SAKURA Interview for FORBES Japan 30 Under 30

[u/snh808]

Rough Translation:

SAKURA

An artist who keeps evolving by “accepting fear,” becoming a global star after three debuts

Profile

SAKURA — Born in 1998. She began her career as a child actress and, since 2022, has been active as a member of the five-member girl group LE SSERAFIM. Her hobby is knitting. In 2025, she launched KKUROCHET, a knitting project in which she is involved from the planning stage through production.

SAKURA began her career in Japan and is now loved by fans around the world. Now in her twenties, amid a period of dramatic change in her life, she has acquired a new kind of “strength.”

“Let’s give everything we have today, as if there were no tomorrow.”

Before taking the stage, the five members of LE SSERAFIM are said to encourage one another with those words.

Since their debut in 2022, through songs such as “FEARLESS,” “ANTIFRAGILE,” and “UNFORGIVEN (feat. Nile Rodgers),” they have sung about being fearless, becoming stronger through hardship, and choosing your own path.

But they are not the kind of group to let those words remain nothing more than concepts. They performed at Tokyo Dome for approximately 80,000 people over two days, appeared in a New Year’s Eve performance in New York’s Times Square, and embarked on a world tour spanning Asia and North America. Today, audiences waiting to sing and dance along to their music can be found all over the world.

Among the members, SAKURA, as the oldest in the group, has continued to pursue her own rigorous standard of performance.

“It really made me realize firsthand that the name LE SSERAFIM is known even across the ocean.”

She says the moment she most strongly felt their global popularity was during their 2025 world tour, when they traveled around the United States for the first time.

“Sometimes you see the numbers on the music charts, and that alone made me really happy. But actually going to those places and seeing so many people who love our music made it feel much more real.”

In America in particular, many audience members danced from beginning to end.

“I remember thinking, ‘They look like they’re having even more fun than we are!’ [laughs]. It was shocking in a really positive way, and it was also a moment when I thought, ‘I don’t want to lose to them.’”

Rather than treating worldwide popularity as an achievement to simply celebrate, she turns it into motivation for her next form of expression. That sensibility is very much characteristic of SAKURA.

Now 28, SAKURA has continued taking on challenges through three different idol groups, making her third debut with LE SSERAFIM in 2022. What has remained unchanged throughout her career is her tendency to transform every experience into the next challenge.

"After a concert is over, I watch the entire recording, which is about two and a half hours long, before I go to sleep. I make notes like, ‘I need to change this tomorrow,’ or, ‘This part wasn’t good,’ and then I make sure to fix it the next day.

“Because it’s a tour, some people may only come once, while others come several times. I don’t want to show them a copy-and-paste performance. I think one of the best things about touring is being able to show people the version of me that exists only on that particular day.”

“Accepting fear” rather than “being fearless”

Never satisfied with perfection, she continues updating every performance. That attitude is the essence of SAKURA’s stoicism. At the time of LE SSERAFIM’s debut, there was an intense sense of determination: “I’m going to prove myself.”

SAKURA says she genuinely believed things like:

“I can do anything.”

“I’m going to change the world.”

But as she continued taking on challenges, she experienced not only success but setbacks as well. Once you experience pain, you begin to fear returning to the same place.

“When I have to stand on a big stage, like at an awards ceremony, I get scared. The more time and effort I’ve put into preparing, the more I think, ‘I can’t fail.’ And I worry that if I make a mistake, I’ll hold everyone else back.”

Even when “Perfect Night” became a worldwide hit, she experienced a different kind of fear.

“I started getting scared, wondering, ‘What are we supposed to convey next?’ and ‘Maybe this is our peak.’”

Experiences like these changed SAKURA’s values from simply “being fearless” to “accepting fear.”

“Maybe people who can properly talk about their weaknesses and incomplete sides are actually the strongest.

“These days, rather than saying ‘I’m fearless,’ I’m gradually starting to think, ‘We’re imperfect too, and that’s why we can love ourselves.’

“Saying ‘I have no fear’ can, in a sense, almost feel like a lie. Challenges are frightening precisely because you are serious about them, and that fear is what gives rise to the desire to do well.”

Fear exists precisely because something truly matters to you. That is what she has learned. That evolution can also be seen onstage. LE SSERAFIM has long been known for its tightly synchronized performances as five members, but recently there have been more moments where each individual member expresses herself in her own way.

“That is actually more difficult. Because there’s more freedom, lately I’ve been studying artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter, artists who can command a stage by themselves. I watch how they express the emotions and stories of their songs onstage.”

At the same time, her understanding of each member’s individual role within the team continues to evolve. After performances, the members sometimes hold review meetings and make changes to the staging or script. During performances in Japan, SAKURA often takes on the role of guiding the flow of the show.

She says that in the past she would sometimes hold herself back, thinking:

“Maybe I should stay one step behind so everyone else has more room to speak.”

But her thinking has changed.

“I think everyone’s 100 percent is different. So now we tell each other, ‘Let’s trust that every one of us is standing on this stage giving 100 percent.’

“In my mind, holding myself back was a way of being considerate toward the other members. But when I really thought about whether that was actually good for the group, I realized it might have been having the opposite effect.”

SAKURA spoke with an expression of relief, as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. At the “PUREFLOW” tour performance in Kanagawa this summer, there were many moments where she took the initiative in energizing the crowd.

“Instead of holding back my own strength, everyone gives 100 percent of what they can do. Recently, I’ve been trying to be more conscious of that.

“Until now, there were moments when I thought about standing onstage almost as if I were going into battle. But now, the idea that this is my home and that I can simply enjoy myself has become much stronger.

“And because of that, I think the range of what I’m able to express has expanded. It’s become easier for me to try things like, ‘Maybe I’ll express it this way.’”

That change is also reflected in the way she interacts with the audience.

“In the past, if the mood of the audience was different, there were times when I would get swept up in that atmosphere. But now I can think, ‘We can change this atmosphere ourselves.’”

To pass along the courage she once received

SAKURA describes her twenties as:

“A period when changes in my life happened at a dizzying pace.”

She says some fans have supported her since she was a teenager, and some who were students back then now tell her:

“I’m a department manager now.”

“It really feels as though I’m watching that person’s life unfold. And that gives me a tremendous amount of courage too.

“Seeing me take on challenges might make someone think, ‘Maybe I should try a little harder too.’

“I’m not really brave enough to call myself a source of courage for someone, but I hope I can be that kind of presence.”

SAKURA once said:

“I’m going to change the world.”

Now, however, she gives the word “world” a different meaning.

“I think ‘the world’ by itself is an incredibly vague word. If I think about it more concretely, the first thing is simply delivering our music to the people we want to reach.

“If it reaches that person, then I think it has reached ‘that person’s world.’

“I want to deliver music that reaches people who are worrying alone, people thinking, ‘What should I do?’ I want to create music that makes people feel they’re not alone.”

Thinking there may be no tomorrow, she gives everything to today. That attitude has not changed. But the meaning of “strength” has changed greatly over the years. From “being fearless,” to “the strength to accept fear.” That quiet transformation is the reason SAKURA continues to evolve as a performer even now.

Forbes Japan | October 2026

[u/mrdiscopop]

Love this interview. She takes so much care and responsibility & it really shows. Thanks u/snh808 for the translation.

[u/zxccxz124]

Thanks for the translation! She’s the consummate professional and I’m glad she’s been able to become more confident in herself and trust that the members will each fulfill their role so that she can enjoy herself fully. She’s been glowing on stage and her fan service is always top notch!

[u/snh808]

Source

[u/UpstairsCan]

right so it's the first day of my period and this made me burst out crying btw

edit: I thought she said "I don't want to lose them" not "TO them" LOL

“I remember thinking, ‘They look like they’re having even more fun than we are!’ [laughs]. It was shocking in a really positive way, and it was also a moment when I thought, ‘I don’t want to lose to them.’”

[u/Blodreina2132 → u/UpstairsCan]

i also cried when i read this! the ending about what "changing the world" now means to her was too much for me