In 2025, more than 500,000 fans flocked to see Ado’s second-ever world tour, Ado WORLD TOUR 2025 “Hibana” Powered by Crunchyroll. In May this year, Cloud Nine staged Zipangu in Los Angeles — the largest festival exclusively featuring Japanese artists to be held outside Japan. Why did company president Takuya Chigira commit to a festival that disregarded profit? He spoke candidly about the structural challenges facing Japan’s music industry and about his sense of crisis over the outflow of talent overseas in this interview with Billboard Japan.
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The Zipangu festival took place in Los Angeles in May. How did it go?
Our reason for holding Zipangu had nothing to do with festival ambitions or profit — it was about giving Japanese artists a push to challenge themselves abroad. So if the artists who performed came away thinking, “Let’s try a North American tour next” or “Let’s play a show in the U.S.,” then I’d call Zipangu a success.
