It's not about geography, or happenstance.

“Our circumstances right now is just a hindsight-based opinion. There’s always a sense of danger because we don’t know what’s going to happen after this. Isn’t that the price we have to pay for taking on the responsibilities of doing this kind of work?”

— Matsumoto Jun, Pia (08/27/2009) - translated by say-it-again at LJ

“Hmm… now that I think about it, I don’t think aiming for the top meant we were going to fight others for it. If we can make the people who support us happy, that would be the true top.”

— Aiba Masaki, Pia (08/27/2009) - translated by say-it-again at LJ

“I’ve never gone overseas outside of work and I don’t go on the internet either, so the fact that we have overseas fans is still unbelievable even now. The large places that we hold our concerts in now are fun, but they can go back to being on a smaller scale too, because that’s also fun.”

— Ohno Satoshi, Pia (08/27/2009) - translated by say-it-again at LJ

“Along with the great majority of children like them, everyone in Arashi also moved onto public elementary schools with the exception of Sakurai alone who went through entrance examinations for elementary school. In addition to learning things such as the Electone and swimming, he also attended a short-term cramming school before passing the entrance exam to Keio Yochisha Elementary School. “It wasn’t my own decision, so being accepted didn’t really make me happy either.”

— The 1985-1989 section of the Arashi cover story, Pia (08/27/2009) - translated by say-it-again at LJ

“I’ve always been healthy ever since I was born. I looked like a girl when I was a baby, and looked just like my older sister. We don’t look alike anymore after growing older though. I went to both kindergarten and nursery school. I flipped people’s skirts up a lot (laugh)”

— Ohno Satoshi, Pia (08/27/2009) - translated by say-it-again at LJ.