A~chan: But because Perfume was always there as we grew into adulthood, we ended up spending a long time being a little too serious. We could have been more relaxed, but maybe all three of us were chasing after the idea of “Perfume should be like this.” For example, even when we were on tour, instead of going out to eat at restaurants, we’d just buy food at a convenience store, then each of us would go back to our hotel rooms to review choreography or lyrics, or study our performance videos. Even asking for something felt like a burden, like we’d be causing trouble, so we thought it was normal to live modestly.

──That stoic image definitely came across.

A~chan: But at some point, I realized, “We can’t keep this up forever.” That’s when our goal shifted from things like “We want to stand on the stage of Nippon Budokan” to “We want the three of us to stay together for a long time.” And then our way of thinking became, “Okay, so what do we need to do to stay together for a long time?”

──Was there some specific trigger for that change?

A~chan: The words we received during our talk with Ken Shimura on NHK had a huge impact. He told us, “You three are already complete as you are. You don’t need to grow by centimeters. As long as today you can lift your gaze even a millimeter, that’s enough.” Hearing that made me think, “Oh, so we’ve already reached the ‘Perfume’ we were striving for.” Of course, I still often feel that anxious “I’m not there yet” feeling, but it allowed me to shift the angle of my goals. After that, on tours we started thinking, “Since we’re going to different regions anyway, let’s stay somewhere with hot springs, and enjoy delicious food together as the three of us!” That way, we could enjoy the actual concert day even more. For years, we had only been outputting—so much that when I tried to draw something out of myself, there was nothing left, and I thought, “Wow, I’m such a boring person.” But then, I finally felt like I was taking things in again. Maybe I realized it too late, but that’s the moment I truly felt we had “changed.”