Tokyo Dome

is an indoor stadium in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. It was designed as a baseball stadium following its predecessor, Korakuen Stadium (whose former site is now occupied by the Tokyo Dome Hotel and a plaza for this stadium). In Japan, it is often used as a unit of size; for example, "the new construction is five times the size of Tokyo Dome."

Construction

Construction on the stadium began on May 16, 1985, and it opened on March 17, 1988. It was built on the site of the Velodrome, adjacent to Korakuen Stadium and the Koishikawa-Kōrakuen garden. It has a maximum total capacity of 57,000 depending on configuration, with an all-seating configuration of 42,000.

Tokyo Dome's original nickname was "The Big Egg", with some calling it the "Tokyo Big Egg".Haberman, Clyde
Amid Some Doubts, a Tokyo Dome
New York Times, March 23, 1988 Its dome-shaped roof is an air-supported structure, a cable-reinforced 0.8 mm flexible fiberglass membrane supported by slightly pressurizing the inside of the stadium with 150,000 m³/hour using independent blowers. It was developed by Nikken Sekkei and Takenaka Corporation, and modeled after the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.

History

It is the home field of the Yomiuri Giants baseball team. On March 18, 1988, the day after Tokyo Dome opened, the Yomiuri Giants held a game which was the first event in Tokyo Dome. The Yomiuri Giants host about 70 games a year at their home stadium, Tokyo Dome, and other Nippon Professional Baseball teams sometimes host several games a year at Tokyo Dome. If the Yomiuri Giants advance to the Climax Series or the Japan Series, additional games will be held at Tokyo Dome. Interleague play, in which the Yomiuri Giants participate, will also be held at Tokyo Dome. In 2021, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows advanced to the Japan Series, but they held the Japan Series at Tokyo Dome instead of their home stadium, Meiji Jingu Stadium. This was because the Japan Series had to be rescheduled due to the spread of COVID-19 infectious disease, and the dates overlapped with the game days of amateur baseball tournaments at Meiji Jingu Stadium. Tokyo Dome is also the location of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame which chronicles the history of baseball in Japan.

It has also hosted international baseball tournaments such as the World Baseball Classic and WBSC Premier12, Major League Baseball, music concerts, basketball, American football, and association football games, as well as puroresu (pro-wrestling) matches, mixed martial arts events, kickboxing events, and monster truck races. It became the first Japanese venue with an American football attendance above 50,000.

Tokyo Dome City

Tokyo Dome is part of a greater entertainment complex known as Tokyo Dome City, built of the grounds of the former Tokyo Koishikawa Arsenal. Tokyo Dome City includes an amusement park and Tokyo Dome City Attractions (formerly Kōrakuen Grounds). This amusement park occupies the former Korakuen Stadium site and includes a roller coaster named Thunder Dolphin and a hubless Ferris wheel. The grounds also have an onsen called Spa LaQua, various shops, restaurants, video game centers, the largest JRA WINS horse race betting complex in Tokyo, and Oft Korakuen, which caters to rural horse races.

Notable events other than Japanese professional baseball

International baseball tournaments and Major League Baseball

Tokyo Dome has been selected as one of the baseball stadiums to host international baseball tournaments since the 2000s. Tokyo Dome has been selected to host all six World Baseball Classics through 2026. It has also been selected three times to host the WBSC Premier 12 finals.

Tokyo Dome has held various Major League Baseball games to open the seasons, with the first series—a two-game slate between the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets in 2000—being the first time American MLB teams have played regular season games in Asia. Four years later, the New York Yankees, featuring former Yomiuri Giants slugger/outfielder Hideki Matsui in their lineup, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays played two games in the stadium to start the 2004 season. The Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics opened the 2008 MLB season in Japan, and also competed against Japanese teams. To open the 2012 season the Seattle Mariners and the Athletics, the former of which had Ichiro Suzuki, played a two-game series on March 28–29. In game one Seattle – led by Ichiro's 4 hits – won 3–1 in 11 innings. The Mariners and Athletics returned to Tokyo Dome for a two-game series to begin the 2019 Major League Baseball season, with Ichiro retiring from professional baseball after the second game. On July 18, 2024, Major League Baseball announced that the 2025 MLB season will open with a two game series March 18-19 at Tokyo Dome between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs.

Concerts

The Tokyo Dome Corporation publishes a list of singers and music groups that have performed since its opening in 1988. The Alfee held its first concert at Tokyo Dome on March 19, 1988, and March 20, two days after the dome opened. On March 22, 1988, and March 23, Mick Jagger became the first non-Japanese artist to perform at Tokyo Dome.

Concerts have been held at Tokyo Dome for several dozen days each year since its opening, mainly by Japanese singers and music groups. According to official statistics from its opening in 1988 to December 2024, KinKi Kids held the most solo concerts at Tokyo Dome for 66 days, followed by Arashi for 58 days and Kanjani Eight (Super Eight) for 44 days. All of them were male idol groups from Johnny & Associates.

Among non-Japanese, TVXQ held the most solo concerts at Tokyo Dome for 33 days, followed by The Rolling Stones for 28 days and followed by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney for 21 days.

Michael Jackson performed there on his three tours. As part of the second leg of his Bad World Tour, he performed at the Tokyo Big Egg on 9-11, 17-19, and 24-26 December 1988. In Jackson’s next tour, the Dangerous World Tour, he performed on the stadium during the first leg, on 12, 14, 17, 19, 22, 24, 30, and 31 December 1992. On his final tour HIStory World Tour, he performed on multiple dates at the stadium last time, on 13, 15, 17, and 20 December 1996.

Janet Jackson played four shows on 17 and 18 May and 6 and 7 November 1990 during her Rhythm Nation World Tour. She returned for the Janet World Tour on March 29 and 30, 1994 and her All for You Tour on January 17 and 18, 2002.

Guns N' Roses performed there on 19, 20, and 22 February 1992 and 12, 14, and 15 January 1993 during their Use Your Illusion Tour, then again on December 19, 2009 during their Chinese Democracy tour.

Madonna played five shows on 13, 14, 16, 17 and 19 December 1993 which concluded her tour The Girlie Show. She also held two concerts on 20 and 21 September 2006 as part of the Confessions Tour.

Mariah Carey performed there for the first time on her Daydream World Tour, on 7, 10, and 14 March 1996, bringing in a total of 150,000 people with the three dates, she obtained the record for best-selling tickets in less than one hour. In 1998, the singer returned to Japan on her Butterfly World Tour, where she broke her old record, this time selling out 200,000 tickets in less than one hour across four shows on 11, 14, 17, and 20 January. She would return to the stadium for two shows in 2000 with her Rainbow World Tour.

Whitney Houston played two shows on 13 and 14 May 1997 during her Pacific Rim Tour.

Celine Dion has performed five shows at the Dome. She performed on 31 January and 1 February 1999 as part of her Let's Talk About Love World Tour; 8 and 9 March 2008 as part of her Taking Chances World Tour; and 26 June 2018 as part of her Live 2018 tour. Dion was scheduled to perform two shows on 18 and 19 November 2014 as part of her Asia Tour, but the shows were cancelled.

Beyoncé kicked off the first show on her third concert tour The Beyoncé Experience on 10 April 2007.

Coldplay have played the venue three times; first on 19 April 2017 during their A Head Full of Dreams Tour, and further two times on 6 and 7 November 2023 during their Music of the Spheres World Tour.

Taylor Swift opened her 1989 World Tour at the venue with two concerts on 5 and 6 May 2015, and she played two more shows on 20 and 21 November 2018 as part of the Reputation Stadium Tour. She also played four consecutive concerts on 7-10 February 2024 for The Eras Tour.

Bruno Mars performed three concerts in October 2022 and returned for seven more concerts in January 2024, as part of his 2022-24 tour, becoming the biggest shows in Japan by an international act in the 21st century.

G-Dragon will perform two shows on May 10 and 11, 2025, as part of his Übermensch World Tour.

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