Taylor Swift Kicks off Asia Pacific Leg of ‘Eras Tour’ With Estimated $230M in Economy Boosts

This week, Taylor Swift will begin her Eras Tour in Tokyo and the economic boom is expected to reach an estimated $230 million.

Based on calculations by Tokyo City University lecturer Mitsumasa Etoh, the figure is almost the same as what Swifties brought in on their July trip to Denver. Swift, who took home the Grammy for album of the year, made headlines throughout her US tour and eventually became a billionaire, per CNN. March 2023 saw the debut of the Eras Tour, which is scheduled to run until December 2024.

Swift's multi-continental extravaganza, Eras Tour, which has the potential to become the highest-grossing tour in history, began its Tokyo leg on February 7 and will run through February 10.

Before the doors opened on the opening night on Wednesday, the Tokyo Dome's outside was crowded with fans dressed in kimonos, tassels, glitter, and tiaras. Large lines of people waited outside in the snow and sleet on Monday as tour organizers started selling tour souvenirs at the Tokyo Dome, including sweatshirts and hoodies with Taylor's name. In addition, fans have prepared by engaging in customs that have for long been customary within the Swiftie community: creating custom friendship bracelets to exchange with other concertgoers, rehearsing crowd chants, and selecting meticulously tailored Taylor-themed attire. 

“What we’ve seen with the Taylor Swift tour is something that we’ve not really seen before,” Richard Clarke, an analyst at investment firm Bernstein, told CNN. “It’s been a very well-timed post-Covid event, a sort of cultural event, everyone seems to want to go to this.” The high cost of Swift's tickets contributes to its profitability. The cost of seats near the stage has doubled since her 2018 Tokyo Dome performance during her Reputation tour. Not to add, a lot of superfans get tickets for several performances.

“It’s been such a popular tour that people have found that their home markets are often sold out, and therefore have begun to travel to other markets to try and find tickets,” he added. “I’m sure that’s going to be the case with Asia as well.”

Swift's celebrity has such immense power that, in only four days, analysts predict the tour could by itself improve Japan's whole economy. Mitsumasa Etou, a part-time lecturer at Tokyo City University and representative of the research site Economic Effects NET, estimates that up to 34.1 billion yen (about $229.6 million) will be made from Swift's performances.

He dubbed the tour Japan's largest musical event ever in terms of economic effects. It is anticipated to outpace Fuji Rock, one of the country's largest music festivals, which brought in around 20 billion yen (roughly $134.6 million) in revenue in 2023. Clarke agreed, “If you add up the ticket prices, the restaurants … she was, on her own, a fairly significant impact on regional GDP.” 

“There’s going to be more taxes being used,” because attendees are probably also going to be doing some touring, shopping, and other transactions, he explained.