Tokyo, Japan – This autumn, Japan’s beloved Art Week Tokyo is back. From 5–9 November 2025, over 50 museums, galleries, and cultural spaces across the city will sync up for the citywide event that turns creativity into a travel itinerary. Partnered with Art Basel and now in its fourth and most ambitious edition, the 2025 programme positions Tokyo as one of the most globally connected art capitals of the moment.

Think: hopping between architectural gems, museum blockbusters, edgy indie galleries, late-night artist cocktails, and all of it linked by a free shuttle bus system worthy of a futuristic theme park.

At the centre of it all is AWT Focus, this year curated by Zurich-based curator and cultural provocateur Adam Szymczyk. His exhibition, What Is Real?, asks a question we’ve all been wrestling with in an age of deepfakes, digital personas, and fractured truths.

Spanning 100 works from 60 Japanese and international artists, the show explores how we locate meaning and belonging when the ground seems to shift beneath us. The historic Okura Museum of Art, Tokyo’s first private museum, built in 1917, becomes a stage for these confrontations, with a custom exhibition design by architect Hiroyuki Kimura that weaves the old and the new together. Expect works that might make you laugh, ache, reflect, or question everything.

You’ll also find an open-air escape in AWT Video: Rituals, or the Absurd Beauty of Prayers, a curated selection of single-channel films by 10 artists exploring the poetry of everyday rituals. Screenings take place in a stylish pop-up pavilion in Marunouchi, making it the perfect breather between gallery crawls.

Art Week Tokyo goes beyond just seeing art – it’s also about thinking. AWT Talks will gather star museum leaders from across the world, along with curator Naomi Beckwith of the Guggenheim and documenta 16, who delivers this year’s keynote on how art helps us make sense of the moment we’re living in.

High art meets high taste at the returning AWT Bar, where three-Michelin-star chef Shinobu Namae presents elevated bites at surprisingly friendly prices (500 yen!) alongside artisan cocktails designed by artists. Architect Ichio Matsuzawa’s “mirage-like” transparent bar design promises pure Tokyo nightlife magic. And if you’re an architecture buff? Don’t miss Kazuyo Sejima’s guided tours of Tokyo’s hidden micro-homes, a rare peek into the city’s secret residential marvels.

Forget intimidating wayfinding or long treks between venues: the AWT Bus makes the entire city feel walkably close. With seven hop-on, hop-off routes running every 15 minutes, you can glide from major institutions like the Mori Art Museum and National Art Center Tokyo to intimate galleries tucked into neighbourhood corners.

Every major museum is unveiling a standout show for the occasion — among them:

National Art Center Tokyo — Prism of the Real: a sweeping look at Japanese art from 1989–2010

Mori Art Museum — a monumental exhibition of architect Sou Fujimoto

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo — the first major retrospective of performance-driven artist Aki Sasamoto

Artizon Museum — a double-artist exploration of photography and identity

Meanwhile, the city’s gallery scene, from pioneers like Tokyo Gallery + BTAP to next-gen spaces like Misako & Rosen, brings international debuts, political storytelling, and experimental work you’ll want to follow home.

All participating galleries are free to enter, while museums are discounted; some events are even free. If you’ve ever wanted a stylish excuse to immerse yourself in the city’s creative pulse, this is your moment, as Art Week Tokyo comes to town this November.

Art Week Tokyo takes place from 5th to 9th November 2026. More information available here