Seeing Live Music in Japan

Live music, mostly for noise and space reasons, tends to be both hidden away and reserved for events rather than just another feature at your local watering hole. Regardless, there’s a lot to be found if you look in the right places.

02

Festivals

This is the low-hanging fruit of live music, as two of Asia’s best music festivals are held once in a year in Japan, and are worth making a trip for if you’re really into music. Fuji Rock, held every July, isn’t actually at Mt. Fuji but is nestled in the mountains of the Naeba ski resort in Niigata during the summer. We recommend making a several day trip out of this one, and camping there in a tent for the full experience.

Summer Sonic comes soon after Fuji Rock, has festivals in both Tokyo and Osaka, and brings in equally big international and domestic artists, though it is mostly indoors and missing the starry skies and (often) muddy fields that make Fuji Rock unique.

Besides these two festivals, there are actually many other smaller music festivals that happen year-round, though primarily in the warmer months. In most cases you don’t need to worry about tickets selling out, so you can purchase at the door at the regular price if you happen to just discover a festival is happening while you’re here. What’s great about Japanese music festivals is that everything is generally quite organized and clean, and the people there are really polite and into what’s happening. You won’t see much in the way of drunken brawls or gate-crashing, just an overall positive attitude and great music.

【Unlike a lot of places, Japanese shows tend to start rather early and finish early as well…】

04

Large Venues

There are plenty of venues in major cities playing host to domestic and international artists, and they can fit a fair number people inside as well. Unlike a lot of places, Japanese shows tend to start rather early (around 6 or 7pm) and finish early as well as they shuffle you out the door to close up. Places like Studio Coast in Tokyo or Zepp attract big acts from all genre, and are organized to perfection at the doors.

If you’re looking for jazz, Blue Note Tokyo is a renowned live space more in-line with an adult night out on the town.

05

Big Japanese Groups

If you want to see J-pop groups like AKB48 or Visual-kei shows you’ll need to do a bit of planning ahead of time, as the publicity and ticket-buying process isn’t very easy for non-Japanese to handle. Many of these tickets need to be purchased online or through convenience stores, so you’ll need to do some homework. If all else fails, there are ticket reselling shops around most large train stations that might have just what you need (at a mark-up of course).

06

Local bands

This is always the hardest part of seeing live music, as bars very rarely feature a band as a standard part of the evening. In fact, in most cases the bands themselves need to rent out the venue, sell tickets, and bring in their own crowd. This means that most of the time you’re unlikely to walk into a space and find a band playing. Additionally, many spaces are located underground for noise reasons, so you’ll need to keep your eyes open while walking around or do some research online.

However, there are still plenty of places where you can find shows, albeit in a more venue-like space than at a bar. Koenji and Shimokitazawa are great neighborhoods to find local bands playing at night, even out on the street depending on the mood of the local authorities.

Unfortunately for independent artists busking isn’t allowed in Japan, so it’s not possible to perform on a street corner for loose change, but you’ll still find a fair amount of bands playing on the street just for fun, or to sell their CDs.

Echigo-Yuzawa