The New Normal interview series: New opportunities for nightlife?

‘The Japanese nightlife sector, which was only designated an important component of tourism policy after the 2016 revision of the adult entertainment business law, has been devastated by Covid-19. This crisis threatens all the progress made since then.

‘Many big urban development plans that were drawn up in the run-up to the Olympics included considerations for nightclubs, and the expectation was that night-time tourism would increase hotel stays and spending on food and drink in general, triggering growth in overall tourist spending and even helping to revitalise economies outside the big cities.

‘Now though, the situation has changed completely. Every day on the news, we hear how gig spots, nightclubs and other nightlife venues are exactly the kinds of confined spaces where the coronavirus spreads most effectively, and tourism – the movement of people in general, even – has been heavily regulated to stop the spread. The night-time economy and tourism-related businesses, which were riding a wave of excitement, are now considered high-risk sectors in the battle against coronavirus. This devastating blow threatens the survival of the entire industry.

‘The future growth everyone was taking for granted was snuffed out in an instant, along with many other premises. But night-time culture itself hasn’t been lost; in fact, I feel like the value and attractiveness of this culture have even increased as a result of the crisis.

‘For example, in the music scene, clubs and other gig spots used to be at the heart of the night-time action. Covid-19 is now threatening the survival of these venues, but music itself hasn’t stopped – it’s just looking for a new place to exist in. Music is being performed all around us, even more actively than before.

‘Live entertainment has been on hold since late February, but the shift to online has helped bring about new forms and spaces of expression. We’ve seen explosive growth in streaming, with gigs and DJ sets played at empty venues being broadcast online. Being stuck at home and unable to interact with other people face to face, many of us found solace in listening to music.’

‘Providing live content online breaks down barriers of time and distance. Music fans who had given up on going to gigs because they live far away or are busy with work or family commitments are surely happy about the improved accessibility brought about by streaming.

‘Of course, things like a specific place and time are part of what make a live experience special, but on the other hand, increased opportunities for musicians to promote their music can help broaden their fan bases.

‘The online environment opens up new opportunities of expression for artists. I recently spoke to the young members of a band that mostly played live before the current crisis. They told me that even since before Covid-19, they had begun doubting the standard formula of starting out with small-scale gigs and slowly growing your fanbase in order to eventually get to play at bigger venues.

‘When their gigs were put on hold, they focused on songwriting and shifted towards reaching their overseas fans over the internet. As a result, they haven’t been affected by the crisis at all. On the contrary, their receptiveness to online platforms has opened up greater opportunities for them in comparison to before.

‘This shift towards online distribution is giving birth to a number of new platforms, all of which are competing for users not only with their respective streaming capabilities but also with services such as payment and donation solutions, ways in which artists can interact with their fans, and e-commerce features. The pace at which these services are being developed would have been considered impossible under normal circumstances.

‘The procedures for using music online are also being clarified. You usually need permission from the record label and artist to stream music from a CD or vinyl online, but that’s not realistic for say a DJ, who selects tracks in real time depending on the mood and responses of the audience.

‘For that reason, streaming a DJ set – something that’s widely accepted in other countries – has long been a legal grey area in Japan and an obstacle for Japanese DJs looking to reach a global audience. The relevant parties have been working towards a solution, and we’re actually seeing some progress now.

‘Of course, preparations for restarting live entertainment are also in the works. Streaming a gig online and actually experiencing it live are two completely different things, and streaming should absolutely not be seen as replacing the live experience.

‘After Covid-19, I think people will be hungrier than ever for the essential elements of the live experience: the feeling of music moving your entire body, the sense of presence brought about by the lighting and other stage effects, the kind of passion and excitement that fills a room. The concert industry has been busy preparing guidelines for reopening together with medical experts, and artists and concert promoters are working together through their respective associations to lobby the authorities in order to secure public funding for restarting events.

‘We’ll probably see new places used for live entertainment too. I used to think that Japan was behind Europe and the US in terms of utilising outdoor spaces for music events, but I’m sure more artists and promoters will be looking to make use of rooftops, terraces, beaches and parks from here on. Restaurants were given special permission to use public sidewalks for outdoor seating, and I think similar initiatives could be taken to benefit music too.’

‘In any case, we shouldn’t forget that the live entertainment industry is still in the midst of an unprecedented crisis. One of the biggest problems is that many venues have to keep paying high rent without any promises of sufficient public support. While some gig spots have been able to reopen, guidelines mandate that they reduce capacity significantly, and some places may have to invest heavily in ventilation systems and other new equipment.

‘Public support in the form of employment and small business subsidies and interest-free loans is being expanded, but this is nowhere near enough to stop the bleeding.

‘Venue operators have not been able to organise sufficiently among themselves thus far, which has prevented industry-level evaluation of the damage done and coordinated lobbying for public support. Unable to receive sufficient subsidies from the government, venues have relied on support from artists and enthusiastic fan communities in the form of crowdfunding, but are now beginning to build cross-business networks in order to ensure that they’ll be standing on a more stable foundation in the future.

‘“Creative Footprint”, a recent study on nightlife culture in Tokyo conducted together with the Japan Tourism Agency, drew the conclusion that while the culture itself is vibrant and attractive, nightlife actors have low levels of access to the kind of public funding required to sustain the industry, and to political and administrative actors.

‘The coronavirus crisis has brought these issues to the fore. Now that the culture and entertainment sector is working to secure government support, it’s also building new relationships with the political and administrative sector. As a result, the Ministry of the Economy and Agency for Cultural Affairs recently announced a subsidy package of unprecedented size for culture and entertainment. This was an extremely important step in the right direction.’

‘In addition to emergency measures that can help stop the bleeding, we will need to build a framework that would allow artists to earn a stable income through their creative activities.

‘In the UK, for example, PRS For Music (the local copyright watchdog) used royalties that could not be paid out directly to artists to set up the PRS Foundation, which supports musicians and their organisations. Since its establishment in 2000, the PRS Foundation has collected 33 million pounds (more than ¥4.3 billion) in royalties and supported over 7,300 new music initiatives. The foundation’s policy is to invest in the future of music and to grow the music scene in a sustainable manner, which it does by allocating some three million pounds (about ¥400 million) to various programmes every year.

‘The PRS Foundation’s support programmes include an open grant scheme for musicians and organisations, and partnership programmes that respond to specific needs, such as closing the gender gap in music. Applications for grants are reviewed by an independent committee composed of industry specialists. The foundation’s expertise and broad network ensure that its support programmes maintain high quality and remain receptive to innovation.

‘The UK music scene remains one of the most vibrant in the world, in part thanks to frameworks such as this. The Japan Night-time Economy Association, of which I’m a representative director, aims to create a similar framework in Japan as well, and we’ve been supporting the Tourism Agency’s night-time projects since last year to push that vision forward.

‘Our purpose is to not just pass over public funds in response to applications from people looking to do business in the night-time sector, but to have all applications reviewed carefully, make sure that the projects in question boost the potential of the relevant area, and come up with problem-solving methods together. Then, if applying those methods requires funding, we’ll provide that.

‘The issue with most projects isn’t a lack of money. It’s the opposite, because when you’re well-funded, you can outsource work to other parties and avoid accumulating knowledge yourself. Projects like that usually end as soon as government funding dries up. So instead of just distributing cash, our MO focuses on working together to establish business models, and only providing funding to the extent that the business model in question requires it. That way of thinking resembles the PRS Foundation’s way of doing things.

‘The basic business model people in the music industry had become used to is now being forcibly dismantled, and everyone in the industry will have to face a situation of discontinuity and innovation. Innovation is generally about altering past premises and overturning existing preconceptions and values in order to bring about a qualitative shift. The coronavirus crisis has robbed us of our familiar premises in only a few months.

‘The coronavirus has devastated the music industry and put many people in a very difficult situation. On the other hand, the crisis has given us a perhaps unprecedented opportunity to do some serious thinking about the value and importance of music, and about how that value can be sustained going forward.’

‘I’ve been talking a lot about music, but these things aren’t exclusive to the music or nightlife sectors. They apply equally to industries such as restaurants and tourism, which have also been hit very hard.

‘We’ve been reminded of how meaningful it is to gather at a restaurant with people we care about, and of the importance of things such as hospitality, interior decoration, lighting and background music.

‘It’s the same with tourism. We now realise what an amazing thing it is to be able to get away from the daily grind and travel somewhere with a distinct culture and nature, interact with the people there, and be nourished, moved and inspired by such experiences. I think all industries are now facing the same dilemma, namely that of how to retain the essential value of products and services provided before Covid-19 while updating them to fit the current situation.

‘During a recent discussion I had about how Covid-19 will change the industrial structure, the idea of using the crisis as an opportunity came up a lot. In other words, the “coronavirus age”, which will probably end in a year or two, can be seen as an opportunity to update industries to meet next-generation needs.

‘That may sound inconsiderate to some, but the person who voiced this idea had actually dedicated his life to an industry that was among the sectors hit hardest by Covid-19, and was very familiar with the suffering brought about by the crisis. The fact that the current situation is so utterly destructive is precisely why we have to try turning it into an opportunity.

‘Various assumptions have been overturned, and the future we thought we were promised may no longer come. But that also means we have the opportunity to build a new future. Our current age may not provide us with clear answers for the future, but perhaps that makes it an age for drawing up futures that nobody could have thought of before.

‘I’m a lawyer, but I see the role of jurists changing significantly from here on. Jurists were traditionally expected to protect the existing rules and make sure that nobody deviates from those rules. But with the industrial structure in flux, the rules will have to be changed to fit reality. I feel like jurists should now pivot to helping make the rules that will be necessary to lead society towards goals we’ve never reached before.

‘My interactions with the political and administrative sector have increased dramatically during the coronavirus crisis. The distance between culture and politics, an issue raised in the Creative Footprint study I mentioned earlier, is shrinking at a rapid pace. Making rules has never been this exciting.’