September 2026 events, festivals and things to do in Tokyo

This September, Shimokitazawa welcomes the return of its annual lunar art festival that will coincide with the upcoming autumn moon. Back for its fifth edition, Moon Art Night Shimokita will span several venues in the neighbourhood, including the open plaza in front of the station, Shimokita Senrogai Open Space near Shimokitazawa police box, the rooftop of Higashi-Kitazawa Station, and the Bonus Track complex.

Exhibits include an outdoor moon installation by UK artist Luke Jerram, whose giant floating model features striking details of the moon’s surface as captured by Nasa. This particular installation – titled ‘Museum of the Moon’ – is set to be on show every day at the vacant lot of the Shimokita Senrogai complex. 

The festival is also hosting Tokyo-based contemporary artist Shoei Matsuda, whose giant eight-metre-tall inflatable recreates the iconic 'tears of joy' emoji at the Bonus Track complex. Inspired by the evolution of emoji from a feature of Japanese mobile phone culture into a universal visual language, the interactive installation explores the relationship between the digital and physical worlds. Visitors can also use an AR filter to transform their own faces into the 'tears of joy' emoji and share the results on Instagram, blurring the boundaries between online expression and real-world experience.

Moreover, Japanese sculptor and artist Teppei Kaneuji is participating with an interactive installation titled ‘A Thousand Faces of the Moon’ at the paid Higashi-Kitazawa Station rooftop venue. Inspired by the idea that while there is only one moon, its appearance and meaning can vary depending on where you are and your own perspective, the work invites visitors to throw, roll and photograph a collection of moon-shaped sculptures. Kaneuji will also host a silkscreen printing workshop, where participants can create and take home their own moon-themed artwork.

Aside from the art exhibitions, the festival will feature several immersive theatre performances, live music, video installations and pop-ups. Several shops around Shimokitazawa Station will also offer full moon-inspired food and beverages and limited-edition products during the festival.

Tickets to access paid venues and performances are on sale via the official website.

Get ready to participate in one of the last Bon Odori festivals this summer. Miyashita Park’s very own Bon Odori will take over its rooftop on September 26 and 27. Expect to see folks dancing to the beat of traditional taiko drums as well as contemporary DJ mixes of J-pop and city pop. Everyone is welcome at this communal dance soiree, which will take place around a yagura stage adorned by Japanese lanterns.

Stores and restaurants surrounding Miyashita Park will be setting up stalls at the festival’s outdoor market.

Details have yet to be announced for 2026. Follow the organiser’s Instagram for updates.

Celebrated since 1968, this two-day festival takes place in front of JR Ikebukuro Station, with dozens of mikoshi (portable shrines) being paraded on the streets in front of Ikebukuro Station's west exit from 5.35pm to 7.30pm on September 28. Sunday's festivities also include a taiko drumming performance (2pm), lion dance and ohayashi festival music performance (2.30pm), plus a selection of singer stage performances from 3pm to 7pm at the nearby open-air Global Ring Theatre.

Expect to see a similarly packed itinerary on Saturday September 27, with performances such as a Soprano singer and choir performance (2.15pm), Hawaiian hula (3.45pm), Cheerleading demonstrations (4.30pm) and belly dance (6.10pm) kicking off the festivities at Ikebukuro's Global Ring Theatre.

Meguro River is becoming one with art this September, with a four-kilometre stretch of the river transformed into a giant ‘instrument’ on September 4 to 6 and 18 to 22.

At the heart of the project is Kaze – body, a sound installation by artist Ray Kunimoto. Made up of countless metal plates, the installation sits on a boat that travels along the Meguro River, from Tennozu at the river’s mouth to the area in front of Hotel Gajoen Tokyo. Exploring the relationship between invisible forces such as gravity, wind and water and the physical environment, the work turns the energy of the wind into sound, as the metal plates sway and collide with one another.

Kaze – body will operate from 6pm to 9pm on September 4 to 6 and 18 to 22. Designated viewing points include the promenade along the Meguro River and Gotanda Fureai Waterside Square, where visitors can stroll along the riverbank, wait for the artwork to arrive and listen to its sounds.

At Gotanda Fureai Waterside Square, speakers installed on streetlights will play sounds synchronised with Kaze – body. This allows visitors to experience not just the artwork on the boat, but the entire riverside environment – including the time spent waiting for the boat to pass – as one expansive sound installation. On opening day, September 4, a documentary by Kunimoto and Kaori Yamane about the creation of Kaze – body will also be projected onto the riverbank.

Moreover, on September 12, a one-day-only live music performance will take place at Higashi-Shinagawa Kaijo Park. DJs and food trucks will kick off from 3pm on the park side, followed by live performances from 5pm on a special stage set up on a houseboat. Alongside Kunimoto’s work, the performance line-up includes duo Tatsuro Murakami & Shin Araki, and duo Shöka feat. Kei Matsumaru. Meanwhile, DJ Emerald and Grrrden will be spinning DJ sets.

Check the event website for more details.

Gear up for 11 days of LOL as the Tokyo International Comedy Festival returns with a programme featuring shows by a star-studded cast of comedians, plus international roast battles, stand-up contests, bilingual improv and much more. With shows in both English and Japanese, this comedy extravaganza is for everyone in Tokyo.

The festival takes place across venues including Tokyo Comedy Bar, Mame Romantic, Tokyo American Club and Baird Beer’s taproom in Nakameguro. You can look forward to a diverse line-up of comedians, with a focus on local talents such as Yurie Collins, Shota Saimu, BJ Fox and Pakkun (Patrick Harlan).

Hakkeijima Island near Yokohama is bringing back its music-synced pyrotechnic shows this summer, with approximately 2,500 fireworks being launched during a span of 10 minutes. Happening on select weekends and holidays from May 30 to November 22, the fireworks are viewable from the island’s free-to-enter boardwalk area or the paid Hakkeijima Sea Paradise amusement park grounds.

Utilising state-of-the-art digital controls, the fireworks are timed to blast with musical beats to the nearest tenth of a second, illuminating the night sky as if the sparks danced to the music.

Shows start from 8.30pm (8pm from October onwards) on May 30, Jun 27, Jul 18-19 & 25, Aug 1, 8, 15 & 29, Sep 19-22, Oct 10-11, Nov 21-22 and Mar 20-21, 2027.

Check the event website for the latest details.

Nine months into the year and we've already lost track of how many Oktoberfests Tokyo has seen so far. But no matter, the next seasonally inaccurate festival of German beer happens at Shiba Park from September 11 to 23, where you can take in a view of Tokyo Tower while enjoying hefty glasses of beer. 

You can start small with a regular pint, or go straight for a gigantic three-litre glass. As for the beer, expect limited quantities of autumn-exclusive Festbier, brewed to be served at Munich’s Oktoberfest, alongside 11 other brands, including classics like Hofbräu, Paulaner and more. For 2026, you can also expect draft beer from Meissner, the oldest brewery in Saxony, which will be served in Japan for the first time. The food offerings include pub grub favourites like schnitzels, sausages, jerk chicken, cheese fondue and lobster pasta. Everything comes with a side of jazzed-up oompah music to keep you in the mood.

Entry is just ¥500, and you pay as you go. It includes an exclusive reusable cup which you can take home with you. Purchase your tickets here.

One of Tokyo's three German beer fest spin-offs this autumn (including Shiba Park and Tachikawa), Munich Oktoberfest kicks off on September 18 at Urban Dock LaLaport Toyosu. This beer extravaganza at least manages to fall within a few weeks of the original German beer-fuelled festival it's copying, running from September 18 until October 12.

As with all the other Oktoberfests in town, you can enjoy pints of German beer served in glasses that can fill up to a litre, alongside bratwurst and sauerkraut. There will be oompah bands to sweeten the mood.

Entry is free and you can pay as you go. Do note that the event is mostly cashless; you can pay via credit card, PayPay, IC card, QuicPay, ID and other forms of electronic payment.

South Korean digital art and design firm D’strict is joining hands with Sanrio to bring a popular interactive exhibit to Japan for the first time after a successful run in Seoul last year. Utilising the latest digital media technologies, the hotel-themed exhibition in Shinjuku’s Tokyu Kabukicho Tower takes you on a photogenic and immersive journey through 11 themed areas in the imaginary hotel, with characters such as Hello Kitty, My Melody, Kuromi, Cinnamoroll and Pompompurin appearing in their own dreamy, fairytale-like rooms.

While the full details are still under wraps, expect to see a plentiful line-up of exclusive Sanrio merch, including Hotel Floria room key charms, hotel sticker sets and travel-themed accessories.

The exhibition space is located on the fourth floor. Tickets are now on sale via Eplus.

Sound, visual art and site-specific elements blend together in innovative and challenging ways at Ambient Kyoto, a multisensory, immersive exhibition that now makes its first foray into Tokyo, landing at Azabudai Hills Gallery. The display centres on the installation ‘async – immersion’, envisioned by the much-missed Ryuichi Sakamoto and Shiro Takatani of Dumb Type and first presented in Kyoto in 2023.

Inspired by Sakamoto’s 2017 album async, ‘async – immersion’ features visuals by Takatani and spatial audio design by sound engineer ZAK, whose fingerprints are all over many of Sakamoto’s late-career projects. At Azabudai Hills, the work has been reconstructed exclusively for the venue, with the setup including a 26-metre-wide screen for displaying the video elements of the installation.

True to the title of the work, the aural and visual components are aligned but not fully synchronised; their constantly shifting relationship rewards attentive viewing and encourages visitors to approach the work on their own terms.

Ron Mueck has long been celebrated for redefining figurative sculpture through extraordinary craftsmanship and emotional acuity. After early work in film and advertising, the Australian-born, UK-based artist emerged on the contemporary art scene in the mid-1990s, gaining international attention with Pinocchio (1996) and Dead Dad (1996-97), the latter exhibited in the landmark ‘Sensation’ show at London’s Royal Academy in 1997.

Over the decades, his meticulously crafted human figures, rendered at startlingly altered scales, have probed themes of vulnerability, solitude, resilience and the fragile complexity of existence. With a rare and limited oeuvre of about fifty works, each sculpture distills months or even years of observation and reflection, resulting in pieces that feel at once hyper-real and quietly enigmatic.

From April 29 to September 23, the Mori Art Museum hosts the artist’s first solo exhibition in Japan in eighteen years. Organised in collaboration with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, the exhibition gathers eleven works tracing Mueck’s evolution, including six making their Japanese debut. Its monumental centrepiece is the Japan premiere of Mass (2016-17), an immersive installation of 100 giant skulls reconfigured to reflect the museum’s architecture. Other highlights include Angel (1997), Woman with Shopping (2013) and the iconic In Bed (2005), each inviting viewers into a deeply intimate emotional space.

Complementing the sculptures, photographs and films by Gautier Deblonde offer a glimpse into Mueck’s studio practice, revealing the quiet rigour behind some of contemporary art’s most affecting works.

A visionary who worked along the boundaries between art, design and everyday life, Ettore Sottsass (1917–2007) was one of the most influential figures in 20th-century Italian design. Rising to prominence in the 1950s through his groundbreaking work for the typewriter and computer manufacturer Olivetti, Sottsass redefined industrial design by infusing functional objects with emotion, symbolism and wit. His restless creative spirit culminated in the 1981 founding of the Memphis Group, an international collective whose bold colours, playful forms and radical aesthetics came to define post-modern design and reshape global visual culture.

‘Design begins where magic begins’ at the Artizon Museum is the first comprehensive retrospective of Sottsass’s work in Japan. Drawing from the Ishibashi Foundation’s extensive collection, the exhibition brings together 112 works spanning the entirety of its subject’s long and prolific career, from early experiments to later, more philosophical creations.

Through furniture, industrial design and conceptual works, the exhibition traces Sottsass’s lifelong challenge to strict rationalism and his belief that design should reflect the emotional and spiritual dimensions of human life. Humour, colour and sensuality emerge as tools with which he sought to illuminate the lived experiences, desires and contradictions of modern society. Offering a rare opportunity to encounter Sottsass’s work in depth, the exhibition reveals a visionary who insisted that true design begins with imagination and magic.

A master of immersive installations that merge video, sculpture, sound, light and language, Tony Oursler is one of the most influential multimedia artists of his generation. He’s been a pioneering figure in video projection and media-based art since the 1980s, probing the uneasy intersections between technology, psychology, belief systems and contemporary society. Drawing equally from pop culture, science, conspiracy theories, religion and the paranormal, Oursler’s work gives form to the invisible forces shaping modern life, be they data streams, surveillance or spirits, through a poetic blend of humour and unease.

‘Tony Oursler: Tech/Gnosis – Magic, Media, Art’ at Tokyo Node is the artist’s first large-scale solo exhibition in Japan, offering a comprehensive survey of Oursler’s practice from the early 1990s to the present. Key works such as Private (1994–1997), Specular (2021) and the psychologically charged installation Lock 2, 4, 6 (2010) are shown alongside previously unpublished projects and extensive archival materials drawn from Oursler’s personal collection of more than 3,000 items related to science, magic and unidentified phenomena.

A highlight is the world premiere of Empty (2000), a long-gestating collaboration with David Bowie and composer Glenn Branca, realised here for the first time. The exhibition also debuts Chimera (2026), a monumental, site-specific work conceived for Tokyo Node’s soaring 15-metre-high space, where mythical hybrid creatures appear to float above the city. In an age shaped by AI, surveillance and renewed spiritual curiosity, Oursler’s work resonates with striking urgency, challenging you to reflect on how belief, technology and imagination entwine.

To celebrate its 100th anniversary, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum hosts an exceptional exhibition showcasing masterpieces borrowed from one of the world’s most iconic institutions. Founded in 1753, the British Museum houses the most comprehensive collection of Japanese art outside Japan, reflecting over a century and a half of fascination with Japanese aesthetics.

‘Edo in Focus’ brings together a carefully curated selection from the museum’s 40,000-piece collection, including folding screens, hanging scrolls and narrative handscrolls from the Edo period (1603–1868). You’ll also encounter celebrated ukiyo-e prints by eight masters, including Utamaro, Sharaku, Hokusai and Hiroshige, that capture the vibrancy of Edo culture.

Beyond the artworks themselves, the exhibition sheds light on the history of Japan-UK cross-cultural exchange and the figures who shaped it, such as the surgeon and early collector William Anderson. By tracing how Japanese art inspired and connected people across continents, the show invites visitors to reflect on the enduring dialogue between Japan and the world, and on Edo’s timeless artistic spirit.

This expansive exhibition is the largest in the Doraemon franchise’s 56-year history, bringing together manga panels, animation, sculptures, limited-edition merch and a themed food menu all starring the world’s favourite blue robot cat and his friends. It launched in Hong Kong in July 2024, attracting over five million visitors during its month-long run. Since then, it has continued to captivate fans across Asia, making its way through several cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Bangkok, and Kaohsiung in Taiwan.

The exhibition space contains over 100 distinct Doraemon figures, each with its own expression and costume. In addition to showcasing the content from the previous cities, the Tokyo exhibition also features Japan-exclusive works. Here you can see Doraemon transformed into a shiba inu, a sumo wrestler and a few other forms inspired by Japanese culture, as well as view two original animations not seen elsewhere.

‘100% Doraemon & Friends’ runs until September 30 and is open from 10am to 6pm daily (last entry 5.30pm). Tickets start from ¥2,400 for adults, ¥1,800 for primary and secondary school students and ¥1,600 for children four years old and below – purchase yours here. As an added bonus, upon arrival exhibition visitors receive one of nine Doraemon-themed acrylic pins and one of four promotional cards (both chosen at random).