On September 3rd, Arashi held a concert at the National Stadium in Tokyo amidst violent rain and strong winds.
For the opening performance, the members had planned to fly on wires approximately 50 meters high. However, this was inevitably cancelled out of consideration for the members’ safety. Consequently, the boys appeared from underneath the stage in front of 70,000 fans, who were waiting in raincoats.
This was their fourth year in a row performing at the National Stadium. This year, due to typhoon number 12, their concert on September 2nd was postponed to the 4th. Sakurai Sho showed concern for their fans saying, “Not everyone could come to the postponed performance. It is very unfortunate.”
On the 3rd, a typhoon landed in the Shikoku and Chugoku regions, and strong winds even reached Tokyo. As a result of a delay in stage preparations, Arashi wasn’t able to hold a proper rehearsal, and so they hit the stage without a solid practice. There were possibilities for cancellation due to the weather, but the boys decided to fight the storm since there are only two performances in Tokyo, and this will be their last concerts of the year. Aiba Masaki even made a ‘teru teru bozu‘ (paper doll to pray for good weather), and prayed for a recovery in the weather.
The three-and-a-half hour performance concluded successfully amidst the pouring rain, with Arashi singing and dancing to a total of 39 songs (their main focus being on their latest album, “Beautiful World“). Although there were concerns, they used balloons and fireworks as planned for their performance.
During the finale, Aiba said, “I am very thankful that we were able to do the concert,” while Ohno Satoshi expressed, “I’m happy we were able to enjoy this big end-of-summer festival together.”
This concert was a part of Arashi’s nationwide tour, “ARASHI LIVE TOUR Beautiful World“, which brought together a total of 525,000 people. Keeping in mind the power shortage effect from March’s Tohoku Earthquake, they conserved energy by reducing last year’s special feature of the stage fountain. They were able to reduce power consumption by about 70% from last year. It’s said that 99% of their power consumption came from 20 car-powered generators.
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