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News report about the release of his biography and some snippet from the book.

The last word that he said before his surgery was the name of his wife because he would want to be able to call her name again many many times. Also, TOKIO visit seems to play a big role in cheering him up after the surgery. He regains (or rather realizes again) the enjoyment of music from a live session with TOKIO.

It's so sweet that the last thing he said was his wife's name

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I... just looked at my posters and stuff that I've gotten in the past few months from H!P... and, in fact, none of them say "produced by Tsunku" anymore...
It's been there in plain site for half a year already.

evening news 9/9/15 - preview clips of Tsunku's interview/documentary on NHK tomorrow

wait so, is he continuing to write for h!p, just not making music? I'm happy he's taking these steps for his health and family, but I don't want him to leave altogether, as selfish as it is

*edit* wait I panicked and didnt read the tread properly. phew!

In the idol industry, the producer is responsible for the overall creative direction of the idol(s) and answers only to the head of the agency (in Up-Front's case, Naoki Yamazaki and his daughter/successor Yukako). Tsunku was atypical in that he also wrote most of the music, rather than farm it out.

The "new" guy, Shin Hashimoto, is more typical in how he works with other people like Taisei, SHOCKEYE, and Takui Nakajima.

Much of MUSIC+ and GREEN ROOM has been dedicated to familiarizing the fans with these people and how they work, specifically to soften the blow of Tsunku's official departure.

^ Hashimoto is only in charged of H!P overall music production. His official position is the music director of H!P and Zetima label manager. (Rumor is that he is also the president of Up-Front Work, which oversee the overall music production in the UP-Front conglomerate.) Another big guy is Nishiguchi from UP-Front Promotion, which oversee talents production, so for H!P Nishiguchi involves in member auditions, training and etc. Tsunku sat above these two in H!P as the general producer to oversee both music and talent productions before he retired. From Hashimoto's words, there is no one replacing Tsunku at the moment. They assemble all staff and come up with directions. Of course, Hashimoto and Nishiguchi probably play important roles in the process.

v Agree and Agree. Tsunku was a super human because he also wrote most of the music in addition to overseeing both the music and the talent production.

^ I still think it's a good point about how MUSIC+ and GREEN ROOM are meant to kind of ease us into the transition to the post-Tsunku era. Your point also gives a real appreciation of how much Tsunku used to do since it's taking multiple people to replicate his functions.

I thought Shin Hashimoto was just a pen name used to refer to the Up Front collective that works with the songs.

It's this guy, numerous official sources over years call him Hashimoto Shin.



...and he used to work with MM back in the day as a vocal coach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvjgXwSEzmY

^ \O.o/!!! I did not know the last part.