is a Japanese

convention center A convention center (American English; or conference centre in British English) is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typica ...

outside Tokyo, located in the

Mihama-ku is one of the six wards of the city of Chiba in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. As of April 2012, the ward had an estimated population of 149,314 and a population density of 7,060 persons per km². The total area was 21.16 km². Geography Mihaw ...

ward of Chiba City, in the northwest corner of Chiba Prefecture. Designed by Fumihiko Maki, it is accessible by Tokyo's commuter rail system. '' Makuhari'' is the name of the area, and Messe is a

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...

word meaning " trade fair". The convention center opened on October 9, 1989. It hosts many high-technology events. Makuhari Messe is close to Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, and to Chiba prefecture's black sand beaches. It is accessible from Kaihimmakuhari station on the Keiyō Line of

East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

(JR East). The center is the host of the annual Tokyo Auto Salon (modified car show, in January), the biennial Tokyo Motor Show (in October), the annual Tokyo Game Show ( video game hardware and software exhibition, in September), the annual Jump Festa (

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

, anime, and video game exposition, in December), and the biannual

Wonder Festival The , or , is a semiannual (February and August) event held in the Makuhari Messe, in Chiba, Japan. It is sponsored by the Kaiyodo manufacturing company. The main focus is to display and sell "garage kits", which are sculptures that usually represe ...

( toys, scale figures, and garage kits exposition, in February and July). The venue was host to several Nintendo Space World events. It was the venue for certain sports during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

Notable events

On June 14 and 15, 1997, the first official Pokémon Trading Card Game tournament was held here. On July 31, 1999, rock band Glay held their first Glay Expo concert, titled Glay Expo '99 Survival, at the venue. The concert garnered a total audience of about 200,000 people, making it the largest concert ever held by a single act in Japan, as certified by the Guinness World Records. Since 2000, the center has been used for the Summer Sonic music festival every year, where the venue hosts the Mountain and Sonic stages. On November 2 and 3, 2002, Red Hot Chili Peppers hosted a gig as part of the

By the way ''By the Way'' is the eighth studio album by the American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released July 9, 2002, on Warner Bros. Records. It sold more than 286,000 copies in its first week, and peaked at number two on the ''Billboard'' 200. Si ...

album tour. On April 23 and 24, 2011, Australian singer

Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time, having sold over 80 million records worldwide. She has been recognised for reinve ...

performed as part of her Aphrodite: Les Folies Tour. The venue was noted in 2005 for hosting the first round of the

Live8 Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland, from 6–8 July 2005 ...

concert. On 1 July 2005, the company that owns the convention center changed its name from "Nippon Convention Center" to "Makuhari Messe". On July 19 to 21, 2008,

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is best known for creating and producing the ''Star Wars'' and ' ...

presented a ''

Star Wars Celebration The ''Star Wars'' Celebration is a fan gathering to celebrate the ''Star Wars'' franchise. It began in 1999, when Lucasfilm held the ''Star Wars'' Celebration in Denver, Colorado to celebrate the upcoming release of '' Star Wars: Episode I � ...

Japan'' event at the venue to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Japanese premiere of Star Wars. The "Jack in the Box 2009 Summer" convention was held here on August 15, 2009, where numerous well-known acts performed, including the reunion performance of influential metal band Dead End. American pop singer Lady Gaga performed in the arena for the first time, as part of her debut headlining tour, The Fame Ball Tour, during the Summer Sonic Festival, on August 8, 2009 and for MTV Video Music Aid Japan in 2011. The center also hosted the Magic: The Gathering World Championship in 2010. It was scheduled to host the

Anime Contents Expo The also known as ACE was one of the largest anime trade fairs in the world, held annually in Japan. The first event was held in 2012. The event was held at Makuhari Messe, a convention and exhibition center in Tokyo Bay, in late March. In 2014 it ...

, hosted by the Comic-10 Shakai in March 2011 to counter the Tokyo International Anime Fair as part of their

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...

of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government under Governor

Shintarō Ishihara was a Japanese politician and writer who was Governor of Tokyo from 1999 to 2012. Being the former leader of the radical right Japan Restoration Party, he was one of the most prominent ultranationalists in modern Japanese politics. An ultranat ...

, but both events were cancelled after the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

. The first Anime Contents Expo was held on March 31 and on April 1, 2012, and was visited by 42,000 people. The Japanese band

The Gazette The Gazette (stylized as the GazettE), formerly known as , is a Japanese visual kei Rock music, rock band, formed in Kanagawa Prefecture, Kanagawa in early 2002.''Shoxx'' Vol 106 June 2007 pg 40-45 The band is currently signed to Sony Music Recor ...

held various concerts there, including their 10th-anniversary concert on March 10, 2012. The heavy metal annual festival tour Ozzfest took place here on May 11–12, 2013. This was the festival's first appearance in Japan. Kawaii metal band Babymetal has played a number of concerts here including the Legend 1997 show on 12/21/2013 for singer Su-metal's 16th birthday, which was recorded for live DVD. On their 2015 world tour, they would again play here and release the performance on live DVD as part of the Trilogy: Metal Resistance Episode III – Apocalypse limited edition DVD set available only to members of "The One". One Direction's Final Leg of their Take Me Home Tour was held in the International Exhibition Halls 7 and 8.

Mariah Carey Mariah Carey (; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Referred to as the " Songbird Supreme", she is noted for her five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style and signature use of the whi ...

performed in the arena for the first time, as part of her The Elusive Chanteuse Show on October 4, 2014. The Metal festival "Knotfest Japan" was held here on 15 and 16 November 2014. As an epilogue to their 25th anniversary, Luna Sea hosted the rock festival Lunatic Fest on June 27 and 28, 2015. Other acts include Siam Shade, Dir en grey,

9mm Parabellum Bullet is a Japanese rock band, formed in March 2004 in Yokohama. It consists of vocalist and rhythm guitarist Takuro Sugawara, guitarist and backing vocalist Yoshimitsu Taki, bassist Kazuhiko Nakamura, and drummer Chihiro Kamijo, who came up wit ...

and Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas the first night and Glay, Mucc and

Alexandros Alexandros may refer to: *Alexandros, a Greek name, the origin for the English name Alexander * Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great * Alexandros, Greece, a village on the island of Lefkada *Alexandros (band) , sty ...

the second. Techno-Pop group Perfume performed at concerts June 16, 18, and 19, 2016. It has been the venue of Magical Mirai, an annual Vocaloid exhibition and concert held usually during the end of August or early September, featuring

Hatsune Miku , also called Miku Hatsune, and officially code-named CV01, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media and its official moe anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mascot character, a 16-year-old girl with long, turquoise bu ...

since 2016. On December 2 and 3, 2017, the trance-pop duo fripSide performed at the venue for their “crossroads 2017-2018 tour”. In 2017 and 2018, it held the obstacle course show '' Kunoichi''.

Ariana Grande Ariana Grande-Butera ( ; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Her four-octave vocal range has received critical acclaim, and her personal life has been the subject of widespread media attention. She has received ...

played 3 shows at the arena for her 2017 Dangerous Woman Tour performing to over 52,000 people. Makuhari Messe became the venue for four sports during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The sports of fencing, taekwondo, karate, and wrestling were originally to be staged at Tokyo Big Sight. This move was a part of cost-cutting measures implemented by the organisers.

Karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...

has since been moved to the

Nippon Budokan The , often shortened to simply Budokan, is an indoor arena located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally built for the inaugural Olympic judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics. While its primary purpose is to host martial arts con ...

. Assigned halls for the Games are: * Hall A: For the Olympic Games, taekwondo and wrestling; then for the Paralympic Games,

sitting volleyball Sitting volleyball is a form of volleyball for athletes with a disability. As opposed to standing volleyball, sitting volleyball players must have at least one buttock in contact with the floor during the game. History Sitting volleyball was inve ...

; * Hall B: For the Olympic Games, fencing; then for the Paralympic Games, taekwondo and wheelchair fencing; * Hall C: For the Paralympic Games, goalball.

Gallery

File:Jrb_20081129_Makuhari_Messe_chiba_japan_003.jpg, Makuhari Messe Event Hall File:Makuharimesse_Facility-Conference.jpg, International Conference Hall of Makuhari Messe File:Jrb_20081129_Makuhari_Messe_chiba_japan_002.jpg, Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall 9 - 11 Hall (From Makuhari Event Hall side). File:Jrb_20081129_Makuhari_Messe_chiba_japan_001.jpg, Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall 1 - 8 Hall (From

Chiba Marine Stadium (official name: ) is a stadium in Chiba City, Chiba, Japan. It opened in 1990 and holds approximately 30,000 people. It is primarily used for baseball and is the home field of the Chiba Lotte Marines. It is also used for Rugby union. The stadium ...

side). File:Tms2007_01.jpg, Tokyo Motor Show (2007) File:Sega_booth,_Tokyo_Game_Show_20040926b.jpg, Tokyo Game Show (2004)

References

External links

Makuhari Messe website

{{Authority control Basketball venues in Japan Venues of the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic wrestling venues Olympic fencing venues Olympic taekwondo venues Convention centers in Japan Fumihiko Maki buildings Indoor arenas in Japan Modernist architecture in Japan Music venues in Japan Sports venues in Chiba (city) Tourist attractions in Chiba Prefecture Judo venues Music venues completed in 1989 Sports venues completed in 1989 1989 establishments in Japan