Even as art galleries and museums around the world contend with falling visitor numbers, stepping inside a Japanese museum can feel more like braving Mitsukoshi on the first day of the summer sales.
But while it's great to see art exhibitions packed with visitors, it's hard not to wonder whether Japan's love of gallery-going isn't causing more than a few problems -- principally, the ability of venues to keep up with demand. With frequent openings and short-term shows (major exhibitions rarely run for longer than 6-8 weeks and the turnaround time between them is amazingly fast), galleries are under pressure to come up with high-quality, well-researched exhibitions up to eight times a year.
No wonder, then, that some venues are resorting to that favorite Hollywood fallback: the sequel. But like the movies, things are rarely as good the second time around.