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Southern All Stars

Southern All Stars and their charismatic frontman Keisuke Kuwata have often been regarded as Japan's version of the Rolling Stones.

Simply announcing they're taking a break, as the group did last week, isn't as though Southern have formally pulled the plug on the World's Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band, but you'd never guess that by the Japanese media reaction, according to Sunday Mainichi (6/8).

The prestigious weekly notes that Japan's media went into a mass frenzy when Southern came out and announced it would be taking an indefinite break, but wonders whether those covering the entertainment beat haven't gone more than a little overboard considering the band insisted that they're not breaking up for good.

"I can understand why all the sports newspapers (daily tabloids) were giving the story front page treatment, but some of them were even releasing special Extra editions," a music producer tells Sunday Mainichi.

A record company executive has a similar opinion.

"I just wondered exactly when it was that Southern All Stars had become 'Japan's Band,'" the suit remarks sarcastically.

Southern All Stars' Keisuke Kuwata.

Sunday Mainichi notes that it's not the first time Southern All Stars have announced they will go into hiatus during their 30-year existence. In fact, Southern's current break is the fourth time the band has taken a sabbatical, and it once went four years without doing anything while Kuwata tried his hand at a solo career.

"Everybody sees Kuwata as the symbol of Southern, so the band's announcement won't really comes as that much of a shock to fans," the music producer says. "That makes the media's overreaction to the announcement even more astounding. All I can say is that it appears as though there's some 'Ozato Magic' at work."

The Ozato the producer refers to is Yokichi Ozato, the founder of massive talent agency Amuse Inc., which counts Southern All Stars among the acts it looks after.

"Before Ozato started Amuse, he worked for Watanabe Productions and looked after a band called Candies. He is said to be behind Candies' sudden split, which was one of the most dramatic in Japanese popular music history," a reporter covering the music beat says.

Candies was an all-girl idol group that was Big in Japan during the 1970s. At the peak of the group's fame, though, the members announced during a 1977 concert at Hibiya Park in Tokyo that they were no longer interested in performing and just "want to go back to being normal girls."

"'Go back to just being a normal girl' entered the lexicon and the following year the Candies put on an idol group's biggest-ever farewell concert in history," an event promoter says.

Sunday Mainichi (6/8)

Ozato discovered Southern All Stars when the group was playing at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo in the late '70s and many suspect he may try to repeat his legendary Candies ploy with the group whose members are now all in their 50s.

"I think Ozato is trying to pull something off here," the music producer tells Sunday Mainichi. "He's maneuvering to make Southern All Stars recognized as Japan's biggest band to mark its 30th anniversary this year." (By Ryann Connell)