In early 2021, many major cities in Japan saw their worse Covid-19 case numbers yet, leading the government to declare their second state of emergency since the pandemic began in these highly affected prefectures. Fortunately, Japan has a much smaller number of Covid-19 cases than the western world, and the state of emergency was eased on March 21st, with current lockdown regulations urging bars and restaurants serving alcohol in subject areas to close by 9 PM. While some clubs and bars have already had to shut down, most venues, promoters and DJs are doing their best to survive as they struggle with infection risks and call for further government support.

Global Hearts, the company that runs the five-year-old club Contact in Tokyo, was one of the organizations hit particularly hard. They run another big club, Sound Museum Vision, a couple of DJ bars, restaurants and a dance studio, most of which are in Shibuya. Their rental costs alone are substantial. However, they don't see only the downsides, but also positive changes in their audience and the atmosphere of the dance floor.

In February, when Tokyo was in the middle of its second state of emergency, we spoke to the director of Contact, Yuko Ichikawa, to hear about how the club has got through the past year and what she thinks the future holds.

What's the current vibe in Japan and Japanese nightlife generally?

The first state of emergency was declared at the beginning of April 2020. However, clubs and promoters had already started cancelling or postponing events at their own decision since March. After two months, the authorities began easing restrictions in phases. Most of the clubs in Tokyo reopened in July. We were open as normal for six months until December before the number of new cases started increasing again, which led to the second state of emergency in January. This time the Tokyo metropolitan government gave ¥60,000 ($550 USD) per day per establishment if we followed the 8 PM curfew (reduced to ¥40,000 since the new 9 PM curfew, put into effect on March 21st).

Even though I saw many posts on social media saying that those businesses wouldn't survive if they followed the curfew, most places in town closed by 8 PM.

That ¥60,000 offering was a big one. If you closed your place for one month, you could receive ¥1.8 million ($16,500 USD). That amount would be more than your rent if the establishment is not big. The last time they offered ¥500,000 per establishment, but if you run more than two places, you'd only get ¥100,000 at maximum, so it's a bit better than last time. People seem to be less pessimistic at a personal level. Although we have more new cases and patients with serious symptoms at the moment compared to April and May 2020, we seem to be getting used to it. You can see lots of people in the city. We cannot have events as normal, but we are not really in a dark mood like last time.

How has the pandemic been affecting your club Contact and Global Hearts?

We run two bigger clubs, Contact and Sound Museum Vision, and three DJ bars: Bridge, WREP and Heart. Also, there's an event space called Freedom, a dance studio called Mission, and two restaurants: microcosmos and FRAMES. We've got these nine spaces in total, and it's really hard.

At Contact, we started seeing the impact of Covid-19 last February. Around the end of January 2020, booking agents in other countries started asking if it was safe for their artists to play in Japan, then DJs started cancelling gigs in February. Also, the audience gradually stopped coming. On weekends, 30 percent of the audience at Contact were from overseas, so having no tourists visiting here is a huge blow. As for the dance studio, we had received lots of phone calls from parents of young dancers, asking like, "please shut the studio, otherwise my children will go there." At that time, everyone was working from home, and there was nobody in the city, so we didn't have customers at restaurants either. We had zero income, yet we had to pay rents and salaries for full-time employees. It was a tough time. Even though we reopened in July, it's difficult to return to profitability. We have been in the red since then.

Contact focused on livestream events without audiences during the second state of emergency, while other venues shifted their programmes to afternoon parties. Why is that?

We actually started doing afternoon parties in February. But the company was worried about losing money by opening early hours. Even if Contact makes ¥300,000 in one afternoon, we'd just break even with labour costs and stocking alcohol. But if there are no events at all, everyone from staff members to DJs would lose their motivation. Of course, there are differences between afternoon parties and all-night events, but I think we should keep doing something. Otherwise, some people might think about quitting DJing.

Tell me about Global Hearts' new subscription service.

It's a subscription to the clubs rather than for streaming. There are three options—with the cheapest one (¥490 per month), you can watch the streams as well as get a ¥500 discount on the club's entrance fees. The most expensive plan costs ¥5,000 per month, which is quite an amount, and you get free access to all our clubs and bars. Paid members can watch all the archival sets too. Contact already had its own membership program, and the admission fee for early hours is only ¥1000, so I'm not quite sure which deal is better, to be honest. It's been five years since Contact opened, and we now have 50,000 to 60,000 registered members.

You did a crowdfunding campaign last June, how did it go? As with most venues, you offered merchandise or drink tickets as rewards. But I thought your idea of also directly supporting part-time staff members was great.

I started thinking of doing a crowdfunding campaign early on. But I didn't wanna be like, "we have to shut down after all" while asking people for donations. That was the reason we started the campaign after having seen our way to reopening. We had a late start compared to other venues, and I was a bit worried because someone said, "people might run out of money, Contact should get cracking on it too!" It turned out, though, that so many people showed their support despite our relatively short history in Tokyo's club scene. I feel so grateful for that.

I also felt there's no point in reopening the club if we couldn't keep our non-full-time employees working there. Now they can apply for the support fund, but at the beginning, they had no compensation at all. That's why the direct support of our part-time staff had to be included as one of the rewards of our campaign.

Have you received enough financial support from the government? In Japan's culture and art sector, many online petitions are pleading for direct support, from SaveOurSpace, which launched in the early stages of the pandemic, to the ongoing SaveTheDance campaign.

SaveOurSpace has inspired other campaigns, such as SaveTheCinema, and eventually reached people who otherwise might not be interested in club culture or art. I felt like our voices could become a springboard for political change.

As a company, we have received money from the government of Tokyo via the Infection Expansion Prevention Cooperation Fund, the Employment Adjustment Subsidy, Subsidy Program For Sustaining Businesses, and a rent subsidy for businesses, which Contact itself was ineligible for. But it's far from enough. For artists or business operators, there was the Emergency Comprehensive Aid Package For Cultural Art Activities By Cultural Affairs and J-LODlive by METI (a subsidy for businesses to produce and distribute video clips of live performances filmed in Japan for overseas markets). Application deadlines for these grants were extended because they didn't use up the budgets by the time they had planned initially. I heard so many people were retrying as their applications got declined.

As one of the infection prevention measures, Contact has unique paintings on the dance floor for social distancing. Not like average circles, they seem to have some artistic element.

We discussed how we'd encourage our customers to keep their distance. I wanted to have something artistic rather than normal squares, so we decided to work with MES, who had already appeared at Contact with an art performance using neon tape. It is difficult to keep people distanced completely, but their painting seems to be working well as it grabs attention.

How far ahead are you working on bookings now?

Usually, we'd have many bookings done six months or one year ahead, but now it's difficult to do that because we don't know what will happen. Even though I want to reschedule bookings of international artists who were supposed to visit Japan last year, I haven't been in touch with their agents for a while. We have no idea when Japan will reopen its borders for them, and it would be hard to invite international artists while there is a 14-day quarantine rule. We cannot sign contracts, pay booking fees and a 50% deposit for artist fees now. I can't be bothered with the refund process. Even if the state of emergency is lifted, we still might have some restrictions like a 10 PM curfew.

We still wonder if people will come when we can open the club until morning. When it's all local, the same DJs who play in clubs that are open in Tokyo every week, it naturally becomes a challenge to draw audiences.

Same goes for outdoor events?

Exactly. You would find a similar lineup at every outdoor festival and every club. Japan has lots of talented DJs, and we could have a great night with all locals, but after all, we don't have enough DJs for the number of clubs. What we discuss now is: how can we attract 300 people for a night with all Japanese DJs?

Contact's capacity is around 800, so is the number 300 sort of a minimum?

I mean, it wouldn't work out well as a party if we had less than that. Even if 300 people would come, it depends on the total cost of that night whether we could profit. There is one good thing, though. Most people who come to clubs now have a strong sense of purpose to listen to DJs or dance, so they naturally stay on the dance floor for longer. That creates good vibes considering the small number of attendees.

Going back to all-local lineups, some people think it's a great opportunity for Japanese artists, and others, including DJs, think it's a bit boring and hope DJs from overseas can come to play soon. We all have different points of views. But I think the world is not that big, and if DJs could come to Japan, even with a ten-to-15-hour flight, then I think we should bring them to inspire each other. Even though we have a great night with the all-Japanese lineups sometimes, we would get stuck in a rut if a situation like this continues for a long time. Like, when something interesting comes up in my mind, often it's already been booked somewhere else.

I remember one of your Facebook posts from last spring said something like, "My life in the club industry will be over with Covid-19." Do you still feel this way?

Honestly, it's physically tough for me because of my age. I'd stay in the club until morning every weekend, sometimes do that on weekdays. That lifestyle is getting harder for me. Something that's supposed to be fun is getting not very fun. I wanted to book something like a grand finale for myself before switching my employment contract to non-full-time. But now we're facing this crisis, and the club might shut down before I retire. I don't want to quit just yet. I'll stay for a bit more and see how it goes.

How do you think the club scene in Tokyo or Japan will be in 2021?

Looking back on the past year, it's obvious that the Japanese government is being way too slow to respond to the pandemic. Japan is behind in the vaccine process also compared to other countries. On top of that, they prioritize the Olympics. With these things in mind, I think it will take a long time until we get out of the Covid-19-related crisis.

Audiences in clubs change on a three-year cycle like with schools, but I feel that this pandemic is accelerating a generational shift. The core age group might become ten years younger than before. People who still come to clubs during this Covid-19 chaos are mainly younger generations. Adults have been camping or going to outdoor events instead. Lineups at Contact and other clubs have become centred on younger DJs too. It's great to see young, enthusiastic people giving it their all.

Although people in this industry worldwide have been discussing what the scene post-Covid will be like, I can see most of the festivals carrying over the same line ups from last year. I'm not the type of person who'd go to big festivals, really, but those global tendencies would affect the scene in Japan, so I'll keep my eyes on it.