US popstar Taylor Swift brings her tour to Tokyo for four consecutive nights starting February 7th. The city and the fans are getting ready to invest in an immersive Taylor experience.
The last time Taylor Swift played in Japan was in 2018, for the last two stops of the Reputation Stadium Tour. Six years, five albums, and many awards later, she comes back to the Tokyo Dome for three and a half hours of live music and special effects.
Now, is Japan ready for it?
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour dates mean that a big flow of money is about to come. People all over the country will travel to the capital, spend the night in a hotel, use public transport, eat in restaurants and buy new clothes. Ubuy, popular national online store, has a wide range of albums, posters, books, mugs, shirts. It also sells ‘friendship bracelets’, an Eras Tour tradition referring to one of Swift’s lyrics.
In the US, for instance, her tour boosted the economy with 5.7 billion dollars, with each fan spending an average of 1279 dollars for ticket and extras. In just four nights in Mexico she produced 61.5 million dollars impact on the country. There are no precise figures about Japan yet, so The Groninger talked to some local fans to find out how much they’re planning to spend.
The outfits
Stephanie (26) has a ticket for February 9th, a Fearless outfit in mind (everything is the shades of yellow and golden, a dress and cowboy boots) and she gave herself a 10.000 yen budget (about 60 euros) to create it. She also plans to buy a Taylor Swift hoodie at the stadium, which also costs around 60 euros. One of the Eras Tour trends is the outfit choice, which is meant to match colors and vibes of one of Taylor Swift’s musical eras.
“I think it’s a good way to support her art,” she told The Groninger, “and to make sure you create special memories.”
Hotels special offers
Tokyo hotels from the Marriott Bonvoy group are also planning something special for their loyalty members. From February 7th to the 10th they will hold pop-ups for fans to create ‘friendship bracelets’ and have an Eras-Tour themed tea in the afternoon.
Stephanie will be traveling from outside Tokyo, but she’ll spend the night at a friend’s place to save some money. Momo (21), will instead take a one hour train from Yokohama and is planning to sleep in a hotel nearby. “Ticket included, which was 22.000 yen, I would like to stay within 50.000 yen (312 euros),” she said.
Swift and her fans: a special connection
“Where I grew up in the Philippines we didn’t have access to internet connection,” Stephanie told The Groninger, “and to know the lyrics of a song we would go to a store and ask the guy to download it. Then, we would listen to it multiple times, trying to write down the words. When I was 11 I was so into ‘Love Story’, I remember doing this so many times!”
A few years ago, Momo moved to Australia for a few months. “When I was there some friends introduced me to Taylor’s music. We would listen to ‘Paper Rings’ all the time, I have such good memories of that time!”