The Tokyo buskers who don't want your cash

Looking for free live music in Tokyo? It’s time to hit the streets, where performers young and old busk not for money but for fans. Competing with the roar of traffic, music pumping from shops and car stereos, politicians canvassing atop speaker trucks, the general hubbub of the metropolis and of course other street musicians, they play as a way to sell CDs, promote their gigs or just to brush up their skills.

Click 'View Gallery' above for more pictures

“Strangely, the quieter I play, the more closely people listen and the bigger the crowd,” says Keisuke Araki, a singer-songwriter who plays on the streets four or five times a month. Moments earlier, Araki’s set outside the south exit of Shinjuku Station had been cut short by a member of JR staff after just two songs; performing in public without a licence is actually illegal in Japan.

“There’s an election at the moment, so the streets are especially noisy, and my natural reaction is to play quieter songs,” he says. “Rather than screaming at people to listen, singing quietly makes them more curious.”

Though the majority of “street lives” tend to feature solo artists strumming an acoustic guitar and singing J-pop ballads, there is plenty of variety, from cinematic marimba music to solo drummers to wannabe pop idols singing over a backing track to full bands playing scaled-down versions of their rock or punk songs. They carry all their equipment themselves, including battery-powered amplifiers, microphones and stands, effects units, mixers and so on -- the basic tooling-up costs for a solo singer-songwriter are upwards of ¥40,000, not including instruments.

Many performers also make banners, flyers and signs, and sell or give away CDs -- after all, they’re on the streets to maximize interest in their music and grow a fanbase.

Finding new fans

“The great thing about playing on the street is that a lot of random people hear your music, whereas at a live house it’s limited to the people who came to see me or one of the other artists on the bill,” says Kohei Matsumoto, a solo artist who plays outdoors every single day. “It’s a great way to find new fans; some of the people I see at my street lives end up coming to my live-house shows too.”

Other hotspots for street lives include the square outside Shinjuku Station’s east exit that faces Studio Alta; the square outside Gap at Shinjuku Station’s southeast exit; the pavements of Route 413, which runs through Yoyogi Park, and the path outside the nearby Tokyo School Of Music; the east exit at Ikebukuro Station; outside Takadanobaba Station; the bus terminal at Akihabara Station; under the rail bridge by the south exit of Shimokitazawa Station; the crossing between Shibuya Mark City and Hachiko Square; and along the serene walkways deep inside Ueno Park.

“Playing here in Ueno Park, there are so many tourists, and that makes it feel very different from playing in Ibaraki, where we’re from,” says Shi-chan, one half of acoustic pop duo Hirokaze. “It feels very fresh to play in front of foreigners. Even though they don’t understand what we’re singing, they can connect with the music. Music’s amazing, isn’t it?” 

The inherent spontaneity gives street lives more of an air of artistic freedom than your average overly professional Tokyo live house, and makes for a fun day of musical abandon. “A few people have asked us whether we have permission to play in public, but we don’t really care if people get angry with us,” laughs Shi-chan. “We just apologize and then carry on playing!”