Sub Concert guide: Feedback/Supplements based on my experience across 7 trips over 7 years

I have been visiting Japan since late 2016 and recently came back from my 7th trip in March. All 7 of these trips were 90% for small groups that almost never play to a crowd above 500, but I have also attended a handful of larger arena type shows as well (Babymetal at Tokyo Dome, Babymetal at Zepp DiverCity, BiSH at makuhari messe). Came across this subreddit and the concert ticket guidie through a friend, and after reading through it there are some gaps in it that are not covered in detail, or could use some supplementation.

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>I want to buy tickets to [xyz] concert in Japan! How can I do this?
Large scale concerts in Japan, require tickets to be purchased in advance via several pre-sale timeslots…… **These lotteries require advance reservations and almost always are limited to individuals already residing in Japan, as payment must be made within several days of the lottery results being posted. Lotteries can be held through ticket providers (ie: E+, Ticket Pia) or through the artists’ fan club or website.**

Yes, but also no. The main reason foreigners have trouble entering lotteries is due to measures that E+ and ticketpia put in place around 2018 requiring a japanese phone number to enter a verification code not only to make the account, but also to apply for any lottery or ticket sale to begin with.

>If no overseas purchasing option is available for the show you wish to see, you have two options……waiting until you arrive in Japan to purchase tickets at a convenience store.

Why no guide? when I tried searching for any guide back from 2017 and also in 2018 to using the famiports I found nothing. Is it alright if i link the google slides (powerpoint) guide that I made? As it was made in 2019 it is slightly out of date, but still around 95% accurate.

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>For small shows (ie: not arena concerts, local bands), you can generally buy tickets at the door.

Mostly true, but this also does not include that reserving/paying in advance often saves you the drink fee mentioned later as reserving is usually 500-600 yen less than the door/same day price. I even saw one that was 1000 yen cheaper on my recent trip. At least for groups that I follow, it seems most of them are now using a service like tiget.net or livepocket.jp. This is compared to in the past, you could usually just reply to the groups tweet about the show telling them that you wish to reserve. Depending on the group, both tiget and livepocket sometimes take payment up front via normal credit card, but other times will just put your name on the list and email you a ticket/ticket number. If they do not ask for payment up front, than you usually show them the ticket/ticket number and pay the advance ticket price when going in.

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>Most non-arena shows in Japan have a mandatory drink charge of ￥500, which is paid at the door.

A bit rare to see 500 yen nowadays. In 2019 most upped it to 600 due to a tax raise or similar on alcohol. Also, many free events will often charge a double drink fee. Some arenas will still charge drink fee. For example, the BiSH makuhari messe show i went to charged a drink fee. (they were in the 8k oval arena, not the exhibition halls that combine to make 20k or more)

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>Where can I find show listings or venues for [xyz] style of music in Japan?
The easiest way to learn about concerts and live music in Japan is, naturally, by Googling and looking at event calendars for a particular city or region.

If you just want a random show to go to, googling may be fine.
But I would still sub in the abovementioned tiget.net. Or if there is a group someone has the slightest interest in I’m going to hard disagree and substitute twitter. Twitter is almost always the best way to get the most up to date information on shows. One of my best experiences was a live that was announced 24 hours before it happened. I also had quite a few instances on my recent trip with quite a few lives announced only 3 to 5 days in advance. If I wasn’t following those groups on twitter, I would have absolutely missed those shows.

>This will allow you to become familiar with the names of popular music venues….For example, if you see on Japan Times several concerts being held at Shibuya O-Nest similar to music you enjoy, you can go to Shibuya O-Nest’s website and peruse their full calendar to see if anything interests you.

agree but disagree. there are some venues that will book acts from very different backgrounds. The O-group venues are pretty much catch alls and they book groups from all backgrounds. Even amongst the smaller venues, there are quite a few that bounce back and forth between idols and bands at random.

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>Some useful resources for finding live music listings in Japan:

I recommend adding the above mentioned tiget.net as it is much more user friendly than tokyo gig guide, as it allows you to search by genre, as well as view everything hosted through their platform in date order, so you can more easily narrow down whats going on for a particular day.

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>What time should I show up for a concert?
Start times for shows are prompt and exact in Japan. A 7pm start time means the show will start at 7pm sharp. Shows are almost always finished before last trains, generally somewhere between 10-11:30pm.

This feels like it doesnt explain much at all. The only part I completely agree with is that Show start times means thats when the show starts. If you are attending a small show, lets say 200 cap or less, there is MOSTLY not a need to show up early at all. You can show up at doors open time and be just fine, unless you really like the first group on the listing, than you maybe want to show up 5 to 10 minutes early. On my recent trip, I did run into a few of these 200 or less cap shows where they were doing entry by ticket number, but thats dependent on the group for those types of shows. And in that case, if you have a low number than you will also want to be there maybe 10 minutes before doors open. Showing up later wont realistically affect you, except you maybe wont get the barrier spot you were hoping for. Also, at these small 200 cap or less shows (sometimes up to 500 cap), there are usually multiple groups all playing together, and if you only like 2 of them, you will probably end up at the barrier anyway (if thats where you want to be) as most people observe the unspoken etiquette of moving to the back of the venue if they dont particularly care for that group and giving the rail to those who are there for that group. Also, with these taibans, if the group you like is anything but the first group on, you can actually just show up right before their set time without issue or worrying about ticket numbers, though you maybe trade off discovering a new group.

>Shows for large idol group or arena shows often require arriving at the venue several hours before doors open.

Again, mostly disagree here. In my experience, the only real need to be there hours before is if you want to try to make a new friend or get merch, which is almost always sold before the show outside of the venue. Otherwise, there is usually a long enough gap between doors open and show start for them to get everybody in.

They will also use the “entry by ticket number” system, so unless you are one of the Very low numbers, and it is not an all seated event (Zepp venues for example), that is the only reason aside from getting merch or trying to make a new friend that i can think of to actually show up ridiculously early. On that seated thing, I think there is some weird law in Japan that events over a certain capacity have to be all seated or mostly seated. For example, even though you see people standing in Babymetal tokyo dome (50k ish cap) live footage, everybody was standing in front of their assigned seat. Same with BiSH at makuhari messe (2017, 8k ish cap).