NJPW President Harold Meij Discusses How NJPW Is Finding a New Audience

– NJPW president Harold Meij spoke with Highlighting Japan for a new interview discussing his goals for the company and more. Highlights are below:

On why he joined NJPW: “As a child, I could easily enjoy pro wrestling on TV because it did not require any linguistic knowledge and was a source of great entertainment. Several years ago I began going to New Japan Pro-Wrestling matches as a fan. I accepted this position because I was intrigued by moving from a business of ‘things’ to one of ‘experiences,’ and would be able to use my business skills in a field I find fun.”

On NJPW’s potential to become more ingrained with Japanese culture: “The strong point of pro wrestling is that it is not just a sport, but rather an encompassing experience. Every time a wrestler does a grand move, they change the atmosphere of the stadium and the crowd cheers for their favorite wrestler. When their favorite wrestlers win, there is a rush of applause, when there are foul moves the fans get angry, and when they lose they cry and get upset.”

On bringing NJPW and puroresu to a wider audience: “We have over 100,000 subscribers on our video channel, and almost fifty percent of them are outside of Japan. When foreign subscribers visit Japan and attend a New Japan Pro-Wrestling match, they tend to share their experience on social media. So that more people get a deeper understanding of the sport and connect with the wrestlers, we put matches up on YouTube, including videos of the wrestlers themselves, their training scenes and videos of matches with English-language versions of the stirring, perfectly-timed announcements made by the Japanese pro-wrestling announcers.”