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Why International Venues Are Betting on Taiwan

Oct 08, 2026 ・ 5 min read

Q: Zepp New Taipei opened in 2020, and six years have gone by since. Looking back now, which decisions do you feel really paid off? And are there any you'd make differently if you had the chance to do it again?

Shinichiro Honda: Actually, the best decision was opening a Zepp branch in Taiwan in the first place. Of course, we had a few options regarding whether to open here or not. However, we invested 100% ourselves in Taiwan, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. So opening Zepp on our own was itself the biggest and best decision. As for whether we would change anything if we could do it again, nothing at all. We simply made the best choice we could at the time.

Q: So at that time, did you have several options, or several overseas development projects happening at the same time?

Shinichiro Honda: It's a little bit of a corporate secret, but I can say that other cities were also being considered, or had plans in motion. But in the end, we settled on Taiwan. It's just business, so we're always thinking about other locations too. But at that time, our best choice was to open the Taiwan branch.

Q: Zepp New Taipei's opening in 2020 landed right in the middle of the pandemic, which caused real difficulties early on. Looking back, what went into deciding both the timing of the opening and the choice of a location outside central Taipei?

Shinichiro Honda: I believe that at the time, under COVID, every construction project was delayed or stopped to some degree. But luckily, Taiwan handled COVID quite well. So it was a different situation, and luckily we were able to make it happen. At the time, local concerts were allowed in Taiwan, though international ones weren't yet, so in the end we were able to proceed. One reason we opened when we did is that it was physically possible for us, and of course we also had to follow the agreement with the developer.

Of course, Taipei is a very good location, but as you know, land prices there are extremely high, so it's very hard to make the lease work as a business. Being a bit farther from the city center wasn't a problem for us. Compare it to Tokyo, for instance, going from Tokyo Station is about 15 minutes, and people there consider that very close. But for people in Taipei, crossing the river into New Taipei City, a separate municipality that wraps around Taipei proper, feels like a mental barrier, a high hurdle, like, "Why New Taipei City?" Realistically, though, 15 minutes really isn't far.

At the time, there were also multiple transit lines, not only the Taoyuan Airport MRT but also the Taipei Metro Circular Line, so transportation-wise, having two lines made it workable. It's the same with Zepp Nagoya and Zepp Sapporo, we always choose locations a bit apart from the station, because the land price is lower there. The key is being within 15 minutes of the city center. I think fans in Taipei are used to it by now, it's not that far. If we'd built it out in Linkou (林口), a newer district further out from the city center, it would have felt a lot farther.

▴Zepp New Taipei sits in Xinzhuang, on the western edge of New Taipei City, a short ride from central Taipei via the Taoyuan Airport MRT and the Taipei Metro Circular Line, the two lines Honda cited as key to the site's viability. (Photo: Map by Brien John / Created with Datawrapper)

Q: But at that time, did you think about the fact that you had to build a brand new venue, so the acoustics could be built exactly to fit your needs? In previous interviews, I've heard how challenging it is to fit a venue into an already constructed building, which isn't ideal for a livehouse. But Zepp New Taipei was built exactly the way you wanted it to be. But Zepp New Taipei was built exactly the way you wanted it to be.

Shinichiro Honda: Zepp is four stories, so it's a completely different structure to build. That's why, with Zepp venues, we always have to talk with the land developer from the very beginning, otherwise we can't build it safely. There were two types of Zepp: the old Tokyo venue (now closed) and Zepp Nagoya, and both of those were standalone buildings. The others are built-in structures, like Zepp DiverCity (Tokyo), Zepp Fukuoka, Zepp New Taipei, and Zepp Kuala Lumpur, they're all inside shopping malls. So for the ones inside shopping malls, that conversation with the developer starts from day one.

Q: Compared to venues around the world, what would you say feels distinctly Japanese about how Zepp is run?

Shinichiro Honda: Luckily, in Japan, Zepp has a network of stages and a lot of stability, and it's also easy to arrange long tours across the country. So the important part is that we keep providing a stable environment. It sounds easy, but it's hard to actually do. And of course, we also have to keep the equipment in good condition. Each venue has a technical partner who handles technical issues, and we make a point of maintaining a good relationship with them. So we really respect the technical side of things, it's not only about venue management, we have deep respect for our technical partners too. That's part of Zepp's quality.

Q: After years of running Zepp in Taiwan, what stands out to you about Taiwan's music culture?

Shinichiro Honda: In the Chinese-language music market worldwide, the epicenter, the core, is Taiwan. I say that strongly because historically, artists like Jay Chou (周杰倫) and Mayday (五月天), and so many others, come from Taiwan. And Chinese communities from Southeast Asia and mainland China look to Taipei first, they come to Taipei, establish themselves, achieve big success, and then go back out to the world. And now mainland China is also developing its own part of this, and that should keep getting better. But I feel Taiwan is the center of Chinese-language music. And of course, I also understand the indigenous side, their language, their culture, and the music in their language is quite important too. So the blend of the Mandarin Chinese aspect and the indigenous aspect is a very important part of that. And in mainland China, it's just Mandarin, right? But in Taiwan, there's also Hakka and other languages that are respected. So I still feel Taiwan is a very mixed center.

Q: We're talking about culture, so what kind of Taiwanese music do you usually listen to? Or what are you most interested in?

Shinichiro Honda: I think originality is the most important thing. I think it's basically the same in every country, every region. But, for example, a band like Flesh Juicer (血肉果汁機), they sing in Taiwanese and blend elements of Taiwanese culture into their music, like temple music. So I think the most interesting part is that kind of mix. And of course, I also love ABAO (阿爆 / 阿仍仍), the rhythms in indigenous music are completely different from the rhythmic feel of Mandarin Chinese music.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cL99wORTzk

Q: From a business standpoint, how would you describe Taiwan's live event market today, and where do you see it heading?

Shinichiro Honda: This is clearly a market in the middle of a growth phase. Right now, all the venues are full on weekends, not just Zepp, and that's a very good thing. But the next phase isn't just about focusing on weekends. In Japan, there are lots of shows, lots of domestic and international artists, so eventually you get weekday shows too. Nowadays, many Japanese people, especially in cities like Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, are happy to go to a show even on a weekday; there's no mental barrier. It's like, "Oh, today's Monday, but I don't care, we're going anyway." So if Taiwanese fans come to feel that a weeknight concert is just as fine, the market can grow even bigger.

Q: Based on the data we've gathered, the number of events at Zepp New Taipei has stayed fairly steady over the years, but they've become increasingly concentrated on Fridays through Sundays. In 2024, those three days accounted for 70.1% of all events; in the first half of 2026, that number rose to 86.4%. What do you think is driving this shift?

Shinichiro Honda: Basically, weekends are good for selling tickets, so that's why everyone wants to have their show on a weekend. From the venue's side, once an artist pays a deposit, they can reserve it. It just comes down to getting people to come out. So the artists want their shows on weekends. As for the rise you mentioned, from 70% up to 86%, keep in mind this data doesn't include private events or events that aren't ticketed, and those also tend to happen on weekends. So simply put, almost 95% of weekends have something happening. Sometimes a show is originally scheduled for a weekend, but then a cancellation happens. After that, nobody wants to use that suddenly-open weekend slot, because when a cancellation happens as late as a month before, it's very hard to put together a new show, especially for international acts: there's no time to prepare, no time to do marketing. So the numbers are 70% and 86%, but from where I sit, it feels like weekends are almost always hard to book, especially over the past two or three years.

Q: But are you saying that, compared to two years ago, the percentage of weekend usage is roughly the same?

Shinichiro Honda: Yes, the same. But honestly, I think it had some influence when Legacy TERA opened, that was already about two years ago. Legacy TERA is the venue whose capacity is closest to mine, I believe it's around 1,600 to 1,700. So I think some Taiwanese artists prefer a slightly smaller stage, while more Japanese artists tend to prefer ours. Compared to a few years ago, we now have the highest ratio of Japanese artists performing at Zepp New Taipei; almost every month we have five or six Japanese artists performing. But from a business standpoint, it has nothing to do with which country the artist is from. These promoters all want the weekend slot. I believe it's the same for Legacy too.

It's not a problem for everyone to have shows on weekdays. But sometimes, an artist's show fee is fixed. So obviously, whether the show is on a weekend or a weekday, the audience turnout is different. There's a much higher chance of recouping the cost of the show on a weekend. That's why people prefer weekends. And of course, for people coming from farther-flung cities like Keelung (基隆), Taichung (臺中), Tainan (臺南), or Kaohsiung (高雄), cities anywhere from about an hour to several hours from Taipei by rail, they can come on a weekend. But on a weekday, if they head to Taipei after work, it's already too late, and by the time they'd go home, there's no more high-speed rail. So weekends are still stronger.

Q: You talked about Japanese artists and Thai artists. So over the past few years, Japanese artists have made up roughly a third of the acts performing at Zepp New Taipei, with the rest coming mainly from Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, the U.S., the U.K., and China. Thai artists in particular stand out, and the number booked in just the first half of this year already matches the combined total from the past two years. So the number of Thai artists is rising, and this kind of lineup diversity, I believe, is one of the defining features of the Taiwan market. From your experience, how would you describe Taiwanese fans' tastes in live music, and how have those tastes been changing?

Shinichiro Honda: Thai music is on the rise right now. We've had two or three Thai concerts just recently, that's a big difference compared to three or four years ago, when there weren't many. And in terms of fan tastes, obviously Thai content, especially the BL side, boys' love, resonates really well between Thailand and Taiwan. The Korean side has been declining a bit, but I still feel fandom power is very strong in the K-pop market. So basically, especially at Zepp, we still get a lot of fan meetings, whether Thai pop or K-pop. While we do see domestic artists hold fan meetings at Zepp venues in Japan, compared to our overseas venues, my sense is that regular concerts are still far more common there. On the other hand, K-pop and T-pop lean heavily into the fan meeting format—that is simply how the culture works for them.

I'd say the difference between the Taiwan and Tokyo markets is that Tokyo has a lot more small venues. In Japan, venues under 1,000 capacity each have their own character. Shimokitazawa, a neighborhood in Tokyo, has so many different genres of venues, some of them under 200 capacity, but they have really great music, each with its own distinct taste, more world music, more rock, more hardcore, whatever it may be. Every venue has its own color. Of course, they're still running a business, so they put on many types of shows, but they clearly have their own character. So, if I had to put it this way, if the Taipei market had more venues at a smaller scale but with more character, like more of a Bossa nova venue, a jazz venue, a Ska venue, that would mean people who like that kind of distinct scene are getting more interested in the broader culture around the music, not just the music.

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Q: Every music industry has its own systems and working habits, shaped by everyone from industry professionals to neighboring businesses and residents to government agencies. What differences have you noticed between Taiwan and Japan in this regard, and how have you adapted?

Shinichiro Honda: There's no huge difference, but take supporting Taiwanese culture, or helping the pop music community develop Taiwan's music industry, in Japan there's no real habit of that, because we already had a lot of opportunity and culture around listening to and creating music, so the government never needed to support it. It's seen as a hobby. Japanese people think a hobby is a hobby, it doesn't need help. Back then, people didn't really recognize this as an industry.

But now, as the entertainment business is going more international, the government has started to recognize that entertainment is an important industry. Taiwan's market is in the middle of this growth, and I think it's watching other countries like Japan or Korea. I believe Taiwan is especially watching Korea's success. So Taiwan's Ministry of Culture is a bit like Korea's KOCCA, the Korea Creative Content Agency, putting subsidies toward promotion. So the biggest difference is the support system. In Japan right now, it's not the Ministry of Culture, it's actually the economic affairs side, METI, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, that runs a subsidy called IP360. It's a subsidy for companies or individuals who invest or work overseas doing something creative. So my answer is that the support from Taiwan's Ministry of Culture is quite different from Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs.

METI feels roughly similar to the Ministry of Culture, but our Agency for Cultural Affairs basically protects and supports Japan's traditional music, not pop music. KOCCA and TAICCA, the Taiwan Creative Content Agency, on the other hand, are there to support modern pop music, at least that's how it looks to me. But in Japan's case, we also have the Japan Foundation, an international exchange organization that supports overseas activities too, but that falls under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Who pays for it? The government does, but which department handles it depends on each case.

The other big difference is what comes from the neighbors, quite literally. When it comes to noise, Japanese people are extremely sensitive about it. Japan is basically a quiet culture, right? I feel Taiwan is also quiet in some ways, but the culture here is much more energetic. So Japanese people are very sensitive even to a small sound. In Japan, we focus a lot on noise control, especially outdoors. The decibel limits are very strictly controlled, under 90 decibels or so. We also sometimes get complaints in Japan because a crowd is still outside after a show, not going home, they're just happy and hanging around. So whose responsibility is that? Sometimes it's the venue's, sometimes the organizer's. People also need to understand the rules, understand the neighborhood. So on the noise side, I feel Taiwanese people are more understanding.

I think that's also related to the city. Tokyo, as you know, is a super dense, compact city, so even a small amount of noise affects a lot of people living close by. Even in areas like Daikanyama or Shibuya, once you step into a residential area, it's very compact, and some venues are really close to people's homes downtown. That's why we have to be very careful about the numbers.

Q: Over the past decade, more and more Taiwanese artists have performed in Japan. Setting aside the number of shows, do you think demand for and acceptance of Taiwanese music is genuinely growing in Japan?

Shinichiro Honda: Ah, yes, I think it's increasing, partly because I work in this industry myself, so I see it from a certain angle. If I just think about listening to Taiwanese music generally, the growing access to it is really thanks to music streaming, especially Spotify, sometimes YouTube. KKBOX isn't well known in Japan, but Spotify is a good way for people to discover new Taiwanese music. In Japan, people's exposure to Taiwanese music has been pretty limited, mostly just Jay Chou or Mayday, names that are very well known in the Chinese-language music world, especially for people learning Chinese, like myself. But current Taiwanese music is very international and quite distinctive. Artists like ØZI, Yellow (黃宣), Marz23, Flesh Juicer, and Julia Wu (吳卓源) are part of a newer generation coming up, artists maybe under 40. That generation is strong, interesting, and quite international. That's actually part of why Japanese audiences have a good ear for this kind of thing. Japanese people really love listening to music, that's part of why we still have Tower Records and HMV here. Japanese listeners tend to be pretty critical, pretty demanding, but Taiwanese music is genuinely good, so more and more people are coming to understand what it actually sounds like. That's why what's happening in Tokyo right now, the StreetVoice-backed PARK PARK @ TOKYO series, I think that's a really nice effort. We hope to see more events like that, so Japanese audiences get the chance to see Taiwanese artists in person, in Tokyo, Osaka, or Fukuoka. Twenty years ago, it was completely different.

Taiwanese fans who like Japanese music feel different from Japanese fans who like Japanese music. Why is that? With Japanese audiences, say if I like idols, I'll always like idols; If I'm into visual rock, I'll always be into visual rock. But in Taiwan, people who like Japanese music switch around so many times. It's interesting, but, you know, since it's not your mother tongue, I think that's why it's easier to move around between different things. So that's a different culture.

LiSA ▴LiSA “ONLiNE LEO-NiNE inTAiWAN”EXCLUSiVE ViEWiNG PARTY. (Photo: Zepp New Taipei)

Q: I think that's what makes Taiwan very, very unique, because it's just like one big community. But in other countries, you have lots of different, smaller communities, and if you like one, you won't like the other. It's like, if you eat ramen, you won't eat pizza. But in Taiwan, you just eat everything.
In 2023, Zepp ran a series of Zepp Premium shows that brought Taiwanese and Japanese artists onto the same stage, but the series wasn't continued after that. How would you assess what it achieved, and what was that experience like for you?

Shinichiro Honda: Yes, there were several reasons. The first is that COVID had just ended, and Japanese artists were always a bit nervous about doing a live show overseas, so we needed to prove that it could be done. Normally, as a venue, Zepp doesn't put on its own shows. We just host promoters. But for this series, we took it on ourselves, inviting a Japanese artist and a Taiwanese artist together, and the focus was always on the relationship between them. Sometimes a Japanese artist would say, "I love this Taiwanese artist," and sometimes a Taiwanese artist would say, "I love that Japanese artist," so we could connect them.

In Japan, we call this format 対バン (taiban), basically a two-act co-bill show. But in Taiwan, ticket sales for that kind of show aren't always great. I once saw a fantastic event here featuring two incredible local artists—musically, it was fascinating—yet it wasn't sold out, and I remember thinking, "Huh, why not?" In Japan, taiban shows are viewed very differently. Audiences love them because they offer a chance to discover another artist with a similar sensibility. When a taiban show takes place, fans see that Artist A respects Artist B, or vice versa, and that mutual connection inspires the audience to explore the other's music as well. That is the mindset behind it.

But I think the mindset in Taiwan is different. Recently Suchmos did a taiban show with Fujii Kaze, but those are both massive superstars. Taiban shows happen a lot in Japan, and they also halve the pressure on the artist. If the turnout isn't huge, there's an excuse, it was a planned collaborative event, not your own solo show.

So, yes, that's part of why it happened, the relationship between the two artists. One reason was that we could finally hold events again after COVID, and I also wanted Japanese artists to know that there's a Zepp in Taiwan too. In the middle of COVID, this also tied into Zepp New Taipei's opening. Japanese press and TV were saying that livehouses were a dangerous place for COVID to spread, so the general perception was that live venues were risky. Given that climate, we really couldn't publicize that we'd opened Zepp New Taipei at the time. So one purpose of Zepp Premium was to make that announcement, and another was collaboration between Japan and Taiwan.

It also happened on weekdays. We left weekends to local promoters since that's what they wanted, so we basically chose Thursdays or Fridays. That's part of why we've been pushing weekday shows ever since. And one more reason, I personally needed to understand the production process, how Taiwanese musicians and staff operate on the day of a show, their way of thinking, how they run things. Since I'm the one managing the overseas side of the business, I wanted to understand their mindset. That's why we did Zepp Premium. Later on, the booking calendar got very full, so we just stopped. If I get the chance, we could bring it back.

▴A poster for one of the Zepp Premium co-bills, pairing Japanese bassist and producer Seiji Kameda with rapper SKY-HI against Taiwanese math rock band Elephant Gym (大象體操), staged at Zepp New Taipei in February 2023. (Photo: Zepp New Taipei)

Q: Zepp now operates 11 venues across Japan, Taiwan, and Malaysia, and beyond exporting Japanese artists overseas, how can non-Japanese artists work with Zepp to tour across these venues?

Shinichiro Honda: For Taiwanese or Malaysian artists, the most important factor is popularity in Japan. That's the key. If a Taiwanese artist has popularity in Japan, they can put together a tour, like Accusefive (告五人). They've already played both Osaka and Zepp Haneda. Accusefive is actually the only Taiwanese artist to have played all three, Kuala Lumpur, Zepp New Taipei, and Osaka.

So some Japanese artists naturally get to play Zepp venues in Japan, Taiwan, and Malaysia. It doesn't really happen the same way for Malaysian artists. Only a few have played Zepp New Taipei, like the Malaysian artist Ivy, and that's rare. And that kind of artist is completely unknown in Japan.

So this is really a matter of Chinese-language music culture. In any case, we have to be an open venue for everyone. Once an artist has the drawing power to sell around 2,000 tickets, they can choose our venue. It doesn't matter that our capital comes from Japan. Our mission is to support the development of local music and entertainment. So for us, it doesn't matter who the client is.

The first thing is that artists who are popular enough in Japan to sell 2,000 tickets are already rare to begin with, whether in Taiwan, Malaysia, or anywhere else. Actually, for overseas artists, in Japan there's a monthly managers' meeting with the Tokyo representative office, and so on. Recently, bookings for Western acts have been decreasing a bit, over the past four or five years. Back when I joined this industry 12 years ago, we still had a lot of Western acts. But that's gradually declined, and touring with it. K-pop is still strong though, so a lot of what's supporting this market now is K-pop coming in, and T-pop too. So the market is shifting a bit, and YouTubers are also putting on a lot of events these days.

Q: But does Zepp actually provide anything, I mean, if an artist chooses to work with Zepp to tour across these venues, what kind of service can Zepp offer them?

Shinichiro Honda: Unfortunately, we're not a travel agency, so we can't put together tours ourselves. But what we do provide is almost the same structure, technically speaking. Our venues are built to nearly identical specs, so on the production side, it's easy for a show to replicate across them. We standardize the blueprint, and we've also been focusing on LED screens, especially for Taiwan. When we first opened Zepp New Taipei, we put in a screen, but everyone said, oh, this is a bit small, make it bigger. Once we got that feedback, we made it bigger. Technically, if you place elements on the left, right, or top of the screen, visually the picture already looks complete, but Taiwanese audiences, especially across the Chinese-speaking world, really like a big screen. That's why this past Lunar New Year we installed a large screen, pixel pitch 1.86, super high resolution. That was our best investment for Taiwanese audiences, investing in a good future, so to speak. Now Malaysia is thinking about doing the same. Their stage is even bigger, so the cost is even higher.

Zepp New Taipei1 ▴Photo: Zepp New Taipei

Q: Finally, what's next for Zepp New Taipei, and what are your plans or goals?

Shinichiro Honda: Our pleasure, actually, is that we get to be part of Taiwan's entertainment scene as foreign capital. That's something we can do, I believe, because we're a Japanese company. So a lot of Japanese people find it easy to visit our branch here. Previously, in Taiwan's entertainment scene, having Japanese artists come to Taiwan was a good thing, not just for entertainment, but economically too. So, as part of the entertainment industry's infrastructure, we'd like to be more than just that, we'd like to be involved in, and be a part of, Taiwan's culture itself. That's my hope, the company's hope.

Author: Brien John

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