Tens of thousands of penlights come alive and give MUFG Stadium a glow as idol group Sakurazaka46 appears. All 33 members of the outfit appear on the main stage as the gallop of “The growing up train” settles in. As it picks up in intensity and rounds towards the chorus, the sold-out crowd inside the venue matches it via cheers and chants. 

Fans at an idol concert can be every bit as attention-grabbing as the group on stage. Seeing coordinated glowstick movement and energetic whoops at just the right time add to the overall oomph of this kind of pop. It seemed especially vital for Sakurazaka46 “5th Year Anniversary Live” held at Tokyo’s MUFG Stadium in the center of the capital, held on April 11 and 12. Across those two days a total of 140,000 people attended according to figures shared by Sony Music Japan — which, full disclosure, invited scrmbl to the April 12 show for review purposes — and one could certainly hear them.

That proved a vital component in underlining the larger moment. Besides being a conversation between performer and fan, idol music thrives on over-the-top touches both in the music and live. Sakurazaka46 have gone big before, with last year’s dome tour featuring water fountains, an intricate city set and, near its climax, actual circus performers including a Wheel of Death. 

The size of MUFG Stadium, however, actually made it harder for more detailed absurdities, with the stage instead featuring walkways extending to the other side of the venue. Some members definitely got a good cardio session running the same lengths professional sprinters are expected to go. Somewhat inexplicably, the side of the stage featured what looked like miniature Golden Gate Bridges. The video boards behind them stood as the most impressive permanent part of the stage, delivering a barrage of images for more upbeat songs bordering on a laser light show.

Dizzying videos aside, this set up meant that the tens-of-thousand-strong crowd could add significantly to the night, with their cheers and lightstick movement becoming an integral detail.  It also felt appropriate for a space aiming to become a concert hub in Tokyo.

MUFG Stadium is almost the same age as Sakurazaka46, emerging as the new “national stadium” intended to be the centerpiece venue for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The Games didn’t go quite as planned thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the venue (which only recently received its new corporate name) has emerged as a premier space for soccer, rugby, track and field, and a variety of other athletic endeavors.

Now it’s trying to do the same with live music. A handful of artists have performed at MUFG Stadium since 2020 — including Arashi (albeit to a completely empty space), Ado and Snow Man among others — yet that number is ratcheting up in 2026. Sakurazaka46’s fifth anniversary blowout was the second of six announced shows at MUFG Stadium this year (two of them being Mrs. GREEN APPLE, once this coming weekend and again at the start of July). It’s a tricky space to put on a show, but Sakurazaka46 offered a great template of how to approach it — with an assist from their fans.

Sakurazaka46 used the whole breadth of their stage over the nearly three-hour-long show, spreading out members to show just how mammoth this venue is for livelier numbers and isolating performers for solo or smaller unit numbers to add a sense of spectacle to the scene. It could feel like non-stop action at times, but with enough slower moments to keep the pace from becoming exhausting.

One of the biggest problems facing artists at MUFG Stadium has been noise issues. The acoustics of this biggie-sized joint can be tough, and some shows — most notably Ado’s 2024 show, wherein her vocals sounded off due to the environment — suffer because of it. Sakurazaka46 didn’t face this, though, in part because of the audience. They shouted and chanted frequently, and any potential moment to dwell on audio quality vanished when gobbled up by screaming.

It also meant moments of quiet carried extra weight. Late in the show, the opening notes of “Happy Birthday” rung out in the stadium, with a circular platform with lights arranged like candles on it. This led to a bit of Sakurazaka46 theatricality — few Oricon-topping acts incorporate something approaching conceptual dance into their repertoire like they do— before ripping into the melancholy “Unhappy birthday Koubun.” 

Better still came halfway through “Seijaku no Boryoku,” a twinkly dance-pop number with a heavy sense of melodrama. Around the midpoint, the music stopped and everything became eerily quiet, with the stage going dark save for one light over the central singer. The entirety of MUFG Stadium was silent for upwards of a minute, and it was the most impactful moment of the night.

A stadium show demands gameday-worthy touches, and “5th Year Anniversary Live” did work in a dazzling drone display during the pop stampede of “Addiction” (including a giant clown face appearing overhead) and fireworks shooting off at the end of set closer “Nobody’s fault.” Yet the detail that animated everything about Sakurazaka46’s biggest shows to date was the audience itself, adding extra power to an already forceful idol show. 

Here’s how to shine in a stadium — make the people feel like part of it all.