In 2009, when Festival/Tokyo took over from the annual Tokyo International Arts Festival, it burst forth with the slogan "Towards a New Real" and the resolve to stamp the city's name on the global arts map.

Back then the aim was to refresh the event, with Tokyo trying hard to land the 2016 Summer Olympics — "(the metropolitan government) offered tremendous financial and practical support in the hope of boosting the city's cultural appeal," Chiaki Soma, the program director since 2009, said at F/T 2013's press launch in early September.

Of course that Olympic quest failed in 2009, but as Soma spoke in September, with Tokyo the favorite to be awarded the 2020 games, she declared: "This is the time to ask ourselves again what the true value of F/T is, and where it should go from here."