The sound of taiko drums fills the air as hundreds of people mill around Odaiba on a cloudy September afternoon. Stalls straight out of a summer matsuri (festival) offer games for kids, and food trucks sit beneath strings of paper lanterns.

Towering above this mini matsuri is the capital’s newest entertainment landmark, Toyota Arena Tokyo.

The arena will host its first B. League professional basketball game in a few hours — a match between defending champions Utsunomiya Brex and Toyota-owned Alvark Tokyo, who call the 10,000-seat venue home. A massive video board hangs above the court, with ribbon-style displays wrapping around the interior. Visitors can catch the action while walking the concourse, which is dotted with concession stands, bars and lounges.

“There were many things you couldn’t do at our old home of Yoyogi National Gymnasium that you can do here,” says Yosuke Hayashi, general manager of the Arena Planning Division. “Instead of just sitting, people can move around, watch from different spots, have a drink — new ways to enjoy the game.”

Toyota Arena Tokyo is the latest addition to an arena-building boom that began a decade ago. Since 2020, nine new venues have opened in the Kanto region, most of them multiuse spaces designed to host sports, concerts and meetings. Even more are planned over the next five years.

“Around 2016, demand for live concerts in Japan was surging, and there weren’t enough venues for them all, especially large ones,” says Tsuyoshi Tamura, president of K-Arena Management, which opened K-Arena Yokohama in 2023.

Toyota Arena Tokyo hopes to get in on the concert action while also providing a home for area basketball teams. | TOYOTA ALVARK TOKYO

Toyota Arena Tokyo lights up at night with a basketball-themed structure in the foreground.