A meteoric J-pop duo with a vast global following has joined forces to enhance the world’s largest projection mapping show, bringing midsummer nights in Tokyo to life.
An artwork combining YOASOBI’s energetic vocal and instrumental music with a vibrant array of images and colours made its debut on the TOKYO Night & Light program on 26 July. The nightly show uses the exterior of the 243-metre-tall Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) No. 1 Building as its canvas. Three other projections, created by internationally acclaimed artists, were also added to the lineup over the same weekend.
YOASOBI – featuring female vocalist Ikura, 23, and male singer-songwriter Ayase, 30 – has contributed the newly composed track “Butai ni Tatte (Standing on the Stage),” which captures the emotions of athletes ready for competition. The song has been adopted by Japan’s public broadcasting corporation NHK as a theme tune for its sports programmes, and its first Night & Light presentation was timed to coincide with the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.
For the inaugural screening, a large crowd gathered at the Citizens’ Plaza at the base of the 48-storey building, a landmark in the business and entertainment hub of Shinjuku. They watched animated silhouette images of runners and other athletes race across the building’s façade.
The Night & Light project has successfully fulfilled the TMG’s goal of creating a “new tourism resource to colour Tokyo’s nightlife,” attracting 280,000 visitors in the five months since its launch on 25 February. Projected onto an area measuring 127 metres by 110 metres, the show has been certified by Guinness World Records™ as the “largest architectural projection-mapped display (permanent).”
Currently screened every half an hour between 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., the programme strings together several projections for a 15-minute display. On weekends and holidays, the series features crowd favourites such as the world-famous Japanese movie monster Godzilla and a piece inspired by traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e paintings. “Standing on the Stage,” which is 3.5 minutes long, will be screened every night for the time being.
YOASOBI, whose name translates to “night out,” has become a global household name five years after its debut. Its hit “Idol,” the theme tune for the TV animation “Oshi no Ko,” became the first Japanese song to top Billboard’s Global (excluding U.S.) chart in June last year. It was also recognised as Japan’s best popular song in terms of royalties for the year ending March 2024.