Tokyo was once the centre of Asia’s art scene. Georgia Adam explains that it could now be ready to dethrone Hong Kong again.
Back in the 1980s, Japan dominated the market for Impressionist and Modern art—for example, importing $1.5bn worth of paintings alone in the first nine months of 1989. At one point it was estimated that a third of the world’s art sales was represented by Japanese buyers during the frenzied “bubble period” when all asset prices soared.
Then it all came crashing down, and today Japan’s share of the market is so small that the 2021 UBS and Art Basel global art market report does not even put a figure on it. Recently the publication Nikkei Asia reported that Art Tokyo –the country’s leading fair—put the domestic market at ¥236.3bn ($2.1bn) in 2020, only 4% of the global share.
But will that change with the decision taken in December 2020 to deregulate the Japanese tax system to allow art imports without paying duty in freeport areas?
Kono-do attitude
“The government, especially Taro Kono [the minister for regulatory reform], is quite determined to grow the art business in Japan, so that Japan will become a hub in Asia like Hong Kong,” says Yasuaki Ishizaka, the chairman of Sotheby’s Japan... Keep reading on The Art Newspaper.
Back in the 1980s, Japan dominated the market for Impressionist and Modern art—for example, importing $1.5bn worth of paintings alone in the first nine months of 1989. At one point it was estimated that a third of the world’s art sales was represented by Japanese buyers during the frenzied “bubble period” when all asset prices soared.
Then it all came crashing down, and today Japan’s share of the market is so small that the 2021 UBS and Art Basel global art market report does not even put a figure on it. Recently the publication Nikkei Asia reported that Art Tokyo –the country’s leading fair—put the domestic market at ¥236.3bn ($2.1bn) in 2020, only 4% of the global share.
But will that change with the decision taken in December 2020 to deregulate the Japanese tax system to allow art imports without paying duty in freeport areas?
Kono-do attitude
“The government, especially Taro Kono [the minister for regulatory reform], is quite determined to grow the art business in Japan, so that Japan will become a hub in Asia like Hong Kong,” says Yasuaki Ishizaka, the chairman of Sotheby’s Japan... Keep reading on The Art Newspaper.