For decades the obstacle to seeing city pop live was simple: the artists played Japan, and that was it. In 2026 that changed, under a banner Live Nation calls City Pop Waves — “a headline show series spotlighting iconic Japanese City Pop artists”.[1] This is a report on what the series put on stage, drawn from the promoter’s announcements and from published reviews.
The bill
- **Taeko Onuki** — The Wiltern, Los Angeles, 7 February. Billed as her first concert outside Japan, nearly fifty years after Sunshower.[1]
- **Masayoshi Takanaka** — SUPER TAKANAKA WORLD LIVE 2026, his first world tour: O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London on 31 March, then Brooklyn Paramount (4 April), the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago (7 April), The Masonic in San Francisco (9 April) and the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles (12 April).[1][2]
- **Anri** — the Timely!! Tour, her first US dates, at Brooklyn Paramount on 17 May and The Wiltern on 20 May, built around her 1983 album Timely!!.[3]
- **Casiopea** — two nights at The Wiltern in September.[4]
- **London** — the series’ first UK festival edition at Crystal Palace Bowl in August, with Takanaka headlining a two-hour set, Himiko Kikuchi performing her 1987 album Flying Beagle in full, and a DJ set from Ginger Root.[5]
Takanaka’s run followed sold-out Los Angeles shows in 2024–25, and brought with it a piece of equipment the internet had been asking about for years: the full-size guitar built from a real surfboard, designed more than fifteen years ago, displayed in a café for over a decade, restored for this tour.[1]
What the shows were like
We did not attend, so here is the published record rather than our own impressions. Reviewing the Chicago date for Under the Radar, Joshua Mellin put the Aragon Ballroom crowd at roughly 5,000, with lines stretching for blocks and some fans queuing from eight in the morning for an eight o’clock show. Tickets had been gone for weeks: $300 at face value for general admission, around $500 on resale, over $1,000 for VIP. The audience skewed young, many in Hawaiian shirts or replicas of Takanaka’s red suit.[2]
Mellin’s verdict on the playing was affectionate rather than reverent — “I wouldn’t say he’s the greatest technical guitarist I’ve ever seen, but he’s one of the vibiest” — and he was blunt about the venue’s sound, which he called abhorrent and said undercut the performance. The surfboard guitar appeared for one brief song in the encore; party kazoos and a rock-out chair made their expected entrances; “Papaya” drew the loudest response; a tease of the Indiana Jones theme was a highlight. Takanaka, talking up the city, appeared to shout “Go Bears!” The review ends: “Masayoshi Takanaka: highly recommended.”[2]
A weekend pop-up at Reckless Records sold out instantly.[2]
What it means
Three things are worth noting. First, the demand is not nostalgic in the usual sense: the crowds are mostly too young to have bought these records new, and in many cases are not Japanese. Second, the economics now work — a 73-year-old instrumental guitarist filling a 5,000-capacity ballroom in Chicago on a Monday is not a sentimental booking. Third, the series is deepening rather than repeating: Onuki, Takanaka, Anri and Casiopea are four quite different propositions, and Himiko Kikuchi performing a 1987 fusion album in full in south London is not a greatest-hits play.
If the 2010s revival happened through a recommendation algorithm, 2026 is the year it acquired a touring circuit. Our reissues page tracks the records; for the shows, watch the artists’ own announcements — and if you were at any of these dates, the forum would like to hear about it.
References
- “City Pop Waves Continues with Masayoshi Takanaka’s First World Tour — SUPER TAKANAKA WORLD LIVE 2026”. Live Nation Entertainment.
- “Masayoshi Takanaka @ Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, US, April 7, 2026”. Under the Radar (Joshua Mellin).
- “City Pop Waves Continues in the U.S. with ANRI LIVE 2026 Timely!!”. Live Nation Entertainment.
- “City Pop Waves: Casiopea Special Live 2026 in Los Angeles”. Discover Los Angeles.
- “London’s First Japanese City Pop Music Festival is Coming to Crystal Palace This Summer”. Time Out London.