Asia News: No ‘Eras’ Movie In Malaysia; Coldplay Releases More Tix

JAPAN

Yokohama Theme Park To Be Developed On Former U.S. Military Base

A new theme park is being developed on a former U.S. military base in the city of Yokohama, Japan.

The city’s government has chosen Mitsubishi Estate to develop the project, according to Theme Park Insider, with hopes of having it open by 2031.

The theme park, which is called Kamiseya Park, will cover 127 acres and is expected to attract 15 million visitors a year, which would make it one of the 10 most visited theme parks in the world.

In line with the construction of the park, the development plan includes a new subway station, a separate municipal park and a “Green x Expo 2027” venue to exhibit vanguard environmental innovations. Yokohama is set to be the site for the International Horticultural Expo in 2027.

Mitsubishi Estate, one of Japan’s biggest developers, will likely require assistance in order to compete with the likes of Disney and Universal, whose theme parks in Tokyo and Osaka, respectively, are among the most popular in the world.

Awards Show Under Consideration

Japan’s Cultural Affairs Agency is thinking about starting a music awards show to honor Asian artists, the Yomiuri Shimbun reports.

In an interview with the newspaper, the agency’s commissioner, Shunichi Tokura, said it would be fashioned after the Grammy Awards and would be headquartered in the city of Kyoto, where the agency recently relocated its headquarters.

The purpose is to help Japanese music artists gain traction in the global market.
The awards would be part of the agency’s push to develop music and video that could be exported abroad.

Presently, Korean pop has been the most successful national music genre from Asia to become known worldwide.

“Japan has a relatively large domestic market,” said Tokura, who is also a famous composer. “So [success in] the domestic market has been considered sufficient. South Korea has more energy to go overseas.

“In order to promote J-pop overseas, we would like to hold a music awards ceremony in Kyoto that will attract worldwide attention.”

K-pop agencies have already capitalized on this idea by holding awards ceremonies for K-pop music in other countries in Asia, effectively spreading the genre’s popularity.
The MAMA Awards, for instance, which are broadcast by a prominent South Korean TV channel, will take place in Tokyo this year.

Treasure Mapping Drama

Ten-piece K-pop boy band Treasure used a video with a map of eastern Asia to illustrate the cities the tour would visit in early 2024 during an Oct. 1 fan meeting at Ariake Arena in Tokyo to promote their upcoming Japan tour.

The map, which appeared on a screen onstage, outlined South Korea, Japan and China, along with the various islands that are considered territories of each country.

Korean fans noticed something was amiss, however: there was no representation of Dokdo, a group of tiny islands that is located between South Korea and Japan.
A controversy immediately erupted online, according to the Korea Times.

Both Japan and South Korea claim Dokdo, which is called Takeshima by the Japanese, as their own.

The dispute over these claims has been a serious obstacle to diplomatic relations between the two countries, dating back to the 12th century. South Korea has security personnel, two lighthouses and other infrastructure on the islets, which are known in English as the Liancourt Rocks.

The islets may have been omitted from the map so as to not invite problems with the Japan tour, which promises to be very lucrative for Treasure’s management company, YG Entertainment.

In fact, the group’s fans blame YG for the exclusion and some have mentioned similar problems in the past with a different K-pop management company.

In 2020, a map that appeared on the website of the K-pop group SuperM labeled the body of water between Korea and Japan as the Sea of Japan rather than the East Sea, which is what it is called in Korea.

SuperM’s agency, SM Entertainment, “did not issue a statement in response to the [resulting] controversy,” reported K-pop fansite Pinkville.

Eventually, however, the company took the map down.

MALAYSIA

No ‘Eras’ On Movie Screens

Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” concert film, which is slated to open Oct. 13 in more than 100 countries worldwide, will not be screened in Malaysia, according to Marketing Interactive.

Sources from two national movie theater chains told the website that local distributors have not picked up the movie, which means that Taylor Swift fans in Malaysia will have to travel to Singapore or Indonesia to see the film.

Swift has already disappointed her Malaysian fans by not performing in the country during her upcoming Asian tour, opting instead to stage six concerts in Singapore for her Southeast Asia followers.

SINGAPORE

More Coldplay Tix Released

Additional tickets were made available on Oct. 3 at 10 a.m. for all six Coldplay shows at the National Stadium in Singapore in January.

According to Live Nation Singapore, all the tickets were sold out by 11:20 a.m. Apparently, a block of tickets had been set aside when tickets first went on sale in June.

Those seats sold out very quickly, so this late gambit gave some disappointed fans a second chance.

Coldplay is the first act to ever present, much less sell out, six concerts at the National Stadium, a feat that Taylor Swift matched shortly afterward.

The group still holds the record for most tickets sold in a single day in Singapore with 200,000.