Admittedly, I wasn’t even aware of this will.i.am and Justin Bieber collaboration until someone left a comment on the ‘TF Top 10…Music Videos Filmed In Japan‘ post saying to check it out. Not only did I quite like the tune but I was happy to see a fair few locales which have never featured in music videos. There were a couple of places I wasn’t aware of which I have since featured in separate posts on Tokyo Fox and there were a few Tokyo architectural landmarks that I did recognise.

The scenes in Japan were shot in March 2013 and feature will.i.am and his posse (Japanese dance group World Order!) dancing their way round Tokyo whilst Bieber features as a hologram throughout.

The time codes given below are of when the location is first seen in the video and the Tokyo shooting locations are as follows…

1:00 – Tokyo Big Sight, 3-11-1 Ariake, Koto-ku:  Japan’s largest convention and exhibition centre features a visually distinctive Conference Tower and has been open since April 1996. Kokusai-tenjijo-seimon Station on the Yurikamome Line is the closest station but I cycled there from Shibuya during a long break at work.

1:30 – Midtown Garden, 9-9-7 Akasaka, Minato-ku: Located next to 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo Midtown, this piece of artwork is called ‘Fragment No.5’ and it’s by German sculptor Florian Claar. Again, that’s my bicycle in the picture as I cycled here on the way back to work from Tokyo Big Sight.

1:45 – Nishi Shinjuku 1 chome: The izakaya (Japanese-style restaurant) on the right of the picture is Warayaki Izakaya Ryoma Hana No Mai Nishi-Shinjuku at 1-14-2 Nishi Shinjuku. This street is lined with bars and restaurants and is presumably a lot livelier when it gets dark!

1:59 – Nihonbashi Hakozakicho: This intersection is outside the Royal Park Hotel Tokyo with a 7 Eleven convenience store across the road. The closest station is Suitengūmae on the Tokyo Metro Hanzōmon Line.

2:45 – Tokyo Plaza Harajuku Omotesando: Very much a focal point of Harajuku these days due to it’s many, many mirrors at the entrance. This multi-story shopping centre opened in 2012 and is located on the corner of Omotesando Street and Meiji Street.

3:40 – Eye of Shinjuku, JR Shinjuku Station: Whilst the station sees more than one million commuters a day, very few of them even notice or even know about this wall of glass work which was created by Japanese sculptor Yoshiko Miyashita and has actually been in the station since 1969. More details here

3:46 – Reiyukai Shakaden, 1-7-8 Azabudai, Minato-ku: It may resemble a spaceship from a science-fiction movie but this place is actually a temple of modern Japanese religion. More details here

A couple of the locations above were a mystery to me so I asked my Facebook friends for help in identifying them as well as the three screenshots below. I never really thought the first one was shot in Japan as it looked Korean but you never know. As it is though, its the massive bronze Korean Friendship Bell (housed in a stone pavilion) in Angel’s Gate Park in the San Pedro neighbourhood of Los Angeles in California.

It was thought the picture above was studio based and green-screened but if you know differently then let me know in the comments or tweet me using @tokyofox

Click here to read ‘TF Top 10…Music Videos Filmed In Japan’