How Tokyo Gendai Marks a New Chapter for the Japanese Art Scene

Earlier this month, Tokyo Gendai concluded its first edition, marking a “new chapter for the Japanese art scene,” according to its co-founder Magnus Renfrew. The event, which hosted 73 galleries at the Pacifico Center in the port city of Yokohama, arrived at a pivotal moment for the Japanese art world.

Japan has long been a puzzling proposition in the global art market. It boasts the world’s third-largest economy and, according to the influential Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brand Index, its second-best global reputation. From cuisine to Kaiju, it yields considerable cultural influence. “Visiting Japan is on everyone’s bucket list, and for those who have already been, they’re looking for an excuse to come back,” said Renfrew at the fair’s press conference.

Yet Japan’s art market lags behind its broader cultural heft. The country represents just a 1% share of global art market value, according to UBS and Art Basel’s most recent report, and it has yet to attract significant international interest from collectors. In 2022, some 81% of Japanese dealers’ sales by value were to local buyers, compared to just 40% for U.K. dealers and 50% for Hong Kong dealers, the report noted.

The “new chapter” that Tokyo Gendai marks, then, is perhaps one in a larger story of globalization. With 44 international exhibitors, the fair is arguably Japan’s largest international art fair since Nippon International Contemporary Art Fair, which took place from 1992 to 1995.

“It’s absolutely crucial to have a fair in Tokyo that is operating at an international level,” said Erika Dreskler, assistant director at Gallery COMMON, which is based in the buzzing Harajuku district of Tokyo. “Japanese collectors—and artists, for that matter—need the exposure and education, while for overseas galleries it provides an essential opportunity to create connections without going so far as to commit to a physical space.”

The international opportunity that is presented by Tokyo Gendai comes at a time when, domestically, the Japanese art world is blossoming. Art-minded visitors to Tokyo will find a thriving art scene, with a vibrant selection of galleries, institutions, and artists to feast on.

In the city’s financial district of Shibuya, for example, cutting-edge tastemakers such as Nanzuka can be found alongside the likes of Blum & Poe and SEIZAN, while the fashionable district of Roppongi is a hotbed of commercial art galleries with exciting contemporary programs. In the development project of Roppongi Hills, the art space complex665 is home to Tomio Koyama Gallery, ShugoArts, and Taka Ishii Gallery, while around the corner in the Piramide Mall, Perrotin, Ota Fine Arts, Wako Works of Art, SCAI Piramide, and Yutaka Kikutake Gallery all ply their trade within walking distance of each other.

On the night before Tokyo Gendai’s VIP opening, Roppongi was abuzz for Yukata Night, during which galleries extended their opening hours to welcome a crowd that included trendy young collectors and established Japanese art world figures.

At Perrotin, visitors cooled down from the summer humidity with kakigori (a shaved ice dessert) and champagne at the blue-chip gallery’s solo presentation of Spanish artist Cristina BanBan, one of the hottest ultra-contemporary names of the moment. At Ota Fine Arts—a leader in the field of Japanese art since its founding in 1994—a solo presentation of in-demand Hong Kong artist Chris Huen Sin Kan was eagerly attended, while Tomio Koyama Gallery’s solo presentation of Kishio Suga showcased one of Japan’s leading contemporary artists.

At Yutaka Kikutake Gallery’s opening of a joint show featuring Lee Maxey and Yang Bo—artists based in Brooklyn and Tokyo, respectively—visitors took in a compelling selection of works united by the theme of boundaries and distance. When asked about how the Japanese art scene had changed over recent years, Kikutake, who founded his gallery in 2015, took a sober view. “The Japanese art scene has a long and rich history, but it has continued to be in a situation where it does not connect well with contemporary art,” he told Artsy. “There is still a lack of cooperation among various institutions related to art, such as galleries, museums, and educational institutions. But as the number of artists and galleries has increased, the connection with history is gradually becoming visible.”

While there is a “lot of work to be done,” Kikutake added, things are moving in “the right direction.” Collectors are a key part of this shift. Sales by Japanese dealers increased by 28% between 2019 and 2022, a rise propelled by a new generation of younger collectors, accompanied by younger gallerists and artists.

Established collectors are playing their part, too. Figures such as the construction magnate Takeo Obayashi, for example, were a pervasive presence throughout the fair week. Obayashi invited VIP guests to his private guesthouse, which was packed full of works by established international names such as Antony Gormley, as well as lesser-known Japanese artists such as Tokujin Yoshioka.

Obayashi is one of several heavyweights in the Japanese art world who emphasize the importance of fostering growth. Many of these figures are actively using their personal foundations to promote interest in Japanese artists and facilitate international exchanges by staging exhibitions, educational activities, and public programs. The importance of these efforts was emphasized by the “Ne” (“Root”) section of Tokyo Gendai, which presented several leading foundations, including Obayashi’s, as well as the Fukutake Foundation, the Odawara Art Foundation, the Yoshii Foundation, and the Taguchi Art Collection.

For Miwa Taguchi, co-founder of the Taguchi Art Collection and executive director of the Taguchi Art Foundation, momentum is evident in the Japanese art world. “Public interest in contemporary art is vastly different from what it was five or six years ago,” she told Artsy. “The number of new collectors, mainly young entrepreneurs, has increased rapidly. Various media have begun to cover art more, companies have started businesses that incorporate art, and art-related events are being held more often. New galleries and art spaces are popping up, and a new generation of artists is emerging alongside these new spaces. There are so many that I myself can’t keep up with all the new spaces and galleries.”

Undergirding this burgeoning collector ecosystem are Tokyo’s world-class institutions, of which there are many. The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, the Mori Art Museum, and the Photographic Art Museum represent just a handful of examples. During the VIP week of the fair, visitors to the Mori Museum could experience an intriguing, wide-spanning exhibition, “world classroom,” that explored contemporary art through the theme of school subjects; while at the National Arts Center, an expansive retrospective of Chinese pyrotechnical pioneer Cai Guo-Qiang was a sight to behold. Like the commercial art sector, Japanese institutions have lately begun to broaden their approach, explained Yuri Yamada, a curator at the Photographic Art Museum.

“In recent years, many of the directors of biennials and triennials in Japan have been curators from abroad,” Yamada told Artsy. “I expect they provide a breath of fresh air, and I believe that we need to improve the situation within the Japanese art scene, by opening more international conversations and discussing various perspectives.”

The VIP program offered by Tokyo Gendai—arranged in collaboration with a number of local partners—focused on providing visitors with insights into the richness and depth of Japanese art. Excursions throughout the week included a visit to the stunning, Hiroshi Sugimoto–designed Enoura Observatory; a premiere of famed pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama’s installation performance at the Terrada Art Complex; and a visit to the Sankei-en Garden to view traditional nohikebana flower arrangement.

For all of the country’s cultural gifts, visitors don’t need further encouragement to visit Japan, but Tokyo Gendai frames the city as a place that is open to the international art market. It secured a coup when galleries at the fair were granted “bonded” status, allowing them to pay Japan’s 10% goods and services tax on imported works of art at the point of sale, not in advance, as was previously the case. It’s a move that shows that the Japanese government, too, is taking the expansion of the Japanese art market seriously.

“Fine art in Japan is surrounded by a wide variety of topics, including Japanese historical background, anime, film, and commercial creation,” said Rintaro Yamamoto of CALM&PUNK, which has a space in Minato-ku as well as Gasbon Metabolism, an alternative space in Yamanashi Prefecture. For Yamamoto, Tokyo’s unique art scene is in an ideal position to communicate the significance of art to a larger number of people who are “interested in Japan and the Japanese people.”