Issue:
June 2025 | Japan Media Review
Japan’s ageing concert venues are closing at a rate of knots, leaving artists with nowhere to perform
Last year, Japanese businesses were forced to address what had been called the “2024 problem” - a shortage of drivers that hampered the country's distribution system and which has yet to be resolved. However, there was another year-specific "problem" that had already passed unnoticed by the public. The "2016 problem" was mostly the concern of Japanese businesses involved in the performing arts, as that year, a large number of theaters, halls, and arenas started shutting down for long-delayed renovations that would take years, leaving the sector with a cascading shortage of venues for concerts and other entertainment.
The shortage itself took some time to be felt, mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which effectively closed down concert activities for a few years and made the shortage less immediate. But, according to Japanese media, the problem has now, several years later, become serious for a number of reasons, the most obvious one being that since the pandemic ended, demand for performing arts has skyrocketed at a time when so many halls are closed.
The problem most acutely affects ballet and opera promoters, since those two performing arts require specialized facilities. Morihiko Takahashi, president of the Japan Performing Arts Foundation, better known as NBS, explained the situation on the NBS website in 2023. His company, one of the oldest promoters of ballet and opera in Japan, was facing a crisis after he abruptly found out that Kanagawa Kenmin Hall, one of the prime venues for ballet and opera in the Tokyo Metropolitan area, would be closing in 2025 for an indefinite period. The news came hot on the heels of the announcement that another major venue, the Yokosuka Geijitsu Gekijo, would be closed from July 2024 to March 2026 for renovation. At the time the essay appeared, Tokyo Ballet, which NBS manages, had recently performed at the Kawaguchi Bunka Center’s Lilia Hall. Takahashi was told by hall staff that the venue would be closed for two years from March 2024. However, the biggest blow was the planned closure of Tokyo Bunka Kaikan in Ueno, one of the oldest and most reliable auditoriums for a wide variety of concert and theatrical events. The closure wouldn't happen until 2025, but given that the plan is to completely rebuild the hall, it is likely to be unavailable for a long time. Opera, in particular, is difficult to stage since it requires three to four years’ lead time to prepare, especially if the company is coming from overseas.
Takahashi pointed out that "the number of halls that can accommodate full-scale ballet and opera performances is decreasing greatly". These halls usually seat around 3,000 people, but that grade of venue is already scarce in Tokyo, so any that close, even temporarily, spells trouble for NBS. The only suitable hall in Tokyo that may be available in the next few years is NHK Hall, mainly because it underwent renovation in 2021, when Covid made performances impossible anyway. NHK Hall is now open, but availability is limited because the broadcast center next door is undergoing renovation, meaning there is a lot of noise. The other central Tokyo venue that stages ballet and opera, Orchard Hall in Shibuya, is open, but only on weekends since the Bunkamura arts complex that contains it is being totally rebuilt.
Takahashi lamented that NBS may "die out" because, even if venues can be guaranteed to reopen in the future, the company can't suspend its operations while it waits. "The continuation of theater culture requires a comprehensive organization to plan for the long term," he wrote. The pandemic offered an opportunity for this kind of planning, since many promoters were given emergency subsidies by the government to survive the temporary loss of revenue, but no one had anticipated the pandemic. When the Tsukiji wholesale market was moved several years ago to landfill in Tokyo Bay, NBS thought a 2,000-2,500-seat theater should be built on the land where the market once stood, but developers decided to erect a sports stadium instead. Takahashi pointed out that when La Scala, the great opera theater in Milan, closed for large-scale renovations, various parties worked together to build a makeshift theater nearby so that performances could continue. It's that sort of planning that Tokyo's theater arts community should be carrying out, but in actuality it's every man for himself. For instance, Shiki, Japan's biggest musical theater company, owns its own series of theaters throughout Japan so it doesn't need to cooperate with anyone else.
The reason these closures are happening in quick succession is that almost all the halls were built around the same time. The industry should have been better prepared, but theater operators in Japan don't communicate with one another very effectively, even when they are publicly owned. Local and central government organizations are structured vertically, so related sections and departments don't necessarily talk to one another. The current National Theater situation is illustrative of this problem. Located in central Tokyo, the theater was closed more than a year ago based on the notion that a developer could be found to rebuild it as part of a large retail complex. But no developer has signed on, despite two bid attempts. The real problem, according to a May 5 article in the Asahi Shimbun, is that the Culture Agency, which supervises the National Theater, forged ahead with its plans without giving much thought to what the users of the theater – practitioners of traditional theater arts such as kabuki and bunraku – would do in the meantime. Mostly they've had to struggle to rent other venues that aren't suited to their particular needs.
The agency told the Asahi that the theater had to be rebuilt because it was aging and, according to theater staff, renovation alone would be insufficient. Also, the traditional theater audience is aging, so something needed to be done to attract a younger demographic, which is why the agency hit on retail facilities. The original plan was formed in 2020 and the theater itself shut down in October 2023. Since then construction costs have skyrocketed, which is one of the main reason developers haven't been interested in the project - there's not enough profit incentive for them. The original plan was to reopen the National Theater in 2029, but that seems impossible now.
As one kabuki actor told the Asahi, the agency's plan for the theater is unrealistic. Generally speaking, no one who performed at the National Theater ever worried about revenue, unlike the private Shochiku Corporation, which runs most of the kabuki theaters throughout Japan. Shochiku sticks with popular performers and plays, but the National Theater's role has mainly been one of preservation. The Budo Kyokai, which promotes traditional dance, has been circulating a petition to reopen the National Theater as soon as possible, warning that traditional Japanese performing arts would "suffer a huge loss" without it. The head of the association says that it is possible these art forms could die out, victims of the demands of redevelopment. The suggestion among traditional theater insiders is that the Culture Agency has been "too ambitious" and that they could have rebuilt the theater on a smaller scale without the added redevelopment features. The agency told Asahi that it is trying to reopen National Theater as soon as possible, which sounds like a veiled admission that it do not intend to change its original plan. Normally, venues operated by public concerns are not expected to make money - they are considered public services.
The hall shortage is mainly a problem in Tokyo, where demand for venues has always been high. Many performing arts and concert halls were constructed quickly in the 1980s during the asset bubble period, when politicians had money to spend on public works projects. In recent years, many of these halls have been closed and torn down due to lack of use, largely the result of regional depopulation. Tokyo is one of the only places that continues to grow, so it would make sense to open more facilities. That aside, venues for pop concerts, which were also in short supply about 10 years ago, are now opening in the Tokyo metropolitan area at a steady pace, especially those that can handle crowds of more than 10,000, such as the Pia Arena in Yokohama.
According to Kobunkyo, a national association that monitors public cultural facilities, of the 2,120 theaters and concert halls in the country, 42 were closed as of April 15, and 30% of these were in the Tokyo metropolitan area. More significantly, seven halls in the Tokyo area with capacities of 2,000 will close this year for renovations. The poster boy for the hall closing problem is probably Nakano Sun Plaza, one of the most famous concert halls of this size, which was attached to the Nakano Ward office building and opened in the early 1970s. It has hosted some of Japan's most legendary concerts. As with the National Theater, when it came time to renovate ward officials turned the project over to a developer that wanted to incorporate the new venue into a high-rise condominium, a plan that sparked a backlash from residents.
A newer plan that has been proposed would incorporate a 7,000-seat arena, a hotel with banquet rooms, a children's playground, and an observatory, but the developer still insists on including residences, because that's the only sure way to make money. Meanwhile, demolition of the old structure has continued without a plan for the future. Last November, the ward assembly decided to solicit other developers for alternate plans, but according to the Asahi, it will be difficult to find a developer interested in the project if residential space isn't prioritized. Residents of the area are adamant that they "don't want another high-rise condominium". As of now, the plan is to start over from zero.
In the end, the arena or hall, depending on what finally transpires with the project, may not be attached to the main building, as Nakano Sun Plaza was, and that could be a problem image-wise. The mayor told the Asahi that Sun Plaza was a "special place" beloved by ward residents and artists alike. Its legacy was discussed in another Asahi article, which noted that the final concert at Nakano Sun Plaza featured the veteran singer-songwriter Tatsuro Yamashita, who rarely plays in public these days. Yamashita considers Sun Plaza "sacred ground”, although he admits that the acoustics were never that great. The mayor says he wants to somehow maintain Sun Plaza's "DNA" in the proposed arena, but insiders contend that would be impossible, because Sun Plaza had an intimacy that was infectious, something that an arena couldn't possibly recreate.
It has been more than two years since Sun Plaza closed and the longer the redevelopment project drags on, the less likely that Sun Plaza's DNA will be passed on to anything.
Sun Plaza's problems are echoed in the story of another Tokyo venue that closed a while ago. Last October, Gendai Business reported on a 5,000-seat hall in Tokyo's Suginami Ward called Fumon-kan, which was closed several years ago over safety concerns. Owned by a religious organization, the hall was ground zero for brass bands in Japan. Since 1972, it had hosted a national brass band competition that attracts thousands of students from all over the country. The place is special in that the stage is the perfect size for brass band performances, and the parking lot is large enough to hold about 45 buses. Fumon-kan also contains multiple rehearsal rooms and a truck delivery bay, and the relative isolation of the building means that neighbors aren't inconvenienced by the noise and general activity.
Since 2011, the competition has had to improvise. Following the Tohoku triple disaster that year, inspections of public facilities in many places in Japan were carried out to gauge their earthquake resilience, and Fumon-kan was discovered to be in danger. Initially, the owners decided to renovate the structure, but as the plan was carried out, other problems surfaced, in particular the acoustic ceiling that music-related halls have to install. Renovation wouldn't be enough; the whole hall would need to be rebuilt. Its owners decided it would be too difficult to build a new venue to the same specifications, due to land title issues, so in 2018 the religious organization decided to close it.
Gendai says it is a common problem throughout Japan: older auditoriums do not meet current quake-proof standards and are being closed without any replacements. In the last 15 years, the brass band competition has moved from one venue to another, but many of the venues that can properly accommodate the competition are also being closed because they are superannuated or otherwise reaching that stage in their existence where they require major renovations. Gendai says that it may be difficult to sustain the competition much longer without a permanent home, thus disappointing some 10 million student brass players who look forward to the event every year.
The 2016 problem will obviously continue for some time. In addition to the above performing arts sectors, classical music will be affected. Japan is a prime destination for world class soloists and orchestras, due to the enthusiasm of classical music fans in Japan and their willingness to pay steep prices for tickets, and for the high quality of the venues. Many will be closed at some time during this decade, and as many insiders have pointed out, promoters depend on advance ticket sales to keep their operations going. Whenever another good hall shuts down, even temporarily, it makes it that much more difficult for promoters to stay in business.
Philip Brasor is a Tokyo-based writer who covers entertainment, the Japanese media, and money issues. He writes the Japan Media Watch column for the Number 1 Shimbun.
Sources
https://gendai.media/articles/-/139585#google_vignette
