The Best Fiction Tour was the tenth concert tour by Japanese recording artist Namie Amuro in support of her greatest hits album, Best Fiction (2008). The tour began on October 25, 2008 at Makuhari Messe Event Hall in Chiba, Japan and ended on July 12, 2009 at the Shanghai Grand Stage in Shanghai, China. The tour broke attendance records for Japanese solo female artists, playing to almost 500,000 fans across Japan, China and Taiwan.

Itinerary

The initial tour dates were announced on May 27, 2008 with 25 stops in 15 cities across Japan. An additional 15 dates and an additional city were added on August 18, 2008 before the start of the tour.

On October 25, 2008, the tour began in Chiba, Japan at the Makuhari Messe Event Hall and continued through December 21, 2008 at Aoi-mori Arena in Aomori, Japan. Another round of 20 additional dates were added on December 29, 2008, bringing the total amount of dates in Japan to 60. The second leg of the tour began on January 14, 2009 at Sendai Hot House Arena in Miyagi, Japan and played its final show in on 31 May at the Morioka Ice Arena in Iwate, Japan.

On March 22, 2009, it was announced that the tour would be headed towards the Asian continent with four additional shows in Taiwan and China set respectively in June and July. Overall, the tour spanned a total of 10 months, 64 dates, 3 countries, with a total attendance of an estimated 500,000 people.

Set list The set list for the Best Fiction Tour includes 16 of the 17 songs included on Best Fiction, with "All for You" being the only exception. Several album tracks from her two most recent studio albums, Queen of Hip-Pop (2005) and Play (2007), were also included. "Luvotomy" and "Black Diamond", originally released as collaborations with other artists, were performed as solo versions. "Say the Word", released in 2001, is the oldest song included on the set list. This is her first tour to not include any of her songs produced by Tetsuya Komuro.

When the tour began on October 25, 2008, Amuro performed 28 songs. "Wild" and "Dr." were added to the set list starting with the Nagoya concert on March 4, 2009.

"Do Me More" "Violet Sauce" "Alarm" "So Crazy" "New Look" "Hello" "Girl Talk" "Shine More" "Full Moon" "Luvotomy" "Put 'Em Up" "It's All About You" "Wishing on the Same Star" "Rock Steady" "Funky Town" "No" "Say the Word" "Dr." "Wild" "White Light" "Hide & Seek" "Queen of Hip-Pop" "Sexy Girl" "Want Me, Want Me" "Top Secret" "Black Diamond" "What a Feeling" Encore "WoWa" "Can't Sleep, Can't Eat, I'm Sick" "Baby Don't Cry"

Tour dates Date City Country Venue Attendance October 25, 2008ChibaJapanMakuhari Messe Event Hall450,000 October 26, 2008 November 1, 2008SapporoHokkaido Prefectural Sports Center November 2, 2008 November 8, 2008FukuiSun Dome Fukui November 9, 2008 November 15, 2008FukuroiShizuoka Ecopa Arena November 16, 2008 November 22, 2008HiroshimaHiroshima Green Arena November 23, 2008 November 29, 2008FukuokaMarine Messe Fukuoka November 30, 2008 December 6, 2008SaitamaSaitama Super Arena December 7, 2008 December 13, 2008SendaiSendai Hot House Super Arena December 14, 2008 December 20, 2008AomoriAomori Arena December 21, 2008 January 14, 2009NagoyaNippon Gaishi Hall January 15, 2009 January 20, 2009OsakaOsaka-jō Hall January 21, 2009 January 24, 2009KagoshimaKagoshima Arena January 25, 2009 January 31, 2009NiigataNiigata Sangyou Shinkou Center February 1, 2009 February 10, 2009TokyoYoyogi National Gymnasium February 11, 2009 February 13, 2009 February 14, 2009 February 21, 2009 February 22, 2009 February 26, 2009OsakaOsaka-jō Hall February 27, 2009 March 3, 2009NagoyaNippon Gaishi Hall March 4, 2009 March 7, 2009YokohamaYokohama Arena March 8, 2009 March 14, 2009KobeWorld Memorial Hall March 15, 2009 March 20, 2009OkinawaOkinawa Convention Center March 21, 2009 April 4, 2009NaganoNagano M-Wave April 5, 2009 April 10, 2009OkayamaOkayama City Cultural Gymnasium April 11, 2009 April 18, 2009MieMie Sun Arena April 19, 2009 April 28, 2009TokyoYoyogi National Gymnasium April 29, 2009 May 2, 2009 May 3, 2009 May 9, 2009MaebashiGreen Dome Maebashi May 10, 2009 May 16, 2009OitaBeppu Beacon Plaza Convention Hall May 17, 2009 May 23, 2009NagoyaNippon Gaishi Hall May 24, 2009 May 30, 2009MoriokaMorioka Ice Arena May 31, 2009 June 20, 2009TaipeiTaiwanTaipei Arena20,000 June 21, 2009 July 11, 2009ShanghaiChinaShanghai Indoor Stadium20,000 July 12, 2009Total 490,000

DVD

The live music video of the tour was released on September 9, 2009. The video captures her dates in June at the Taipei Arena in Taiwan. It was her first overseas concert to have been filmed for commercial release. In the first week of the release, the live video sold about 155,000 copies on DVD format and 14,000 copies on Blu-ray format, making her the first artist to top both charts at the same time in Japanese Oricon charts history. it has sold about 260,510 copies on DVD format.

It was released as a DVD and Blu-ray on September 9, 2009. The DVD version is a limited edition and is exclusively packaged in a digipak with a slipcover. It will be sold until September 30, 2009. It is currently not known if a regular edition of the DVD will be printed afterward.

Personnel

Executive producer: Takashi Kasuga, Masato "Max" Matsumoto, Shinji Hayashi, Katsuro Ohshita, Hajime Tanguchi Staging producer: Izumi Matsuzawa Staging director: Fuyuki Yamamoto Sound production: Nao'ymt Art director: Hidekazu "Kazoo" Sato Public relations: Yukio Takemura, Akira Kobayashi, Masahiro Tashiro, Shintaro Higuchi, Tatsuya Ikeda, Yu Koiguchi A&R: Hiromi Amano Artist management: Rika Yasumoto Dancer management: Yumiko Ochiai Merchandising: Kazuo Ueno

Band Bass: Tsuyoshi Ishikawa Drums: Mitsuru Kurauchi Guitar: Shinji Ohmura Keyboards: Shigeo Komori Dancers: Tetsuharu, Hide, Yusuke, Hossy, Mittan, Nao, Natsumi, Asuka, Hiromi, Manami

Crew

Staging Stage set designer: Kazutomo Yamamura Stage set coordinator: Naoto Hori Chief carpenter: Tadahiro Nakamurara Carpenters: Yasushi Shimazaki, Taiki Takeyama, Yasushi Oomori, Katsutoshi Miyazi, Hiroshi Hasegawa, Kentaro Minami, Ryosuke Fukushima, Tetsuya Sunahra, Yoshio Hayashi, Yoshito Amano, Rikiya Nakada, Tatsunori Kazikawa, Ryoutaro Komatsu P.A. crew: Keiji Shigeta, Maso Toba, Hideo Sato, Hiroki Kamehama, Nanae Ito, Marie Adachi, Syouji Yuzawa, Kana Doi Lighting designer: Hideki Maki Lighting coordinator: Osamu Yamaguchi Lighting operator: Satoshi Hatakenaka, Minoru Otaki, Hiroko Toya, Takeshi Ogihara, Seiichirou Kishi Illumination coordinator: Akihiko Hayashi Illumination operator: Nao Kuremura, Nozomi Ito Visual art planner & operator: Takeshi Yoshimoto Visual operator: Satoru Terao, Hiroyuki Ono, Eiko Iijiri, Keisuke Dohi, Makoto Kurosawa, Yuu Sasaki, Shigemi Todoroki Manipulator: Akihisa Murakami Manipulator assistant: Yasuo Kitahara, Tatsuya Nagatake Instrument coordinator: Shigemi Otake Instrument tech: Kenichi Saito, Hideki Nagaoka, Hideki Nagaoka, Kazuya Takahashi Special effect coordinator: Takayuki Komine Special effect operator: Akiko Mitasaki, Hiroyuki Mochizuki

Costuming Hair & Make-up: Satomi Kurihara, Eriko Ishida Stylist: Shinichi Mita Wardrobe: Rie Yamazaki, Yuri Yamaguchi

Video Creative director & planner: Hidekasu "Kazoo" Sato Director: Yasuhiko Shimizu, Yuchi Kodama, Yoshiya Okoyama, Sachi Sawada Producer: Kentaro Kinoshita Production manager: Hideki Harada Coordinator: Go Kato Camera: Takeshi Hanzawa Art: Mamoru Furumoto Costume Designer: Hiroko Sogawa Hair & Make-up: Asami Nemoto Make-up creator: Shoichiro Matsuoka Model: Amber Thompson

Certifications

Extras Best Non Fiction (Off shot)

References