Roppongi has long balanced two identities: a hub of world-class museums and cultural spaces by day, and a vibrant party destination after dark. Every autumn, Roppongi Art Night fuses these two sides into a citywide festival of creativity. Held from September 26 to 28, the 14th edition of the event will see streets, plazas, museums and shopping complexes transformed into open-air galleries and performance venues.
Themed ‘A Festival of City, Art, and Future’, the 2025 festival features more than 50 programmes by around 30 artists, ranging from installations and performances to video pieces, digital art and workshops. This year’s edition is especially notable for highlighting the latest in Korean art – a focus chosen to celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea.
Contributing everything from extensive public installations to participatory performances, Korean artists will bring a fresh perspective on urban life, identity and tradition to the capital.
Across Roppongi Hills, Tokyo Midtown, the National Art Center, Suntory Museum of Art, 21_21 Design Sight and beyond, you can expect an eclectic journey through art that reflects on the present while imagining possible futures. Here are five highlights not to miss.
Digital visions of a dizzying future
‘Delivery Dancer’s Arc: 0° Receiver’, 2024. Photo: Ayoung Kim
At Roppongi Hills Arena, a 13-metre-wide LED screen will showcase Seoul-based artist Ayoung Kim’s dazzling video installation Delivery Dancer’s Arc: 0º Receiver (2024). Known for blending CGI, live-action and video game engines into speculative fictions, Kim explores the journeys of futuristic courier drivers who transport ‘time’ itself across conflicting calendar systems and cosmic networks. Recently awarded the 2025 LG Guggenheim Prize, Kim’s work resonates with contemporary concerns about technology, labour and identity while immersing viewers in hypnotic visual storytelling.
When: Fri 8.15-8.45pm & 9.30-10pm; Sat 2-2.30pm, 5-5.30pm, 8-8.30pm & 9.30-10pm; Sun 2-2.30pm, 5-5.30pm, 5.30-6pm.
Where: Roppongi Hills Arena
Playful interventions in public space
Jibin Im, ‘EVERYWHERE’, Inflatable sculpture, 2.5 x 2.5 x 4 m.
For those wandering the streets, Seoul artist Jibin Im will surprise passersby with his iconic inflatable ‘Bear Balloons’. Playful yet poignant, these guerrilla-style interventions transform street corners and plazas into impromptu museums. Installed across multiple locations at Tokyo Midtown (hence the artwork’s title, Everywhere) including the facility’s courtyard, the works expand the possibilities of urban public art while inviting moments of joy and reflection in everyday life. Im, who has collaborated with institutions from UNESCO to the Pyeongchang Olympics, continues to explore how art can foster empathy and laughter in shared spaces.
When: Fri-Sun 11am-11pm.
Where: Tokyo Midtown Courtyard, 1F Plaza, B1F Galleria
Power-packed Korean drumming
TAGO, ‘The Drum Shaman’. Photo: BAKI
At once primal and electrifying, the Korean percussion ensemble Tago will bring their globally acclaimed performances to Roppongi with The Drum Shaman. Combining massive traditional drums with martial-arts-like choreography, they conjure up a thunderous, intensely physical experience. Expect daily shows at Roppongi Hills Arena alongside roving mini-performances at Ryudocho Museum Street and Roppongi Hills 66 Plaza. Tago’s fusion of tradition and contemporary spectacle has earned rave reviews from Edinburgh to the WOMAD arts festival and in Tokyo, their beats promise to transform the city’s pulse.
When: Fri 7.30-8pm; Sat 5-5.10pm, 7-7.30pm; Sun 5-5.10pm, 7.30-8pm.
Where: Roppongi Hills Arena, Ryudocho Museum Street and Roppongi Hills 66 Plaza
A shrine transformed into a wooden harbour
Cheng Tsung Feng, ‘Sailing Castle: Roppongi’. Photo: FIXER Photographic Studio
Taiwanese artist Cheng Tsung Feng will anchor a monumental wooden installation at Tenso Shrine. Part of his ‘Sailing Castle’ series, the work envisions clusters of Roppongi’s buildings as ships gathered at sea, their sails evoking both departure and return. By uniting architectural outlines into a single sculptural form, Feng reflects on the city as a vessel of collective memory and possibility. At night, illuminated sails will invite visitors to step into a dreamlike harbour, where urban life meets maritime imagination.
When: Fri 6.30-10pm, Sat 1-10pm, Sun 1-8pm.
Where: Tenso Shrine
Luminous birds at the old police station
Masamichi Shimada, ‘Birds Fly Around With You’, Light is Life – Festa delle Luci A2A – Brescia 2023. Courtesy of Light Art Collection
Interactive and poetic, Masamichi Shimada’s installation Birds Fly Around With You at the Azabu Fire Station construction site features a circle of glowing, bird-shaped objects with flapping wings. Sensors detect visitors’ movement, illuminating each bird in sequence and creating the illusion of flight. Originally shown at the Amsterdam Light Festival, the work has since toured internationally. In Roppongi, it becomes a luminous metaphor for connection, where strangers walking through the circle create shared patterns of light, echoing the festival’s spirit of encounter.
When: Fri 6.30-10pm, Sat 5-10pm, Sun 5-8pm.
Where: Azabu Fire Station Temporary Government Building Construction Site (former site of Azabu Police Station)
A city transformed
From speculative digital worlds to joyful street interventions and from thunderous drums to serene wooden ships, Roppongi Art Night 2025 is once again set to prove that art thrives not only in museums, but throughout the fabric of urban life. Over three days, one of Tokyo’s most cosmopolitan districts will be reimagined as a playground of light, sound and movement – an ephemeral festival where the everyday becomes extraordinary.
Roppongi Art Night 2025 runs September 26–28 2025. Most events are free, though some museum exhibitions require a ticket. For the full programme and the latest information, visit the official website.
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