Asia News: Japanese Associations Ask To Lift Restrictions, JJ Lin & More

Four Japanese music industry associations – the Japan Association of Music Enterprises, the Federation of Music Producers Japan, the All Japan Concert and Live Entertainment Promoters Conference and the Music Publishers Association of Japan – have formally asked the government to rescind its request that events be held without audiences as a state of emergency in effect in four prefectures was extended until the end of May.

In the statement that accompanied the May 5 request, the four associations pointed out that ever since the first state of emergency was lifted in May 2020 shortly after the pandemic spread throughout Japan no virus clusters have been reported “as a result of concerts, theatrical performances or other such events among the organizations’ member firms,” according to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.

The statement goes on to assert that these member associations had successfully implemented countermeasures with “the cooperation of customers” and have reported no evidence of infections as a result. Consequently, the groups maintain that live performances and concert venues are “in no way high-risk places for infection.”

In addition, the statement says that the size of the market represented by these associations had declined by 80 percent in 2020 over the previous year, and thus the industry faces a crisis. 

In related news, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reports that in light of a new surge in infections throughout Japan owing to the spread of coronavirus variants and the extremely slow rollout of vaccinations, the Cultural Affairs Agency launched a new subsidy program in late April for various entertainment industries. It is the first large-scale support program since last July. The new program is called “Arts for the future,” and provides about 25 billion yen ($229 million) in subsidies for movie theaters, museums and live music venues. 

It is meant to promote “proactive efforts” such as hiring young people and streaming performances online. It will also pay for any costs incurred for performances that were cancelled since Jan. 8 due to the pandemic. The money will be available until the end of December. 

Previous subsidy programs were not fully successful owing to the complexity of the application procedure, thus causing the period for accepting applications to be extended at least once. Even then, about 12,000 of the 79,700 applications submitted were rejected due to incomplete submission of documents and other procedural problems. 

The new subsidy program has already met skepticism since the support is intended for “organizations and people with concrete plans for activities.” Many in the entertainment industry have basically been forced to shut down. The subsidy would go far in helping them at least wait out the pandemic, but since they are not carrying out activities at the moment due to requests from the government, they cannot receive the subsidies. 

The chairman of a group of classical music presenters told the newspaper, “We appreciate such subsidies, but performers struggling amid the coronavirus crisis can’t afford to continue their activities, and organizations and businesses have lost their strength and can’t even apply [for the subsidies].” Consequently, many in the industry are asking the agency to rethink the terms of the subsidies. For one thing, freelancers in the business are effectively shut out of the program since they rely on larger organizations to hire them. Otherwise they have no “activities” to pursue. 

On May 4, Singapore enacted a measure to reduce audience sizes in light of a resurgence of COVID-19 infections in the city-state. 

The Multi-Ministry Task Force, according to Bandwagon, announced that performances at designated venues would be allowed to host a maximum of 250 persons who had undergone pre-testing. Previously the audience cap was 750 persons. Pre-event testing would not be required for events with less than 100 attendees. The measures will be in effect at least until the end of the month.

In addition, social gatherings will be reduced from eight persons to five, and households have been urged to have no more than two social gatherings a day. 

These measures were implemented after the government discovered 60 new infections during the previous week, some of them variants from the UK, India or South Africa. Previously, Singapore has reduced the number of new infections to single digits, so even though 60 is a relatively small number, it was a large increase in a short time.

In other Singapore news, tickets have gone on sale for a virtual concert by local superstar JJ Lin and they range in price from S$38 ($28) to S$188 ($141), thus making the show one of the most expensive ever for a local artist, virtual or otherwise. 

The show takes place June 6, and the highest priced tickets will come with a choice of memorabilia, including wristbands, posters, photos and an eco tote bag. Lin is also taking requests for the concert online, which continues his Sanctuary World Tour that started back in March 2018. 

By the time the tour was cut short by the pandemic, it had covered 66 concerts in 43 cities. The last time Lin performed in Singapore was December 2019.

The virtual show will be a “4-D experience,” according to the Straits Times, using a customized stage and high-tech visual effects. In April, Lin was signed by United Talent Agency in the U.S. to represent him in America and Europe.