On Dec. 18, 2013, the Festival/Tokyo website announced that following the implementation of "a new administration system," Program Director Chiaki Soma, 38, would resign from her position and be replaced at the end of March 2014 by Sachio Ichimura, 64, the then chairman of F/T's executive committee.
The statement went on to praise Soma's six-year stint at the helm of the annual flagship event, stating that "it has attracted attention from around the world as a festival aspiring to create new values for the arts, and has grown to be an international performing-arts festival that represents not only Japan but also the whole of Asia."
However, no official explanation of the change has been forthcoming from F/T's executive committee; no questions have been asked in public by Arts Council Tokyo, part of whose declared mission is to foster "the autonomy and originality of culture and the arts"; and the independent Tokyo Culture Creation Project, a body that annually evaluates F/T, has also remained mute.