Most international headlines about Japanese art this year have given glowing impressions, which is little surprise considering the country has no shortage of venues and events that draw global audiences. Hiroshima’s Simose Art Museum, for example, was crowned the world’s “most beautiful museum” with this year’s Prix Versailles architectural award, and Art Collaboration Kyoto has been lauded internationally as an innovative and refreshing stop on the art fair circuit.

The year also saw the arrival of Pace Gallery in Tokyo’s Azabudai Hills this summer, which marked the mega-gallery’s first foray into the Japanese market, and the grand opening of the Toda Building in November, an “artistic and cultural base” in the Kyobashi commercial district comprising a manga and anime museum as well as several leading contemporary art galleries, among other spaces.

Not all was rosy in the art world in 2024, however. Both public and private Japanese museums struggled to finance shows, care for collections and even keep their doors open. Shockwaves reverberated after news broke that the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, home to an impressive 20th-century art collection in Sakura, Chiba Prefecture, would be closing –– at least temporarily –– next year due to concerns about the museum’s profitability.