Maybe something new is even being done by people who see our generation as an enemy. That can create energy as well.

Maybe something new is even being done by people who see our generation as an enemy. That can create energy as well.

When I was 18 years old, I came to Tokyo from my hometown, Ise, in the countryside. I'd always been really inspired by fashion and music, especially when punk came out in '76 or '77.

If I see a nice photography book in New York, and I don't want to have to carry that back to Japan with me, I just order it from Amazon when I come home. There's no treasure-hunting anymore. It used to be like a hunt to find Air Jordans, Max 95s, and carrying them back.

What I really liked about Stüssy was that it wasn't the usual surf-culture gear or style. I think it was really inspired by labels like Chanel and Comme des Garçons - like black shirts with a certain kind of buttons. I was very into it.

The biggest reason was that when I started deejaying, I'd said that the other DJs in Japan were like salaried employees who I really didn't want to emulate because they didn't even know the titles of the songs they were playing - just that they were playing a hot track or whatever - which I didn't appreciate at all. I realized that I had become just like the kind of DJ that I used to hate, with no knowledge, so I decided that I needed to be honest with myself and quit.

I actually came from the fashion side, so maybe I knew more about fashion - and music like hip-hop because I was a DJ - so it was really successful when we mixed it all up together.