NHK Hall

NHK Hall is the main concert auditorium at the NHK Broadcasting Center, headquarters of Japan's public broadcaster NHK, in Shibuya, Tokyo. Opened in 1973 and home to the NHK Symphony Orchestra, it is one of Japan's most important classical music venues. Beyond the symphony concerts it hosts the annual Kohaku Uta Gassen every New Year's Eve, a nationally broadcast singing contest between a women's Red Team and a men's White Team that reaches over 30 per cent of viewers and has been a Japanese New Year ritual for decades. With around 3600 seats across three tiers, the hall is considered large but acoustically surprisingly balanced. Visitors on NHK studio tours can see the hall from the gallery.