The Beatles (Japanese Version)

I was about to meet a friend in Sakae unfortunately, I made the wrong exit instead of Exit 8, I went to Oasis 21. I called my friend and we decided to meet halfway. Exiting the subway, from the stairs I heard a loud song "She loves you yeah! yeah! yeah!", It's The Beatles I silently uttered. As I passed Central Park I saw that there's a mini-concert but I just ignored it for I am in a hurry to go to Louis Vuitton shop where me and my friend supposed to meet. Upon crossing the pedestrian I already saw my friend, waving his hand he said he will just go to where I am. When we met he said to me about hearing The Beatles songs, so out of curiosity we went back to Central Park. And so it is.. It's like The Beatles, Japanese version. We stopped for a while to watched the concert. The band is composed of four male Japanese maybe in their mid 40's, they have their music instruments with them, drums, guitars but there is one female playing the keyboard. All of the songs they played are from The Beatles and I can say that the band is good. Though it's a bit raining, there's a lot of audience, Japanese, foreigners, oldies and also youngsters. A lot including me took pictures from mobile phones. As I see the crowd's reaction they are enjoying the show and even sing together with the band. All of a sudden, I remember Tobita San my Japanese co-worker, everytime we request him to sing a song, he'll immediately sing "Hey Jude", then I realized how popular The Beatles are.

The Beatles in Japan

On June 29, 1966, The Beatles arrived in Tokyo for their first and only tour of Japan. Beatlemania had reached such a peak that concert tickets were oversubscribed by seven times. The band were confined to their room in the Tokyo Hilton (now the Capitol Tokyu Hotel) and with police roaming the hotel corridors, they spent their time painting and listening to acetates of what would become the ‘Revolver’ LP. The concerts were held at the Budokan, the martial arts arena built for the Tokyo Olympics two years previously. Now familiar as a music venue, the Beatles were the first rock group to perform there – their appearance at the national home for martial arts was considered almost sacrilegious by some in Japan. To keep order at each of the concerts – and to make sure that people remained seated – the 10,000 audience were overseen by 3,000 police. The Beatles visit to Japan in 1966 was the first and the last time that they played in Japan creating a social phenomenon, and having a major musical influence on generations to come. Japan holds the distinction of releasing more Beatles records than any other nation.

Reference: The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation