Dead & Company at Sphere, photo by Alive Coverage

Tokyo may be the next location to receive a replication of Las Vegas’ Sphere. Last week, SBI Holdings, a Japanese financial group, announced that it had entered talks with Madison Square Garden (MSG) Entertainment to develop a large-scale immersive arena in Japan’s capital city.

“This is a project we are determined to pursue no matter what,” SBI Holdings Chairman and President Yoshitaka Kitao said at a press briefing.

The Tokyo sister venue to Sphere would parallel the original’s scale with a total capacity of approximately 20,000, enclosed in the venue’s signature wrap-around LED displays and complete with its immersive audio and haptics systems. Approximately ¥350 billion ($2.2 billion)  would be required to complete the project, though Kitao suggested that figure could reach as high as ¥500 billion ($3.1 billion) depending on construction costs. SB Holdings’ partnership with MSG Entertainment would continue its push into the entertainment sector, and the resulting venue would host live concerts, films and “Cool Japan” content, as a centerpiece for the nation’s tourism promotion strategy focused on leveraging its globally known intellectual property in immersive experiences.

Tokyo’s Sphere is the latest in several announced and proposed franchises of the successful Sphere model. In 2024, MSG Entertainment announced plans for a sphere in Abu Dhabi, revealing the company’s long-held plans for “a global network of venues” and arriving as part of the United Arab Emirates Tourism 2030 project. Earlier this year, a smaller Sphere was proposed for development near Washington, D.C.’s metropolitan area.