TA Blog 「Happy New Year☆」(2.1.22)
 

An auto-translation of Ayu's most recent blog post.

TA Blog, 2.1.22
Happy New Year☆

She’s speaking like it will be her last live before announcing she is retiring…

There isn't a hint of mystery or vagueness here in this TA post.
The post on IG is sounding so dire and here she is being "yeah , all is cool , DM me what song would you like to hear in April.
Girl, you just started a timer for who knows what.
Oh, well, I guess we will know come April.
Damn.

Omg it sounds like retiring… what could it be if not?
I haven’t seen her live yet. I was thinking about going to that concert but i was hoping for a tour this year and going to a later date so I can save a bit more of money. But maybe there wont be any more lives this year…

no way she announces the retirement :vsad my heart's broken

why would she say "the last big news"?!

Totally, I haven’t seen her live yet. Omg, my heart stopped! :(

Well, shit. I guess all good things come to an end, but wow, I was just saying the other day that Ayu will go on making music and playing shows until she’s 90 years old. I didn’t think she’d retire. It’s the “first and last big news” part she posted in English on Instagram that’s really throwing me. Guess we’ll have to see in a few months.

If she does retire, though, I hope she plays a dome or stadium because those shows will sell out and she’ll need a lot of seats for people who want to see her, myself included.

It’d be really lonely if she retires, but if it’s what she wants, then I fully support it. She’s a mom now, so much has changed in the world, she’s done more than enough in terms of her impact on Japanese popular music. Ayu, you don’t owe anybody anything—love you always!

I'll be sad if Ayu retires, but also extremely happy for her - she's been working a long time, and I am in awe of how she has maintained her passion for music and performance for twenty-five years, especially with all the hardships she has endured.

I'll be interested to see how she words her retirement message though - I think she'll leave room for a comeback someday. I think it's more likely she will announce an "indefinite hiatus" than an absolute retirement, but we will see!

I don’t know, part of me doesn’t think Ayu would dangle that possibility of news over her fans for 4 months.

It could simply be the Asia tour being set up again.

Maybe. But wonder how possible could it be?

The part about not having finished discussing the “method and timing properly with various parties yet” leads me to believe it has something to do with venues for a tour internationally.

A Japanese fan on Twitter said if it’s positive news (and not full/semi-retirement related) it could be related to an addition to a tour or the commencement of a new one.

I’m gonna go way out and say it’s the first and last time she will include tour dates outside of Asia (which would mean the “globe” she sang upon during her last tour would come to serve as a bit of foreshadowing).

I would prefer this kind of news, Imagine she's doing a world tour, I would do everything to see her live once again (had the chance to see her in Tokyo back in 2010)

Wait and See...

Let’s hope an Asia tour. Instead of retirement

Apparently her word choice for "浜崎あゆみからの報告" is uncharacteristic for most of these announcements?

Oh my, I just read her instagram post... Is this really happening ? =(
This post screams "RETIREMENT" to me, no matter how hard I can try to deny it...
Wait & see but prepare yourself...

No way she's going to retire before going on her supposed "Asia" Tour :tired
but her using the word "first and last" big news makes everyone anxious...

Yes:no

Because Namie Amuro announced retire before a few day，she use two word "the first and the last". "good bye" in her goods with 25th anniversary live:no

I woke up to her Instagram post and panicked a bit with that "first and last big announcement" thing :(

retirement doesn't seem like something she would do, but people change so she may feel differently now. I'm gonna hold out hope that this announcement is something positive.

Namie was different tho, you should stop comparing. She wanted to retire for her 20th Anni already kept going for another 5 years to have that live. Also, all signs pointers towards it.
Also she always said she wants to stop someday.

Namie did seem like she wanted to stop at some point while Ayu was like "If without the stage, I'd die" and such... but still, it's odd.

ayu's a mum of two now
i can understand if she needs to stop
3 months to the news is really tough ><

I hope it's not retirement. I actually think it's awful to post a somewhat cryptic message like that and let people wait for 3 months to see what it is. At least say it now. Like many, I haven't seen her live yet either.

It would be really weird to retire after 23rd Monster is basically an affirmation that there's no other life for her. Even (NOT) Remember you seems to be kind of an affirmation of that. But she's also not a native English speaker, so it could sound more dire than it is? But the post about making up her mind seems also kind of scary, though it could be related to (NOT) Remember you?

She always seemed to have the attitude that she'll sing as long as people would listen. Or at least as long as she wants, I guess. Nowadays she doesn't even have the crazy schedule she used to anymore, so even if recording the latest album was taxing, she can release the next one anytime, even in 10 years. Might her hearing be so bad, she can't tour anymore? I wouldn't mind if she'd become a recording artist, who releases an album every few years.

I really think we are all over-thinking it? I personally don't read any retirement related thing in this message. Well I don't read Japanese so that must be it haha.

Yes her insta post was kinda cryptic... And I also feared she would stop. But we all know that she likes writing this way and dramatising things a lil bit.

I don't know, putting and end to her career right know just seems really off to me.
Unless there was a decisive element that affected her personal life very recently (health issues?), I feel this comeback hyped her to do more than less.

Maybe ayu wants to say that this album will be the last music she created and after that she will concentrate only on lives.

I hate the fact that we need to wait 3 months until we finally find out what is going on. That is not the exciting waiting. Maybe ayu was overdramatic with her post and will make it more clear after the flood of "are you going to retire?" messages at TA.

Oh, also "my first and last big news will also be announced on that day" may means that first and last big news at this year. Maybe it will be another try to make Asia Tour.

The album Remember you probably implies that "Remember ayu".

That's kind of what I was hoping for, as well, but I'm quite certain Ayu knows what she's doing here..

It's been years between Made in Japan and Remember You; for an artist who previously/consistently produced a full album yearly, it would be really anticlimactic to have waited for this long to have this album released, only to announce soon thereafter she's retiring.

This whole issue has me thinking and analysing now. Until the trouble she had making the album, she seemed so excited to make music. We might eventually look back and think there were lots of signs, but so far I don't see many or any even, other than her recent messages. Of course we can't know what's going on inside her, but from the outside it seems like it went from "business like usual" to "oh no, retirement". You'd think a decision like that would have a proper build-up. She wrote she "made her mind", omitting the "up", so I hope something just got lost in translation.

On one hand the whole thing doesn't make sense, on another other interpretations might seem farfetched. A dancer I think wrote about the last live of the Asia Tour, then Ayu corrected that amids concern. Why do that, then announce retirement mere months later? Could she announce that she'll retire on her 30th anniversary? But there'd be a lot of other big news until then.
Could she perhaps mean marriage? It wouldn't be the first time, but it'd be the first time while having an extended family.
Does having children actually made her able to leave Matsuura behind for good, so she's going to leave avex?
It wasn't that long ago that she did voice training and said she wanted to make a new Hamasaki Ayumi. Is she going to reinvent Hamasaki Ayumi again? No elaborate concerts anymore?
But how does any of that qualify as "last big news"?

Maybe she needed to produce one more album because of her contract. A lot of Western artists also have contracts that contain a certain number of albums that need to be released.

Tbh, why everything here thinks she is going to retire?

The big news from Ayumi Hamasaki can mean "I am leaving AVEX and starting my own management."

I always figured Ayu was more western minded in regards to her career. Retiring, especially as a woman, is very Japanese. Sure it happens in the West too, but generally speaking, people don’t “officially” retire that often. They just work on multiple projects and release things here and there. But disappearing like Namie or Momoe or Nishino Kana, that doesn’t really seem like the Ayu I’ve watched all these years.

Things can surely change, but at this point I’m still being optimistic.

this could be one way to find out. I'm guessing if she does mean to retire, then the flood of messages and questions won't make her break her silence. But if she doesn't, she will clarify (or at least say something like "I'm not retiring!") to allay our fears.

If she were retiring, I really don't think she would announce it like this.
I personally think it's something else completely and we will get clarity from her within a few days or a few weeks because like Aderianu said, if TA members are fearing about retirement too, I feel like they will message her a lot with questions to the point where she won't be able to ignore it and will need to clear things up with a message.

If it is retirement, it's kind of a bad and weird way to announce it in my opinion.
I feel like it's not something she would want to drag on and on and make people wait for. But we will see. If she does retire soon I will respect her decision. I wouldn't want her to continue doing something that no longer makes her happy. I can't even begin to imagine how physically and mentally draining her job is, not just with now having kids but her hearing limitations.

I saw a lot of JP fans saying that it doesn't make sense since she wouldn't want to sour TA's mood after 25th anni, so it's probably something else... maybe she is hopping to her own label?

Because it's not only "big news" it's "last big news". And if I personally hate talks about how ayu will finish her career, that was the first thing I was thinking about reading it

It could be many different scenarios:

- She won't be able to tour anymore because it's leading to her losing her hearing in full.
- She's going into a indefinite hiatus in order to fully enjoy/devote herself to her life as a mother of two.
- She's retiring.

And I think the retirement is the last option because I just don't see her (or maybe... I'm just refusing to believe it) taking that drastic decision.

Honestly, I do not get the impression she's announcing her retirement. Everyone is focusing on the "last" part of her English Instagram post, but the phrase is "the first and last". 1) the post is in English. We all know she's probably semi-conversational at best in English. She definitely knows more that most Japanese pop-stars, but she's nowhere near fluent, so she might not realize how dramatic that phrase sounds. 2) "The first and last" can mean "the greatest" or the "biggest", "one announcement to trump all announcements", type of thing. So, yes, she's going to announce something big, but it's not necessarily retirement. 3) We also need to look at her TA message. It's very positive and sweet sounding, not at all the tone of someone who is about to end their decades-long career. We all know that Ayu loves performing and making music. It's unlikely that she's going to retire Namie-style. If she stops it's because she HAS to stop. I could be very wrong here and just trying to stay optimistic, but I don't get the sense she's about to announce her retirement. Hopefully she'll make a clarifying statement at some point, otherwise we'll just have to wait until April lol

I always find it very funny how Ayu fandom always take whatever she says to the most tragic interpretation

Considering her historic, this could pretty much be something completely stupid like a 25th anni calendar or some shit like that.

Yeah, I'm thinking and hoping it's something more like this. I honestly can't imagine Ayu retiring. I feel like she'll be like Seiko Matsuda, just endlessly performing. She loves it too much.

I've also been wondering if it could be something like ear surgery, another baby, or marriage. I don't think it's any of those things, and while the gut reaction is to think retirement, I think it's something else altogether.

Your reactions make me even feel more worried about the post, than I initially read it. My first thought was announcement of the Asia Tour, and maybe some extensions (dates, places)

Let's hope for the best

She wrote it in english so it is intended to foreign fans? Avex announced their global expansion years ago and nothing happened because of pandemic. They aimed to be "bigger than BTS with the names such as Ayumi Hamasaki". Also, Max produced an album for Ayu in USA years ago too. Maybe the announcement will be Ayu's "Exodus" album (Like Utada). I don't see Ayu retiring before 30th anniversary.

Maybe it will be the first (and last) global TA tour...

I'm 80% confident it will be something like that.
Retiring now it so off. Even if she has to for whatever reasons, she won't announce it this way.

I'm leaning towards some news for the Asia Tour.

It’s not a mistranslation as in Japanese something with a similar level of urgency was written. All the Japanese fans were speculating retirement on Twitter too, based on what was written in their native language.

Anyway, I’m still hoping for a global extension. It makes little sense how her colleagues of similar status have expanded to performances outside Asia while she never has? I would think it’s something she would like to try at least once, and it’s getting to the point where it’s now or never.

I would actually love to see this.

Right? I honestly feel like it is possible it could be something like this lol

or maybe she'll be releasing "A BEST"?

I think it's a world tour. First and last, that makes sense and is logical. First, world tour and it's gonna be the last as her fame is getting smaller and smaller.

I’m guessing maybe she will “graduate” from Arena Tours and only do concerts in halls (smaller scale venue). That explains the 聖地 and it’s the last time she will perform in Yoyogi. This is the worst news I can take, anything else NO!

Yeah, 報告 is something like a (status) report, which does make it sound like she's going to give an update on herself in Japanese.
For announcements for tours and other career related stuff they usually use words like 発表, 告知 or 解禁 or the like.

thank you for this very important context!

I love how we fans can't accept her retirement and we are trying to justify her words saying possitive ideas like a world tour outside Asia. It's like... the Ayu we know will never retire and have her fans waiting for the official announcement for 4 months.

I was very sad with her post but reading some of you give me hope for her future in the music industry. She has always been the queen, and will always be.

I'm thinking like that too

Damn, well I hope that we get enough time to go watch her perform if she retires

She's pretty much been doing that since 2017. She basically does one concert a year in a large venue.

I can't imagine her wanting to publicly say 'Hey everyone, I'm not popular enough to fill arenas anymore, so I'll only be performing in smaller venues from now on.

I think what she did for that though since 2017 was because she wanted to tour way more which was more feasible with halls. TROUBLE was supposed to end with an ARENA leg after the 101 shows were done but that was smashed by COVID.

I didn't realize she deleted her insta post until now, does that mean it was a (horrible and very) bad buzz and there's no "first and last big news" annoucement to drop anymore ?

that post (from 2 January) is still on her Instagram, it's one of her pinned posts at the very top.

Oh you're right, thank you!! I was scrolling down, so I was a bit relieved to not see it below... And now knowing it's pinned, I'm scared again... And angry again... :(