On Sunday, March 16th, over 7,000 people arrived at L.A. Live for matsuri’25, the first ever Japanese Music Experience concert event hosted by the Japan Culture and Entertainment Industry Promotion Association (CEIPA) and the TOYOTA GROUP via their collaboration “MUSIC WAY PROJECT.”
Aiming to spread Japanese music to the United States, this concert featured three of Japan’s most popular artists and groups: YOASOBI, ATARASHII GAKKO!, and Ado. A portion of the concert’s revenue would be donated to support Los Angeles wildfire relief.
With lines for merchandise beginning even before 2 p.m., there were attendees rocking Ado shirts with her signature black-haired anime character with blue highlights, ATARASHII GAKKO!’s iconic knee-high socks that say “Youth representative from Japan,” and YOASOBI shirts from their past concert last year in L.A.
Attendees came from across the country and were a mixture of major fans of one artist and those who loved all three. Tanner Lee, a concertgoer from Salt Lake City, UT, was a fan of them all but looked forward to YOASOBI the most.
“I’ve been a fan of [YOASOBI’s] Ayase since like 2016, 2015, when I was like first getting into some J-pop stuff, just because he was doing a lot of Vocaloid stuff,” he explained. “And then when [YOASOBI] came out with ‘Yoru ni Kakeru,’ I kinda just got like really obsessed with it, and it’s kinda been that way since.”
Similarly, Lucas Williams from San Mateo is also a fan of all three but was especially excited for Ado as a fan of her songs in “One Piece Film: Red.”
He explained how he was especially excited to hear something from “One Piece,” saying, “I love Backlight so much. Or Mirror, I really like.”
Soon enough, Peacock Theater was packed to the brim with hordes of light sticks shaking with excitement. YOASOBI, the producer-singer duo whose songs are inspired by novels, started the concert with their classic opener, “Seventeen.” The crowd of lights shot up in time with the beat and matched colors with the projections on the screen behind the band.
During their fourth song “Tabun,” Ikura, the singer of YOASOBI, asked the audience for participation, telling everyone to put up their flashlights and sway with the song. Phone in hand, the entire theater lit up as white glows moved in unison to the song with a strong feeling of unity between all of the people in the crowd.
“We absolutely love performing here, where we can all sing and dance together,” said YOASOBI in an industry mixer preceding the concert. “We’re always looking forward to it!”
Soon enough, YOASOBI reached the end of their nine-song set as Ikura told the audience to get up and dance for one of their most popular songs “IDOL.”
With YOASOBI closing their set, the stage went dark. After some quick rearrangement, the four member girl group ATARASHII GAKKO! entered the venue by marching down the aisles with flags and their iconic Japanese school girl style outfits. The flashy entrance perfectly matched the high energy and powerful songs they are known for.
Each song from their set featured intense choreography and strong vocals with short breaks in between. This held the audience in a state of high excitement throughout their performance as the members showed off unbelievable locking dance moves and even went down off the stage into the audience to sing.
Their set ended with their latest song, “One Heart,” and members took a photo with the audience members all making a heart with their hands. With that, eleven songs had passed and ATARASHII GAKKO! exited the stage as a curtain at the back of the stage opened to reveal a bright blue cube, Ado’s signature color and stage setup.
Ado is a faceless artist, with videography and photography prohibited to protect her identity as she performs in a partially see-through cage. With the appearance of her box, audience members grew excited as they turned their light sticks blue. Suddenly, the whole theater went dark and the silhouette of a woman with a mic in hand, flowy sleeves, and mid length dress appeared in the cage.
The audience erupted in cheers of excitement as her voice pierced through the theater when she opened her set with “Show.” Similar to her previous concert in L.A., songs were all back to back with high intensity as she danced and belted from within the cage. Matching the music, she would fall to the ground, dance on the floor, strut side-to-side, and even cling to the metal bars of the box.
As intense as her show began, the end of her packed ten-song set soon approached. With no phones in sight, every fan in the audience was tuned in to her performance. As Ado rounded off her performance with “Odo,” the audience was filled with people clapping their hands above their head to the beat. Soon enough, her cage turned back to the same blue it was before the show and the house lights turned on as fans realized the night was over.
After the concert, Lee was starstruck.
“I can’t think anymore. The concert was that good,” he said. “My brain shut off halfway during the concert and I just started screaming. That’s how you know it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to… It’s the first time I’ve ever seen any of them—and honestly, it was life-changing.”
CEIPA and the TOYOTA GROUP collaborated with MusiCares to fundraise for L.A. wildfire recovery efforts. Prior to the concert, they hosted the JP Music Industry Mixer at L.A. Live for industry professionals alongside the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Los Angeles.
“Beginning with matsuri ‘25 and the [upcoming] Music Awards Japan, we hope that these events will become the… beginning of different Japanese music artists being able to create more, expand their expression and creativity, to share their love for music with different fans around the world,” said CEIPA executive director Tatsuya Kumabe through a translator in a press conference prior to the concert.
matsuri’25 was a night to remember for fans of YOASOBI, ATARASHII GAKKO!, and Ado – but more broadly, it was truly a “matsuri,” meaning festival or celebration, of J-pop’s future and global growth.