Taylor’s frenzy has landed in Tokyo. But the enthusiasm of some of the Swifties who arrived with her clashed with local sensibilities.
Thousands of visitors from across Asia and beyond have flooded into Japan’s capital as Taylor Swift performs at the Tokyo Dome over four nights this week. The problem, as some domestic fans of the concert see it, is that these foreign fans don’t share the rather reserved Japanese approach to attending a show.
In a post on the X platforma Japanese VIP ticket holder wrote that even paying 130,000 yen—about $870—and sitting in the third row did not guarantee a clear view, given that so many foreign fans had stood up.
“This is very sad,” the post said. “It’s crazy that if you follow the rules, you won’t be able to watch it.”
While the Japanese are praised abroad for their pristine behavior at soccer matches and other sporting events, their strict standards at home can make them hostile to visitors. Other post on Xaccompanied by a short video of audience members raising their mobile phones to capture the scene on stage, they complained that “there were a lot of foreigners who couldn’t respect manners”.
The grumbling is in some ways a microcosm of Japan’s mixed reception to international tourists who have helped rebuild the country’s economy, the world’s third largest, after the pandemic. More than 25 million people visited Japan last year, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization, nearly 80% of the number who visited in 2019.
As visitor numbers rebounded last year, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida worried that “there are concerns that in certain areas and at certain times of the day, overcrowding and poor etiquette may affect the lives of local residents and reduce traveler satisfaction ».
Etiquette was on the mind of Chiharu Nakayoshi, 31, an occupational therapist, when she attended Ms Swift’s concert on Wednesday. She said that her enjoyment of the show had been undermined by the behavior of non-Japanese spectators who left their assigned seats and blocked her viewing in the VIP section.
“I bought the most expensive ticket because I thought it would be a rare opportunity to see Taylor at her best,” Ms Nakayoshi wrote in a direct message to X. “But when the day came, it turned out to be illegal.”
Other Japanese fans pointed out on social media that domestic viewers could also misbehave, citing an open-air summer music festival in Osaka where fans touched a female singer’s breast on stage.
A post called “discrimination against foreigners” who come to Tokyo to see Ms Swift “truly disgusting”.
For many of the international visitors, a large number from China, Southeast Asia or the United States, the concerts were a bonding experience.
Thousands of Chinese Swifties have joined WeChat message groups to exchange tips on ticket scoring, carpool to travel outside Tokyo and offer shopping suggestions, said Yuqing Mai, 23, a university administrator in Canada who stopped in Tokyo to see the first concert on Wednesday. her way of seeing family in China for the Lunar New Year.
Ms Mai said she knew of at least eight WeChat groups with 500 members each dedicated to Swifties traveling to Japan. He said many fans had expressed interest in traveling to other parts of Japan while in the country for the concerts.
“Many fans either arrive early in Japan or stay a few extra days afterwards,” he wrote in an email.
With such viewers booking hotels and side trips to Kyoto or other destinations, Ms. Swift’s four nights of concerts in Tokyo could prove lucrative for the domestic tourism industry.
Mariel Milner, 32, director of strategic communications at an advertising agency in New York, and Lindsay Milner Katz, 31, a sales manager at a media company in New York, said they had not originally planned to visit their sister, Dianne Milner, this year. 34, who works in Tokyo as a lawyer for Hewlett-Packard.
But when Dianne managed to secure slots to buy three VIP tickets to one of the Tokyo dates for about $350 each—at the favorable exchange rate, far cheaper than such seats might cost in the United States— the sisters decided to book flights to Japan.
“We said, ‘What’s a flight? And we can stay with our sister,” Mariel Milner said in a call from a hotel room in Kyoto, where the women had traveled with their husbands for a 24-hour visit before returning to Tokyo for the final concert on Saturday. “That’s how we rationalized it, because it’s once in a lifetime.”
Similarly, Monica Gami, who moved to Tokyo last summer from New Jersey with her family, had two of her husband’s cousins in town to see Ms. Swift. But “I’m not sure I would consider visiting us,” Ms Gami said. “Their trip here was planned before we even got here.”
Ms. Swift’s excitement in Tokyo prompted reports of what the star herself was up to while in Japan.
Kiyoshi Kawasaki, who owns Turret Coffee in Tokyo’s Tsukiji neighborhood, said Ms. Swift had visited his shop on Monday, but he wasn’t sure who she was until he saw photos of Ms. Swift in an Instagram post from the Japanese edition of Vogue.
Mr Kawasaki said he could have sworn Ms Swift had stood in line for coffee with Selena Gomez, a fellow pop star. Brittany Mahomes, whose husband, Patrick Mahomes, is a quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs and a teammate of Ms. Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce. and one more woman.
Ms Gomez’s representatives said she was not in Tokyo. And a spokesman for the Chiefs, who will face the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl this weekend, did not respond to an email asking if Ms. Mahomes was in Japan.
On Friday night, one Swiftie, Jazmine Sydney Tanay, 23, a loyal fan of 16 years who had flown in that morning from the Philippines, got her wish in more ways than one.
Before the concert, as he ate a ball of rice from a food stand inside the dome, he said he hoped Ms. Swift would tell the audience directly about her next album.
As the show opened, Ms. Swift did just that. Working the crowd, he said the fans in Tokyo were the most stylish. Looking at the dome, she told them that she had said the word “kawaii” to herself, which means cute in Japanese.
As Ms. Swift launched into ‘Cruel Summer’ from her 2019 album ‘Lover’, the audience jumped to their feet, shaking the stands. No word yet on whether the activity was recorded on seismometers.
Muktita Suhartono contributed to the report.
