1 OAK Tokyo

Why you should experience 1 OAK Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan.

1 OAK Tokyo is a high-profile nightclub where Azabujuban's after-dark culture, Richie Akiva's New York nightlife lineage, Roy Nachum's contemporary art and a booking history spanning hip-hop, electronic music and global pop converge beneath the streets of Minato.

Set beneath Azabujuban near Azabu-dori and just steps from the district's central nightlife streets, the current club carries forward a Tokyo project first developed as the Asian expansion of Akiva's New York-born 1 OAK. Roy Nachum, the Jerusalem-born artist behind Rihanna's Anti artwork, established the club's visual direction through Mercer Project, joining original artwork with a nightlife environment conceived around performance. A d&b audiotechnik system anchors the music, extending a technical program that previously paired Nachum's work with lighting by Paris-based ATO. The result is an Azabujuban nightclub where Akiva's international entertainment network, Nachum's art and club-scale production support a performance history extending from Rihanna and Bruno Mars to Travis Scott, Skrillex and Yuki Chiba.

What you should know about 1 OAK Tokyo.

1 OAK Tokyo is best known for bringing Richie Akiva's New York nightlife project into Asia and assembling an unusually deep relationship among contemporary art, technical production and internationally prominent performers. Akiva founded the 1 OAK concept through Butter Group after establishing the original New York club in Chelsea in 2008, building a circuit that expanded through Las Vegas and Los Angeles before Tokyo became its fourth location and first in Asia. Roy Nachum led Tokyo's original interior through Mercer Project after creating the artwork for Rihanna's Anti, work that earned a 2017 Grammy nomination for Best Recording Package; Nachum studied at Cooper Union after being selected from more than 1,000 students for an exchange opportunity and later established his practice in New York. Salvatore Morale brought a DJ's concern for audio into the project and selected d&b audiotechnik after encountering the company's systems across festivals, hotel bars and opera houses, leading d&b's local team to engineer the Tokyo installation around Akiva's ambition for live music, premieres, launches and after-parties as well as club nights. Tyga performed during the first grand-opening weekend, beginning a booking history subsequently joined by A$AP Rocky, Skrillex, The Chainsmokers, Alesso and Virgil Abloh. Bruno Mars, Future, Travis Scott, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Usher, Rihanna, Nas, DJ Snake, Swizz Beatz, Pusha T, Mark Ronson and Central Cee belong to the much larger roster associated with the Tokyo club across its history. The original Roppongi operation closed in March 2020 at the end of its lease before the club moved to its present Azabujuban home that July, carrying Akiva and Nachum's New York-born project into a second Tokyo chapter.

Hip-hop provides the principal musical current, giving rap performances and DJ sets a room built around d&b audiotechnik reinforcement and the production priorities Salvatore Morale brought to the project as a DJ himself. Low frequencies arrive with the depth associated with the d&b installation, allowing kick drums and bass lines to carry physical weight beneath vocals without sacrificing definition through the upper register. Lighting responds to the music as another production layer, continuing a technical approach established through ATO's synchronized system at the original Tokyo club. Artist appearances change the scale of the night: Bruno Mars has performed during a post-concert party, and rappers including Lil Pump, Quavo and Yuki Chiba have occupied the same club environment as internationally touring DJs. 1 OAK Tokyo turns Akiva's access to performers into the central uncertainty of the room, combining club sound, artist proximity and tightly controlled production around nights whose headline attraction sometimes materializes directly in front of the crowd.

How to fold 1 OAK Tokyo into your trip.

1 OAK Tokyo works as the late-night anchor for an evening tracing Roppongi and Azabujuban through contemporary art, postwar cultural patronage and Japanese design before the district turns toward music.

Begin at Mori Art Museum, which Minoru Mori established atop Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in October 2003 as an international contemporary-art institution, with founding director David Elliott and guest curator Pier Luigi Tazzi opening the museum through Happiness: A Survival Guide for Art and Life. The museum occupied the 52nd and 53rd floors at its debut, placing contemporary art at the summit of Mori's new Roppongi development. Continue to 21_21 Design Sight, born after Issey Miyake's January 2003 Asahi Shimbun essay calling for a Japanese design museum drew support for the project. Miyake, Taku Satoh and Naoto Fukasawa became directors when the institution arrived at Tokyo Midtown in 2007, with Tadao Ando designing a largely subterranean building beneath a 54-meter steel roof derived from Miyake's A-POC concept. Conclude at 1 OAK Tokyo after dark, where Roy Nachum's art-world career crossed directly into nightlife through a club that has hosted more than 100 named artists, including Rihanna, Jay-Z, Travis Scott, Virgil Abloh, Skrillex and Bruno Mars. The progression moves from Minoru Mori and David Elliott's contemporary-art institution through Miyake and Ando's design project into Nachum and Akiva's fusion of art, music and nightlife, carrying Roppongi's creative institutions into the performance culture surrounding 1 OAK Tokyo.

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