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The story
On a 5ch thread where Hello! Project concertgoers gather, discussion turned to why tickets for Sunday night shows aren’t selling out the way they used to. Many pointed to a growing number of fans avoiding overnight stays because it would interfere with work the next day, along with earlier last trains on the Shinkansen and rising hotel and transportation costs for those traveling to shows. Others noted that stricter identity checks aimed at curbing ticket scalping have broken the old strategy of cheaply securing both a matinee and evening ticket as a set, revealing a structural shift that can’t simply be chalked up to fans “falling out of love” with the group.
What people said
Have more wimpy fans started only doing the Sunday matinee?
Exactly this.
Even if you head home first thing the next morning, you won't make it to work in time.
Wasn't that true both now and back then, though?
No money, no stamina.
Guys who used to make over 10 million yen a year have retired and now only go to shows near home.
Then just don't come to shows anymore.
Getting from one regional area back to another is even less realistic.
The last Shinkansen heading to regional areas has gotten earlier on every line.
The Tokaido Shinkansen added Shinagawa and Kyoto departures/arrivals to comply with the midnight cutoff rule, but…
That's part of it too, honestly. These days people apply for a ticket just in case, and only take paid leave the next day if the seat turns out to be really good. If it's a bad seat, they just let it go to waste.
They get to leave before we do, so they've got it easy lol
There's a thread for people who go solo, isn't there?
By that logic, the matinee shows shouldn't be selling out either, right?
Well, that's because there are fewer shows available there, so more effort goes toward regional shows instead.
For Hokkaido, just stay the night, come on.
If it starts too early, invited guests and industry people can't make it.
What kind of hotel are you booking? If it's a business hotel, you can cancel the day before, can't you?
And even that's only true for places that actually have a Shinkansen station.
Then the matinee would have to start too early and people couldn't make it. A 5pm start is just about right.
For a 1,500-capacity regional venue you can reach by Shinkansen, there's no need to do that. I've never booked ahead of time for one of those.
Background and Key Points
Several institutional and social shifts have combined to make Sunday night shows harder to sell out. The Ticket Resale Prohibition Act, which came into full effect in 2019, tightened identity verification and made it much harder to cheaply pick up leftover tickets and attend both a matinee and an evening show back to back, as fans used to do. In addition, Shinkansen last trains have increasingly been moved to earlier times in recent years to allow time for track maintenance work, narrowing the range of destinations fans can day-trip to and from. Hotel prices have also risen due to inbound tourism demand and inflation, raising the barrier to traveling for shows in general.
Within the thread, opinions were split between those who see this as a matter of fan demographics aging and retiring, straining stamina and finances, and those who see it as a problem with how organizers schedule the start and end times of shows. Both are likely contributing factors — the reality is probably a combination of several causes rather than something explainable by just one.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “Why Sunday night shows are far less full than they used to be.”
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