If Fuji Rock Festival could be embodied in one person, Masahiro Hidaka is the perfect choice. When the man who founded the country¡¯s premier outdoor music gathering meets up with The Japan Times, he is wearing a Pogues T-shirt and taking drags off a cigarette in the rain ¡ª after all, what¡¯s Fuji Rock without rain?
Hidaka is known for being a free spirit with a progressive streak. He created the anti-nuclear Atomic Cafe events in the 1980s and battled a conservative status quo to establish Fuji Rock in 1997. He adds that as a child he was as unrestrained as he is now.
¡°The people around me liked me,¡± says the president of Smash Japan, the company in charge of the festival. ¡°But I used to get in a lot of fights with the other kids, and clashed with the schoolteachers, too.¡±
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