SNA (Tokyo) — Joe Walsh of the Eagles explains that major music groups have been avoiding Japan in recent years because suitable venues are no longer available.

Joe Walsh: All of those of us who played the Budokan in the old days tell just wonderful stories about that experience. What has happened is that it is now the 21st century, and its the beginning of the digital age, and the live performing experience has changed a lot from the old days. There’s a lot of digital involvement. The visual part of the performance has come way up in importance, and the traditional venues in Japan that we always played are no longer what we need to give a good performance. There is really no place, and those venues are used for other functions and they’re hard to get because they’re not available. So most of the bigger acts have regretfully had to skip Japan and maybe go on to Australia and such. We don’t want to, but the logistics to make a good performance in Japan are just too much. It’s too hard. And I think the answer is that Japan has a designed modern performing arts center so we have a real place to play. And we will come. And I think that will bring Japan and Tokyo back as being a main hub for touring international artists. And so I’m here just to say as an artist, that’s the way we feel. We are sad because its too hard to come here and do what we have to do in this day and age. And I hope you will think about this and consider it.