The Beatles at the Nippon Budokan, Tokyo

The Beatles played the Nippon Budokan, a martial arts hall in Tokyo's Kitanomaru Park, from 30 June to 2 July 1966. There were five 30-minute concerts, one on the first night and two on each of the next two days. They were the only shows the band ever gave in Japan, and the first rock concerts at the hall.

A martial arts hall, two years old

The Budokan opened on 3 October 1964. Mamoru Yamada designed it as a hall for Japanese martial arts, and it seats about 14,500 people. When the Beatles were booked there less than two years later, some people saw that as an insult to the building. Conservatives and nationalist groups said a Western pop group did not belong in a martial arts hall, and right-wing activists demonstrated against the visit.

Five short shows, heavy security

The band landed at Haneda on 29 June 1966 and stayed at the Tokyo Hilton. Apart from a press conference and the concerts, they were mostly kept inside their suite.

The first concert was on 30 June, followed by two on 1 July and two on 2 July. Each lasted about 30 minutes. Local acts opened, among them the Drifters, the Blue Comets and Yuya Uchida. Seats cost 2,100, 1,800 or 1,500 yen. The rules inside were strict, and fans were warned that standing up could get them arrested. Nippon.com estimates that 43,000 to 50,000 people saw the five shows in total.

Sources disagree on how many police were involved. Nippon.com counts about 1,700 regular and riot police. The Wikipedia history of the tour says about 35,000 police and fire personnel were mobilised. The two numbers may be measuring different things, but no source explains the gap.

Nippon TV filmed the 30 June and 1 July concerts in colour and broadcast a programme of them on 1 July. On 3 July the Beatles flew out on Japan Airlines flight 731 to Manila. What happened next is covered on the page for Rizal Memorial Stadium.

What you will find there now

The Budokan is still a working arena for martial arts and concerts. No source mentions a Beatles plaque or display on the building. To see the room where they played, you need a ticket to an event. The outside can be seen from Kitanomaru Park at any time.

Kudanshita Station, on the Tokyo Metro Tozai and Hanzomon lines and the Toei Shinjuku Line, is about two minutes away on foot.

Japan's other big Lennon site, the John Lennon Museum in Saitama Super Arena, closed in 2010. It was about 25 km north of the Budokan in a straight line. Lennon's summers in Karuizawa are covered on the Mampei Hotel page.