Broadcasting director Seiichiro Tokunaga presses the button and the first bars of Daniel Boone’s “Beautiful Sunday” fill the recording studio of the regional broadcaster MRT in Miyazaki. Then Tokunaga turns the music down, and in the weaker sounds, Keizaburo Ino, aka Uncle Mike, greets with a calm, slightly brittle voice: “Ohayo gozaimasu”, good morning. Ino sits behind the soundproof screen at the microphone and reads his introductory thoughts easily. “Uncle Mike’s Beautiful Morning” is being recorded, a ten-minute program that people in Miyazaki can listen to on the car radio on their way to work or at home after getting up every weekday from five past seven.
Western music is the theme. Each time Uncle Mike presents two pieces from his music library. He lets the songs work, tells something about them. And it does not seem important that Uncle Mike has now reached an age at which one normally no longer moderates pop music programs. He is 92.
“My energy to continue living is in this program.”
The value of experience is valued higher in Japan than in Western countries. Japan is also the oldest society in the world. Many elderly people work here. Sometimes they have to do this because their small pension is not enough. Others are motivated even without need. Some break age records. The fitness teacher Mika Takishima amazes, for example, at 90 as an influencer on YouTube. In May, Keiichi Iyama from Sakata, Japan’s oldest bartender, died – he was 95. And Keizaburo Ino has his own radio show at 92. He says: “My energy to continue living is in this program.”
Miyazaki is the capital of the prefecture of the same name in the east of the south island of Kyushu by the sea. The region is known as a surfer’s paradise and prides itself on its award-winning beef. There isn’t much going on here. And that’s exactly what MRT reports on radio and television, often letting the population have their say and otherwise delivering good-mood programs. The station is owned by the prefecture and a number of private shareholders. It’s an institution in Miyazaki, but basically nothing special in the rich, not very in-depth Japanese media landscape.
Keizaburo Ino was once the head of a PR agency. That’s why he had good contacts with MRT. Through these contacts he ended up on the radio. He hadn’t planned that. Nothing was planned in his long love story with western pop.
It began in Incheon, what is now South Korea, in 1943. Korea was then under Japanese rule, Keizaburo Ino’s father sold rice to Japan from there. The young Keizaburo moved mainly in the Japanese community. One day he was visiting a friend, the son of a geisha house owner. And in this house Keizaburo Ino heard this melody for the first time, which was lively and sad at the same time. Orchestra sounds, no singing. “I didn’t know what that was. Still, I fell in love with the music at that moment.”
In 1943 he heard this melody in a geisha house, which was lively and sad at the same time
When Japan lost World War II, Korea regained its independence. Many Japanese left the country – Keizaburo Ino and his family too. In Japan he started collecting music that reminded him of those from the geisha house. Songs from America and Europe. But at first he couldn’t find the melody from back then. He didn’t hear them again until 1958 in a record store in Miyazaki. “That was the background music”, this time with vocals. He asked the seller what kind of song it was. It was “Goodnight, Irene” by Lead Belly, interpreted by Frank Sinatra. Keizaburo Ino had found the origin of his passion again.
Keizaburo Ino could certainly tell many anecdotes from his life with music. Every song is a story. He owns 4,000 CDs and a total of 16 old records by Elvis Presley and Julio Iglesias, which he kept when he gave away his vinyl collection for reasons of space. “Julio Iglesias was my wife’s favorite singer, so his records had to stay,” says Ino. He built a whole world of songs around himself and became one of the best western music connoisseurs in Miyazaki. So one day the MRT president asked him if he would like to do a show about western pop. At that time, MRT moved into its current building on Tachibana-dori and wanted to refresh its program. Ino accepted. “It started in October 1984, Sunday evening, 9 to 10 p.m., for an hour of live broadcast,” he says, “I was very nervous.”
J-pop? Keizaburo Ino prefers the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel and Carole King
The eighties were the heyday of J-Pop. But not for Keizaburo Ino. He makes a dismissive gesture. He doesn’t find the depth in J-Pop that he finds in West-Pop, especially with the singer-songwriter idols from the period between 1950 and 1990. The Beatles. Simon and Garfunkel. Carole King. “‘Yesterday’., Bridge over Troubled Water ‘.’ You’ve got a Friend ‘. These are songs that tell of friendship and love.” Close to life, with the courage to feel that Japan prefers to suppress. “Western music is always like that. Very direct. Human. With a heart,” says Ino.
The first years with radio broadcasts were exhausting. He ran the agency. He also put together his program. “My wife said at the time, please turn off the music. She couldn’t sleep because I was listening to music at night too.” And without headphones. On principle. “You can’t listen to Western music with headphones,” says Kaizaburo Ino, “the space is important, otherwise the music will lose its color.” He pauses. “Do you know Bob Seger? ‘We’ve got tonight’? When I hear that in the room, I cry.”
The song tells about the last night before a breakup. Of the longing to feel the feeling of yesteryear again. “There is no such culture in Japan. Only arguments.” With the songs Ino would like to show his compatriots the wonderful diversity of soul life.
An advertisement for “Uncle Mike’s Beautiful Morning” on the Japanese regional radio station MRT.
(Photo: MRT Miyazaki Broadcasting Company)
He’s also played hip hop and reggae. But mostly he puts on pop ballads. His ten-minute programs are always dedicated to two performers, this time the Tuscan pop tenor Andrea Bocelli and the Canadian jazz singer Diana Krall. He plays classics that they have covered. “Love me Tender” https://www.sueddeutsche.de/medien/. “California Dreaming”. For a few moments the commercial clamor of everyday Japanese life seems to disappear behind the touching power of Uncle Mike’s musical treasure.
“He has never been absent in 37 years,” says broadcast director Seiichiro Tokunaga. And apparently nobody thinks about the end. MRT is considering applying for the Guinness Book of Records with the broadcast. Keizaburo Ino says: “The president told me I could go on until death.” And the music moves him just as much as it did 40 years ago. “When I hear ‘Is It Always Gonna Be Like This’ by Rita Coolidge and Jermaine Jackson, I cry too.” In between he sings himself. “A boy saw a rose standing.” He smiles. He enjoys every note that is left to him.