, each of the four MAX members came up with their own themes?

Toyoda
But we should have made it 15 years, since an Okinawan team won Koshien for the first time in 15 years.

NANA
Oh, I see!

MINA
But we didn’t know that at the time though.

Toyoda
Didn’t we? Oh, that’s right, the results weren’t out yet.

Tomikawa
That was before the results came out?

LINA
The story was that, reuniting after 17 years, I fell in love.

All
(Laughing)

MINA
My situation was a first date.

Toyoda
That’s it.

MINA
It was a date, a boating date, and we came up with the situation that I was a little embarrassed and blushing, looking a bit shy.

Toyoda
I told her to look shy and blush a little.

MINA
For my solo shots on the boat, the directions were to play it up a bit, like I’m seeking attention.

Tomikawa
Did he give the directions in a way that made things unfold naturally?

MINA
The way he gave directions, the way he spoke to us. He led us so naturally that I couldn’t believe he had never photographed a shoot before.

It all just came together.

NANA
Yes.

Tomikawa
But if I may put it bluntly, this is a 69-year-old man we are talking about.

Did you at any point feel uncomfortable with him asking you to act a little more playful for the camera?

MINA
Not at all. It comes out naturally. I wonder what it is. I guess because we are a family.

Toyoda
We are a family.

Tomikawa
That’s where yaninju comes in. I see.

What about you, Reina?

REINA
I was last in line, so I wasn’t sure what to do, but I decided to go with the theme of “love every day, have fun every day.”

Tomikawa
Simply setting a theme like that changes the whole vibe, doesn’t it?

Toyoda
You get natural expressions. There really needs to be a story in everything.

Especially in this case, we’re working with boats, part of Toyota’s marine business.

For many years, I’ve been calling on us to become a mobility company. Sea, air, land. On land, we have cars, and we have also been involved in sea mobility. We’ve been doing this for some time, but it isn’t always smooth sailing.

Instead of merely making and selling boats, we set out to share stories of the enjoyment they bring. Since we took that step, our marine business has been revitalized.

This time, I felt we needed these kinds of stories, which have the MAX members playing central characters, but in a way that ultimately puts our boats in the starring role.

Tomikawa
This is a good opportunity to explain a little bit about Toyota’s marine business.

Toyota has been involved in this area since 1997, taking the technologies and approaches used to make ever-better cars and applying them to boat-building.

As Akio just described, the idea is to connect land, sea, and air, with JOBY handling mobility in the sky, and Toyota making boats for the water.

Recently, Lexus is also building boats, and that was the shoot you were asked to help with this time.

Akio, what kind of place is the ocean for you?

Toyoda
You know… for me it’s a refuge.

As you pointed out, I am indeed a 69-year-old man…

Tomikawa
I’m sorry (laughs).

Toyoda
Though I may not look it, I’ve spent 69 years caring about what others think. The same is probably true for MAX, being exposed to the public eye.

Friends know who you truly are, but those who don’t tend to have some preconceived notions and ideas.

Tomikawa
I’m sure the MAX members will agree.

Toyoda
Nowadays, we are inundated with all kinds of information. Even so, you still want people to be on your side.

You can’t help but care what others think.

But surrounded by nature, that’s when you can really relax in private. For me, I think that’s what boats offer.

Especially like yesterday, being on a boat amid the blue ocean and the blue sky of Okinawa, I feel freer than ever.

That’s where mobility comes in. Building a boat means creating a place where I can take refuge.

Tomikawa
By “refuge” I imagine that you mean blending into nature.

Toyoda
But when I say, “Make me a place where I can take refuge,” our engineers try to build a ship with no windows.

Tomikawa
That’s confinement, not refuge (laughs).

Toyoda
It is confinement.

NANA
You need windows.

Toyoda
Out in the great outdoors, a place that can be seen by anyone, yet it still offers refuge. Somehow the message doesn’t fully get across.

Tomikawa
Since the members of MAX are also exposed to the public eye, I suppose you would feel the same way?

NANA
That’s right. This time, we were able to truly enjoy ourselves on the boat without worrying about being seen.

Tomikawa
If we include the time before your major-label debut, you’ve been constantly in the spotlight for nearly 40 years.

MAX
(Laughing)

LINA
Having a space like that, sharing a truly relaxing time with everyone and enjoying the moment, all of that was made possible by being on the boat.

Toyoda
As a result, yesterday came to feel like a summer vacation, didn’t it?

When did the four of you last spend a summer vacation in this way?

REINA
Maybe in our twenties, that long ago.

But even then, it was only after finishing work on the final day. We haven’t really spent two fully content, relaxed days like this.

Toyoda
Like being a kid again.

MINA
Not worrying about anyone else, each of us just doing what we like, then coming together to have more fun. Having that time felt really wonderful.

Some people were watching high school baseball, others going for a dip in the ocean. And then we would all go swimming or take a stroll together.

I thought it was great that we could each enjoy the time in our own ways, while also having fun together.

Toyoda
That’s the beauty of a leisure boat.

In Japan, many people work in the fishing industry and on boats, so there are various restrictions on leisure boating. I would love to see fishing and leisure boats not existing in conflict but rather working together to keep the oceans beautiful. Though I don’t do it very often, when I’m out boating for leisure, I really feel that we need to protect the natural environment.

And the result would also be better protection of marine resources for those working in the fishing industry.

What nature teaches us is that we shouldn’t quarrel over the little things, but instead work together to protect the things that are more important.

Tomikawa
Marine sports are often seen as costly. The idea is that they're somewhat hard to start or that only some people get to enjoy them. But looking around online, you can go snorkeling for about 3,000 yen, which is roughly the same as going to see a movie or a sporting event.

NANA
That’s exactly right. I didn’t know that until I tried it.

Toyoda
You don’t know until you try.

MINA
I think the preconception is that the hurdle seems high, but when you take that first step the world opens up.

NANA
Even for us, this experience showed us a whole new way to have fun.

Tomikawa
This time you traveled about 30 minutes by jet ski, to a place where you went snorkeling and sea kayaking. Let me ask each of you: which marine sports did you enjoy most and why?

We’ll start from the other side. Reina.

REINA
It’s too hard to choose, but if I had to pick one, I’d say the jet skis.

Tomikawa
What did you enjoy about them?

REINA
There are no traffic lights out on the water. Everyone just races around freely, and until you experience it, you really don’t know how great that feels. Now I want us all to get our licenses so that next time we can drive by ourselves.

Tomikawa
We’re from the Yutaka Ozaki generation, just want to hit the road on a stolen motorcycle*.
^{*Lyrics from “15 no Yoru” by singer Yutaka Ozaki.}

REINA
I sure do (laughs).

Tomikawa
It’s that kind of fun, isn’t it.

REINA
You can’t know that exhilaration until you try it. I had a lot of fun riding on the back, so next year I want to tear around on my own.

Tomikawa
Going to get your license?

REINA
I am.

Tomikawa
Nice to have a new goal.

MINA
Ah, it’s a tough choice. I have to say the same as Reina, the jet skis.

Tomikawa
Oh really?

MINA
I got so hooked on it that now I want to get my own license. But…

Tomikawa
But?

MINA
But but…

Tomikawa
Okinawa Shogaku? Not marine sports?

All
(Laughing)

Toyoda
You seemed to enjoy that the most.

Tomikawa
You were providing commentary—“We’ve scored!”

And dancing, right?

Toyoda
The moment they clinched victory she was dancing.

MINA
I was singing, I was dancing. Okinawa Shogaku winning Koshien was probably the most fun.

All
(Laughing)

Toyoda
You seemed to enjoy that moment most of all.

Tomikawa
Watching high school baseball on the beach.

MINA
I really wanted to do a celebratory beer shower with everyone. We were all drinking, at least.

Tomikawa
So that was the marine sport you enjoyed most.

MINA
Let’s go with that. Is that alright?

Tomikawa
Okinawa Shogaku’s victory.

MINA
Sounds good. It shows you can enjoy that anywhere.

Tomikawa
But the place made it a rare experience.

MINA
Very rare.

Tomikawa
That’s one way to enjoy it.

What about you, Lina?

LINA
That’s really hard. But I’d have to say the jet skis as well.

Tomikawa
The night before, we drew straws to decide who would ride with whom.

LINA
Yes, that’s right.

Tomikawa
Those with licenses were paired up with members from MAX, and Lina you rode with Morizo.

LINA
I lost the rock-paper-scissors and had to pick last. I thought, ‘Maybe the last pick will be lucky’ — and it really was.

Morizo was like a carefree little boy. I was a bit nervous riding on the back, but he brought me more and more out of my shell, and I really got to enjoy the jet ski.

Tomikawa
On the way back, you were in your regular clothes.

MINA
She looked the most seasoned out of all of us.

Tomikawa
You had your life jacket on, of course.

LINA
It was morning when we went out to the location, and evening by the time we headed back. The difference in the color of the sky and the feel of the waves really hit me.

Tomikawa
It was completely different, wasn’t it. What about you, Nana?

NANA
I had never gone snorkeling before in my life. It was incredible.

Tomikawa
First time in your life?

NANA
Yes, it was. People had told me how great it was, but I never managed to take that first step.

Even this time, I was a bit hesitant, but everyone said, “You absolutely have to see the ocean here,” so I went in. As it was my first time, I had trouble with breathing at the beginning and water came bubbling into my snorkel.

Then Morizo gave me the advice to breathe more slowly and naturally, and I was able to get the natural breathing going.

Once I was able to breathe properly, the fish came swarming around me.

Tomikawa
The bubbles stop fish from coming close. When you were able to breathe naturally, the water was calm, and the fish came to you.

NANA
The fish I’ve always loved were coming right up to me.

Tomikawa
Loved seeing, or loved eating? Eating, I assume.

NANA
The instructor taught me about exotic fish, pointing out parrotfish and other types.

LINA
We even found Nemo*.
^{*The titular clownfish character in the Disney film Finding Nemo.}

Tomikawa
There were clownfish.

NANA
I was a bit scared at first but gradually got used to it.

Toyoda
You were really tense before going into the water.

NANA
But once I got slightly used to it, I became better and better with my fins, and it felt like I was The Little Mermaid.

Tomikawa/Toyoda
Nana the mermaid.

NANA
I became Nana the mermaid. It was such a joy. I saw this whole other world.

Tomikawa
It sounds like you’re quite hooked.

NANA
Swimming with the fish was fun.

There were also schools of little fish.

LINA
The schools of fish were amazing. Long and thin fish, like guppies.

Toyoda
Even the instructor said it was rare to see such schools.

NANA
And we were in amongst them, swimming together. It was amazing.

Tomikawa
So much fun.

Toyoda
Just like being inside an aquarium.

Tomikawa
After all that time becoming yaninju with the fish, will you still be able to eat them?

NANA
I looked them in the eye and said, “Thank you.” I expressed my gratitude, so I think it’s okay.

LINA
“Thank you for letting me keep eating you.”

Tomikawa
Gratitude is important, isn’t it?

NANA
I truly felt like I was part of nature, and it was an incredible feeling.

Tomikawa
Akio, isn’t it wonderful to hear people who are newcomers to marine sports sharing their excitement in this way?

Toyoda
It is. Being newcomers, you haven’t seen it all before, so there is still room to be surprised and inspired.

And hearing someone as influential as the members of MAX share their experiences in their own words is sure to motivate people to try marine sports more than any experts ever could.

It’s the same in motorsports—when people see me, a 69-year-old guy, behind the wheel, it lowers the bar.

We’ve all seen racers driving before, but this lowers the barriers into their world. And that creates a broader fanbase.

Tomikawa
There are similarities with motorsports.

Toyoda
The way of presenting them is similar.

Tomikawa
Anyone here hooked on marine sports after getting a taste of it?

MAX
Yes!

Tomikawa
Everyone.

Toyoda
All right.

MAX
Such fun.

LINA
That’s the kind of experience you don’t want to have just once.

Tomikawa
Just to confirm, so these are the four new ambassadors for Toyota’s marine business?

Toyoda
There’s a good chance of that happening.

MAX
Wow!

Toyoda
I have no authority to decide.

Tomikawa
I forgot. Morizo is the chairman.

We are out of time now. Morizo, how would you sum up this outing with marine sports and Toyota’s marine business — in one word: MAX what?

Toyoda
MAX happiness.

MAX
Yay!

REINA
Well said.

Tomikawa
We hope everyone has a chance to experience MAX happiness.

Toyoda
We hope you can share in this joy and feel the magnificence of nature.

Tomikawa
For those who find it a bit difficult to get started, I hope you will try it once and experience that MAX happiness.

Toyoda
I’m sure Toyota Marine will be able to help with that as well.

Tomikawa
Thank you to our guests, the four MAX members, and as always Akio, for joining me today.

Toyoda/MAX
Thank you.