When Fukusaburo Maeda and his wife Sohaku Yamashita founded the Nihon International Contemporary Art Festival (NICAF) in 1992, they were hoping to invigorate Japan's contemporary art scene. Perhaps they were ahead of their times, though, because while people were ready to come look at what was on show, they weren't ready to buy.
In 2005, they relaunched the event as Art Fair Tokyo and refocused it on a combination of contemporary and traditional art. That year, galleries at AFT recorded 300 million yen in sales, modest in comparison to Art Basel Miami 2006's $400 million -- but significant for Japan's art world.
Misa Shin came from the Mori Art Museum and fund-raising positions in New York to become AFT's executive director. A consummate art world insider, she discussed the state of Japan's art contemporary market with The Japan Times before next week's fair.