Conclusion

In 2008, which marked the second year of its opening, the NACT became the most visited museum in Tokyo with a total attendance of 2,475,323 (Sharpe, et al. 2009). This figure ranks 13th among all the world-famous institutions of Europe, North America, and Asia, the Louvre topping the list with 8,500,000 annual visitors. This outstanding achievement does not depend upon the art group exhibitions as much as it does upon the kikakuten exhibitions. In terms of daily attendance figures, ‘Yokoyama Taikan: Fifty Years On’ (23 January–3 March) was the 11th most visited exhibition in the world, and three other shows of the NACT have been included in the ‘Tokyo Top Ten’. ¹ These kikakuten exhibitions were organized by museum-based curators, in the same way as the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art and the Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts. The NACT is the latest addition to the Japanese ‘tradition’ of the ‘empty museum’. In principle, the Center does not hold any collection of artwork, instead focusing on accommodating art group exhibitions; however, it did also hire six curators to plan and manage kikakuten exhibitions on its opening. Right from the start, this museum was developed not as a sanctuary of art groups, rather, as a ‘contact zone’ that promotes the co-existence of and interaction between the art groups and curators.