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The country that invented the listening bar and then legalised dancing again in 2015. Rooms are small, systems are extraordinary, and the last train governs everything.
6 cities with a published scene.
Tokyo runs on the last train and the first train, with a four-hour gap in between that clubs have organised themselves around: you either leave at midnight or you stay until five. The reward for staying is the most carefully tuned sound in the world.
Osaka's club culture is direct and energetic, with multi-floor Shinsaibashi rooms connecting international electronic bookings to a fiercely local scene.
Japan's ancient cultural capital blends historic aesthetics with a fiercely independent underground dance scene anchored along the Kamogawa.
Explore our editors’ venue rankings across Japan.
Four floors around a mirror-ball atrium in Maruyamachō. The room that most visitors mean when they say they went clubbing in Tokyo, and still a good answer.
A multi-level Shibuya nightlife institution spanning three expansive dance floors, high-energy all-mix programming, and an electric youth crowd since 2000.