Japan's largest Pablo Picasso exhibition ever opens in Tokyo next month. It's so big it occupies not one but two venues — the National Art Center, Tokyo, and the Suntory Museum of Art in Roppongi.

The idea that an exhibition could monopolize two museums will seem odd to observers in the West, where institutions compete for exhibitions and audiences alike.

The fact that such an arrangement was possible points to the importance of a rarely discussed stakeholder in Japan's art business: media companies.