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Japan Night steps up music export plans with international concert announcement
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 23 October 2014
A collaboration between the Federation Of Music Producers Japan and ad agency Dentsu, music export venture Japan Night today announced plans for a series of worldwide concerts to promote the country’s artists internationally in the run-up to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Japan Night launched earlier this year with an event at the Kokuritsu Kyogijo Stadium, with artists such as pop trio Perfume and rock band L’Arc-En-Ciel playing to 120,000 people, including invited international guests, over two days.
And today it was announced that the event will now also take place in Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Singapore in 2015, followed by the US and Europe in 2016. Other events will then be held before it returns to the redeveloped Kokuritsu Kyogijo in 2020, ahead of the Tokyo Games.
Aiji Oda of one of the project’s partners, Sync Music Japan, explained at a press conference: “The aim of Japan Night is to spread the love and appreciation of Japanese music all around the world, and create new fans in the process”.
Today Japan Night hosted the final night showcase of this year’s Tokyo International Music Market conference, with three bands from different rock genres performing – Vamps, [Alexandros] and Sakanaction.
Of the three bands, Vamps have performed internationally the most, but still feel that there are barriers to going abroad as a Japanese act. Frontman Hyde said at today’s announcement: “We want to do as much as we can as a band, but currently our international options are limited. A project like this is a tremendous opportunity, so we are very happy to participate … tonight’s show will be short, but we want to communicate everything good about what we do in that time”.
Look out for a full interview with Vamps next week, plus a look at the current state of the digital music market in Japan in the next edition of the CMU Digest Report (subscribe now!).
