Namie Amuro retiring

As everybody did, I was shocked to learn that Namie Amuro will be retiring as of September 16, 2018. So she will not be releasing songs or perform after a year!

Namie Amuro was really popular when I was in high school. She is two years older than me, so I literally lived when her career was at the peak. She is doing really well now, so many people are surprised by her decision to retire from her singing career.

I am really glad that I experienced the time that was massively influenced by Namie Amuro. She was the fashion icon back then (still now but..) and everybody wanted to look like her. People got sun tanned, grew their hair and wore boots.

Media outlets are speculating different reasons as to why Namie decided to retire at the age of 40. She could have kept on going as her popularity kept growing and she has a huge loyal fan base.

Reason #1 Namie has a son with her ex husband, Sam. (He is Japanese even though his stage name isn’t) He is turning 20 next year. She might be wanting to give her son a normal life, as having a super famous mother may not allow him to get a “regular” job and limit his possibilities.

Reason #2 She is in a relationship and is getting married next year. She is very private and we’ve heard about a few relationships that she has had, but we haven’t heard anything since the last breakup with a Japanese comedian. She bought a mansion in Kyoto and media is speculating that she will live with her boyfriend in Kyoto and they plan to get married.

Reason #3 I think this is the real reason that made her to retire at her peak. Namie Amuro is known to be a perfectionist. She held concerts 100 times and successfully completed her 100th concert recently. She is known for her outstanding dance, singing, charisma and beauty. She is 39 years old but does not look it at all.

She must have put enormous effort into maintaining her youth, keeping up with training regime to sustain physically demanding performance at her concerts, but she is starting to experience some age-related physical decline even though we can’t see that just by seeing her performance.

I was pretty shocked when I found out that SMAP (Japan’s longest boyband)’s breakup. I thought they were going to be a group for life. I mean..a lot of people grew up with SMAP and took their presence for granted, so Namie Amuro’s retirement also shocked fans who literally grew up with her music.

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But I feel better now that some sources are saying that Namie is retiring from singing career, but never said she was going to disappear from media. She actually wanted to pursue an acting career when she joined the Okinawa acting school as a child. So she may debut as an actress next year. If so, we still get to see her on TV so it isn’t that bad, is it?

It feels weird not to see her release music or dance because that’s what she is best known for. She has dominated the music industry and even became a fashion icon for 25 years, so I am pretty sure that she will succeed in any field that she decides to pursue now.

Her life hasn’t always that glamorous, as she experienced divorce, became a single mother and then lost her mother because of murder. She overcame a series of challenges in life, and she made all of us proud to have her represent the J-pop.

I hope that she will get to enjoy her life no matter what she decides to do after her retirement!