Asia News: Fuji Rock, Love Supreme, JYP Entertainment & More

The announcement was expected but still disappointing to many regular fans of the festival, which is considered the premier annual showcase for overseas music acts. 

The official announcement made by Smash Corporation stated that this year’s festival is a “special” version being held “under special circumstances,” which means that in addition to featuring only Japanese acts the number of ticketholders will be smaller compared to previous years. 

The reason that no foreign acts are being presented is that it still does not seem likely that the Japanese government will lift restrictions for foreign visitors by August due to the ongoing COVID pandemic. Likewise, smaller audience capacity is being observed in order to reduce congestion at the outdoor festival, which is held every year in the mountains of Niigata Prefecture in northeastern Japan. The announcement also mentioned that further restrictions may be implemented.

However, the general tone of the message is that the festival will go ahead regardless of how the pandemic develops over the coming months. Formally, last year’s edition of the festival was not cancelled due to the pandemic, but rather “postponed,” meaning people who had bought tickets for Fuji Rock 2020 would be able to use them to gain entrance this year. 

However, when people bought tickets to last year’s edition, there were quite a few foreign acts already announced, including The Strokes, Tame Impala, Jackson Browne and Major Lazer. The announcement states that present ticketholders who “can no longer attend the festival” can apply for refunds. New tickets will go on sale in April, but prices have not yet been announced. 

Last year’s tickets were mentioned in a separate message from Smash President Masahiro Hidaka, who admitted they were “outrageously priced,” and thanked longtime fans of the festival for holding on to them for a year. There was no mention, however, if people who still plan to use their tickets this year will receive a refund if the new tickets are cheaper than the ones they paid for. That would likely be the case since there are no foreign artists this year.

Though the first edition of Fuji Rock in 1997 was truncated due to a typhoon, 2020 was the first year the festival has been called off completely. Normally, it would take place in July, but last year and this year it was scheduled for August so as not to coincide with the Tokyo Olympics, which is undergoing its own set of difficulties because of the pandemic.

Another all-Japanese artist festival, the Love Supreme Jazz Festival, has been announced. Though based in Europe since its inception in 2013, Love Supreme has decided to expand to Japan despite the pandemic. 

Partnering with Universal Music Japan, the inaugural edition will take place May 15 and 16 at the Chichibu Muse Park in a suburb of Tokyo and will feature, among others, Takuya Kuroda, Soil & “Pimp” Sessions, Wonk, Answers to Remember, Oval and veteran soft rock duo Dreams Come True. 

The organizers have said that while this year’s roster will be restricted to homegrown acts, next year’s edition will contain a “broader international lineup.”

In a statement, Love Supreme founder Ciro Romano said, “There’s an incredible jazz scene in Japan and it’s long been a plan of ours to launch a sister festival in Tokyo. The majority of the artists we book for the UK festival have huge fanbases across Japan and so it made perfect sense to look at replicating the Love Supreme ethos over there.”

Several weeks ago the organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics announced that foreign spectators will not be allowed to enter Japan to attend the Games. Only specially authorized guests of sponsors will be permitted to attend from overseas. Even non-athletic personnel attached to national teams will be greatly restricted in number.

Consequently, the question has come up as to whether people overseas who still hold valid tickets for the Games can expect full refunds. 

Media outlets are reporting that many will not be able to get full refunds and may have to wait a long time even for that. In a letter to AP, one authorized ticket reseller for the U.S. and other territories, CoSport, said that it would not refund the 20 percent handling fee it required for ticket purchases, but it would return the face value of the ticket and the sending fees. 

In fact, the Tokyo organizing committee has said it would guarantee refunds for overseas tickets, but only for the face value. However, CoSport said that it would not receive these refunds from the organizing committee until later this year and until then will not be able to pay out the refunds. In addition, those who want refunds must apply for them by April 9. CoSport said the abrupt application period was necessary because it is required to apply for each refund from Tokyo. And by applying for the refund, ticketholders effectively release CoSport from any liability. 

The AP article says that authorized resellers in other parts of the world may have different methods for handling refunds. In all, about 600,000 tickets for the Olympics were sold to persons outside of Japan. The loss of revenue from overseas sales is a huge blow to the organizing committee. 

Further thawing of chilly relations between Chinese and South Korean entertainment entities was indicated last week when China’s Tencent Music Entertainment entered into a partnership with South Korea’s JYP Entertainment. 

According to the Global Times, the agreement gives Tencent distribution rights to JYP’s song catalogue, which includes work by K-pop groups such as Twice and 2PM. 

Though the agreement shows progress in cooperation between the two countries after several years of China effectively locking out South Korean entertainers due to Seoul’s acceptance of a U.S. missile system that China felt was aimed at China, Chinese music insiders say that for any cooperation to be meaningful it would have to go beyond distribution rights. 

Tencent owns several music streaming platforms, and the agreement is expected to lead to joint marketing strategies, live-streaming events and other promotional activities. In a statement to the Global Times, one music industry analyst said, “I look forward to the cooperation between China and South Korea at the industrial level. After all, K-pop culture has a deeper foundation, and there are many experience lessons that can be learned at both the industry level and how to market to the outside world.”

At the moment the agreement seems to focus on advertising and copyrights, but it’s assumed the partnership will soon expand to artist creation. Tencent already has a partnership with another South Korean entertainment company, YG, which handles the biggest K-pop girl group in the world, Blackpink.