Shibuya Hall Reaches Naming Deal

Venue naming deals have become the rage in Japan. Tokyo’s Shibuya Kokaido (Shibuya Public Hall), which has always been one of the main venues for foreign rock acts in the city, recently reopened after a year of reconstruction work with a new name: C.C. Lemon Hall.

The name is that of a popular soft drink made by Suntory, the brewer and distiller.

On January 1st, the Seibu Dome in Saitama prefecture just north of Tokyo, which is the home ground of the Seibu Lions professional baseball team, will change its name to Goodwill Dome.

Goodwill is a provider of human resources and nursing-care services. It has also acquired the rights to name one of the Lions’ farm teams Goodwill.

The company did not announce the amount of money it paid for the right to name the stadium, but according to a source located by Kyodo News Service the acquisition cost around 2.5 billion yen. The right will expire in 2011.

At the moment Seibu Dome is called Invoice Seibu Dome since Invoice Inc., an information and communications services company, bought the naming rights for two years starting in 2005.