Tokyo

It’s hard to pin down ‘culture’ in Tokyo. In this 24-hour city, culture encompasses high-tech digital art and historical shrines, sumo shows and sakura festivals, cutting-edge fashion and architectural marvels, traditional performing arts from Kabuki to Noh – and so, so much more. The city’s implausibly endless variety of cultural offerings was reflected in survey responses, too: asked what Tokyo’s best cultural venue is, locals named everything from mini theatres to the Mori Art Museum and Blue Note jazz club, but no two answers were the same. 

‘Tokyo always prides itself on being the city where old meets new, and that’s particularly evident in its culture scene,’ says Lim Chee Wah, editor of Time Out Tokyo. ‘While historical shrines host traditional festivals, you also have cutting-edge exhibitions on niche topics like parasites and love dolls alongside big names from today’s contemporary art scene. Recently, avant garde artist collective Chim-Pom from Smappa!Group, known for their experimental performance art laced with social commentary, put on a memorable project-based exhibition in Shinjuku. Meanwhile, teamLab Borderless – arguably the most popular museum in Tokyo – is making a highly anticipated comeback in a new location in central Tokyo come January 2024, promising to unveil a number of never-before-seen immersive installations.’