The Ayumi question wasn't very thought out. Utada is not the voice of the Jpop industry and is definitely not the mouthpiece of it much less of her label Toshiba-Emi even less so of AVEX, she's influential yes but she's not 'the' authority to talk about that kind of thing. I doubt she knows about Ayumi's plans and doesn't really have any reason to care, that'd be Ayumi's business not hers. These kind of radio interviews are meant to interview [Artist] about [Artist's New Album] not about [Another Artist In The Same Genre But Has Absolutely No Relevancy To The Artist Being Interviewed Or Their Album]. If perhaps there was a well-known camaraderie between the two artists or if there were highly publicized 'music battles across seas' nonsense I could understand why the question was being asked but this is just really another one of those, "I'm getting airtime for the artist I like and taking away from your airtime," sort of things to me.
Edit: (Agreed Naja_Akara, just saw your post)
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