A major international art festival will be held in Tokyo from October to December 2025, aiming to bring new energy to the Odaiba waterfront area of the Japanese capital.

Organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and a related executive committee, Tokyo Odaiba Triennale 2025 will have the theme "Peaceful sleep disturbed by Jokisen — Wildness, Chaos and a New World," inspired by a kyoka comic poem from the 1850s. "Jokisen" means both a steamship and a kind of high-quality green tea in Japanese.

The poem is said to have been written to describe the confusion experienced by Japanese society by the 1850s arrival near Edo, now Tokyo, of U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew Perry's steamships, followed by the demand for the opening up of the closed country. Artillery batteries were set up in the Odaiba area following the arrival of the U.S. ships.

The organizers of the festival, scheduled to be held from Oct. 18 to Dec. 25 next year, say they aim to "adorn this district with something extraordinary by harnessing the power of cutting-edge art."

The triennale will take place across Odaiba, which has both modern attractions and important history, with event venues including Daiba Park, the head office building of Fuji Television Network and the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, better known as Miraikan.

The event will bring together works by famed Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama and other artists from Japan and abroad.

"We hope to convey the appeal of Tokyo and Odaiba through art," Jiro Miyamichi, director-general of the executive committee, said at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo on Wednesday.