The Daiwa House Premist Dome, scheduled to host the Sapporo leg of Arashi’s final tour in March 2026, is seen in the city’s Toyohira Ward. (Mainichi/Takumi Taniguchi)
SAPPORO — Locals here are poised to help students expecting a travel crunch as the Sapporo leg of Japanese idol group Arashi’s final tour will be held near the time of national and public university entrance exams next spring.
Arashi will perform 15 concerts at five major domes across Japan from March to May 2026, and the three in Sapporo on March 13-15 will kick-start the tour. Fans from across the country are expected to swarm into the Hokkaido capital. Meanwhile, Hokkaido University is giving its later-schedule exam on March 12, just before Arashi’s Sapporo gigs. As some fans may start arriving in Sapporo as early as March 11 out of fears of possible snow and other weather conditions, and examinees normally fly into the city the day before the exam at the latest, it is highly likely that both parties will jam the area at the same time. This has sparked concerns that students and other applicants for Hokkaido University could face difficulties securing flights and hotels to take their entrance exams at its campus.
“Their schedules are overlapping. It couldn’t be worse,” one user of X commented on Nov. 23, expressing their worries over the possible burden on examinees. The message was followed by a spate of similar posts, such as “I feel so sorry for them,” and “The adults around them must support them.”
The situation has sparked significant debate online, and local efforts to support examinees are gradually spreading to help them feel at ease as they face their exams.
As hotel prices soar, examinees face their own plight
The Daiwa House Premist Dome, which is hosting Arashi’s Sapporo leg, can accommodate up to 53,820 people. During the March 13-15 concerts, a total of around 150,000 fans are expected to visit the venue. According to the Sapporo Municipal Government, there are 418 accommodation facilities in the city, with their capacity totaling 78,000 people. Amid this imbalance, the room rates for the concert days soared immediately after the schedule was announced Nov. 22, shooting up to 50,000 yen-plus (more than $320) per night from the normal rate of 10,000 yen (roughly $65) or less.
Some low-cost carriers moved to set airfares between Tokyo (Narita International Airport) and Sapporo (New Chitose Airport) around the concert days at 39,000 yen ($250), about eight times higher than the 4,000 yen to roughly 7,000 yen ($26 to $45) in the weeks prior to the shows.
One hotel near JR Sapporo Station was apparently booked up for the three concert days a mere 12 hours after the schedule announcement. According to the hotel manager, when a popular artist’s Sapporo concert is announced, reservations flood in, and once the ticket lottery results are announced, cancellations emerge, creating room for new reservations to pour in — thus giving rise to “quite complex and intense movements.”
While it is becoming increasingly difficult to book hotels and flights for this coming March, most examinees are unable to make plans until just before the later-schedule exams due to uncertainties surrounding their preceding test results. Financial constraints also lead to a tendency to delay decisions on hotel and flight reservations until the last minute.
One Hokkaido University graduate recounted, “As examinees take the later-schedule exam as their final opportunity, I myself felt mentally pushed to the edge. For examinees, the possibility of being unable to secure transportation or accommodation is nothing but a source of anxiety.”
The hotel manager commented, “Given Arashi’s immense popularity, and the fact that these are going to be their final concerts, hotel guests will likely spill over into the cities of Chitose and Tomakomai (near Sapporo). This timing is so unfortunate for examinees.”
Hokkaido University’s campus is seen covered with snow, in Sapporo’s Kita Ward in this March 12, 2024, file photo. (Mainichi/Shimpei Torii)
Local entities moving to help examinees
Amid these circumstances, local governments and other parties are moving to help examinees.
Sapporo Mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto told a regular press conference on Nov. 27, “Depending on the situation, we may ask the hotel industry to help ensure that examinees are not inconvenienced,” after noting that accommodation was still available for March 11, when examinees are most likely to stay overnight for their tests the following day.
The Hokkaido University co-op also secures rooms for examinees every year by negotiating with hotels in the vicinity. This academic year again, the co-op’s website is accepting hotel and flight reservations from examinees from within and outside Hokkaido.
The Business Inn Norte II Hokudai-mae, which has been cooperating with the initiative, will set aside about 20 of its 51 rooms for examinees in March next year. A representative noted, “As our hotel is convenient for its proximity to the exam venue, we hope to be of help to examinees.”
When asked about what relief measures it is taking for students, Hokkaido University replied to the Mainichi Shimbun, “We will strive to provide necessary information so applicants can take the exams with peace of mind.”
Sapporo Dome Co., the operator of the Daiwa House Premist Dome, refrained from commenting upon a Mainichi inquiry about whether there is room for considering changing the Arashi concert schedule.
While the Mainichi has also sent an inquiry to Starto Entertainment, which has a group agency contract with Arashi, about its views on the issue, no response had been received as of Dec. 1.
(Japanese original by Haruka Ito and Kenichi Mito, Hokkaido News Department)
AloJapan.com