On May 18th at the Echoplex, Japanese guitarist and content creator Ichika Nito performed the first of four solo concerts as part of his first tour in the United States. Nito grew up in Okinawa, Japan playing the piano and is now part of a select group of guitarists with their own Ibanez signature guitar model. With 2.75 million subscribers on his YouTube channel and over 300,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, the reach of Nito’s music is only expanding and has enabled him to go on tour internationally.
Creating his YouTube channel in 2018, Nito has found an audience online through his impressive technical abilities, instrumentals, and showcase of his interesting guitar collection. Furthermore, Nito has been able to reach a wide audience through his Instagram account, where he has amassed millions of views on reels of him playing various covers. Through these videos, Nito has been able to encapsulate the attention of millions globally and has created an international fanbase.
Once the clock hit 7:00, Nito arrived on stage and was welcomed by a small, but ecstatic audience. During the concert Nito played 14 of his songs, all of which were instrumental pieces. The setlist included some of his most popular pieces including, “I Miss You,” “Branching Paths,” and “Drowsy,” as well assome pieces from his newly released EP titled “Metaphor.” After each song, the audience erupted, filling up the entire Echoplex with cheers, applauds, and chants at Nito.
During his MCs, Nito talked to the audience about his personal experiences and fanbase. Nito joked around with the audience, teaching them the word “sugoi,” meaning amazing in Japanese, of which the audience repeated throughout the concert.
Since he was taking the next day off to explore and experience Los Angeles, Nito asked the audience about any restaurant recommendations they might have. While most of the audience consisted of English-only speaking fans, Nito was surprised to find some Japanese-speaking fans among the crowd.
Nito revealed that the majority of his fans are actually from America, being around 40% of his fan base while Japan only makes up 10%. It is representative of the recent phenomenon seeing the rise of popularity of other Japanese artists in America. For example, Japanese guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka recently saw a resurgence and growth in his music among younger generations. Now, Spotify lists five cities in the West, including Los Angeles and London, as the areas where he has the most mount of listeners. including Los Angeles and London, as the areas with the most of his listeners.
Despite being 72 years old, this new found popularity has finally given Takanaka and other Japanese artists a new audience and opportunity to tour in America, of which Takanaka was able to completely sell out his concert. Similar to Takanaka during his U.S. tour, Nito expressed a similar feeling smile and genuine happiness to be playing in front of an American audience.
For his encore, Nito played his pieces “Picturesque” and “I Miss You.” However this time around while performing “I Miss You,” Nito had the audience participate by singing the melody alongside him playing the guitar.
Before performing “I Miss You,” he left the audience rest assured that he would come back and that this was not his last time performing in America.