Best music festivals in Tokyo and Japan

Started in 2012, a year after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, No Nukes is a two-day music festival that aims to bring awareness to the anti-proliferation movement. This high-profile (and contentious) event points out that, even eight years after the Fukushima disaster, there are still displaced residents who haven't been able to return home, and, meantime, new nuclear power plants have gone up across Japan in the past two years. This event brings together like-minded artists to express their concern at the growing dependance on nuclear energy despite its obvious dangers...

Started as a warehouse party in LA in 1997, EDC (Electric Daisy Carnival) has grown into an international music festival that hits four different continents and nearly a million fans every year.  The carnival-themed event is way beyond your typical electronic music fest (crazy as those can be too), blending together art installations, light shows, fireworks, wacky over-the-top costumes, cutting-edge stage production and of course world-class electronic music, for a 'multi-sensory experience'...

The concept behind the Greenroom Festival down at Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse is 'Save the Beach, Save the Ocean'. The outdoor party celebrates beach and surf culture, but with an emphasis on protecting the ever-shrinking number of usable domestic beaches in Japan. Performances span the gamut from live music to art gallery exhibitions to video screenings and more...

This annual open-air festival in Chiba’s Shirahama Flower Park takes place right next to the beach and combines art with house and techno beats in a resort-like ambience. The live act this year is the salsa band Banderas, and rocking the DJ booths are CMT, DJ Hikaru, Keihin and many others...

The biggest and most beautiful of Japan’s summer music festivals, Fuji Rock once again returns to Niigata prefecture’s Naeba, welcoming a beefy lineup of both international superstars and local heroes. 2019 welcomes big names including the likes of The Chemical Brothers, Sia, James Blake, Daniel Caesar, and much more. More acts are set to be released as we inch closer towards summer, so keep your eyes peeled...

What this archetypal city-based music festival lacks in setting, it makes up in convenience. While other festivals boast views of rolling hills or stunning lakes, Summer Sonic has easy access from the city and an abundance of clean toilets, and – along with a cracking line-up – sometimes that’s all you need. This year is a big one since it's Summer Sonic's 20th anniversary. So if you've been watching it come around each year but never quite managed to make it out, this is the year to make it happen...

The Miami-born EDM spectacle Ultra made its first appearance in Tokyo in 2014, and every year since has been a smashing success. Revellers dressed in neon and frills will be descending on Odaiba to enjoy the laptop-busting antics of superstar DJs including some of the hottest techno acts from around the world, plus live performances...