These Best Museums in Tokyo Showcase the Japanese Capital’s Unparalleled Arts Scene

A glass, steel, and concrete behemoth at the north end of Kiba Park, and one of Japan’s largest museums devoted to contemporary art. Takahiko Yanagisawa’s 1995 building announces itself before you’re through the gate: a long steel approach of triangular frames punched through with circles, more industrial than inviting, which turns out to be the right register for what’s inside. MOT closed for a three-year renovation and reopened in March 2019, and marks its 14th year in 2026. The collection is around 6,100 works, weighted toward postwar art and shown on rotation as the MOT Collection. Warhol and Lichtenstein are among the international names, with Japanese artists like Atsuko Tanaka and Yoshitomo Nara. The temporary program is the reason to keep checking the calendar. Big solo shows—Kohei Nawa, Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Hockney, Olafur Eliasson—sit alongside well-curated group shows of younger multimedia artists, plus regular forays into fashion, design, and architecture.