Of the 690,000 People Who Visited the National Museum of Western Art's Collection Galleries in FY2024, the General and University Student Categories Facing the Fee Rise Made Up 26%
In September 2026 Japan's National Museum of Art announced higher fees for its collection exhibitions. Free admission for high school students and younger, people aged 65 and over and others continues, and the fees rise for general visitors and university students. Five museums' collection exhibitions drew 1,126,594 people in FY2025, but the institution's performance report gives only totals by museum. The National Museum of Western Art's annual bulletin breaks down its 690,302 collection gallery visitors in FY2024 by category: general visitors and university students together made up 26%, and those who entered with a special exhibition ticket or through Campus Members made up 49%. This piece checks how far published figures can show where the burden of the fee rise falls.
TL;DR
- Five of the National Museum of Art's museums drew 1,126,594 people to their collection exhibitions in FY2025. The institution's performance report does not separate paying and free visitors
- The National Museum of Western Art's bulletin breaks down its 690,302 collection gallery visitors in FY2024 by category. General visitors were 23% and university students 3%, while 49% entered with a special exhibition ticket or through Campus Members
- For collection exhibitions the burden rises for general visitors and university students. At the National Film Archive of Japan's collection screenings, fees also rise for those aged 65 and over and for high school students
What Is Happening
Who faces a higher burden under the new fees, and who does not
In September 2026 the National Museum of Art, the institution that runs seven national museums, announced higher fees for the collection exhibitions at six of its museums. General admission will be ¥1,000 at five of them. What was announced, and how it connects to the state's medium-term objectives, is covered in our previous article（このサイトの記事）.
This piece asks who will pay more, and how many people that is.
According to the announcement, the following free admission continues: "free admission for high school students and younger, those under 18, those aged 65 and over, and holders of disability certificates with one companion continues" (translated from Japanese). The fees go up for general visitors and university students, who fall outside these groups.
The announcement says the benefits of Campus Members, and of each museum's membership schemes and annual passes, also continue. According to the museums' own guides, the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto and the National Museum of Art, Osaka also admit members of single-mother and single-father households free. The announcement does not say whether this, or the museums' own free days, will continue.
The size of the rise differs by museum and category. Calculated from the old and new individual fees, across the collection exhibitions at six facilities including the National Film Archive of Japan's exhibitions, general admission rises 2.0 to 3.3 times and university student admission 1.9 to 3.8 times (ratios calculated from the announced fees; screenings are not included). The largest rises are from ¥300 to ¥1,000 for general admission at the National Crafts Museum, and from ¥130 to ¥500 for university students at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto and the National Museum of Art, Osaka.
The Tokyo Shimbun carried a comment on the medium-term objectives from Naoya Yokota, representative director of ISVD and the author of this article: "Only people who have money will be able to go, and I wonder whether it will drift further away from shaping culture" (translated from Japanese). To answer that question with figures, we need to know who pays to get in today and who is admitted free.
Background & Context
FY2025 visitor numbers and admission revenue, and the days and people admitted free
1.13 million collection exhibition visitors in FY2025
The National Museum of Art publishes a performance report every year. The FY2025 report, released in June 2026, lists collection exhibition visitors by museum in an appendix table.
- National Museum of Western Art681,030
- National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo255,263
- National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto89,966
- National Museum of Art, Osaka86,126
- National Crafts Museum14,209
The five museums together drew 1,126,594 people. The National Museum of Western Art's 681,030 is about 60% of the total (calculated). The National Film Archive of Japan is counted separately from collection exhibitions: 76,422 people attended its screenings and 21,131 its exhibitions.
Whether collection exhibition visitor numbers include people who came in on a special exhibition ticket can be checked to different extents at different museums. At the National Museum of Western Art the bulletin's category "special exhibition tickets / Campus Members" shows it, and at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto it can be read from the "collection exhibition only" figure in the activity report. Neither the performance report nor the activity reports define how visitors are counted.
The National Museum of Western Art tells visitors that a special exhibition ticket also admits them to the collection galleries, and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto and the National Museum of Art, Osaka say the same of their collection exhibitions. We have not checked the National Crafts Museum.
Admission revenue that does not separate collection and special exhibitions
The money side is in the financial statements. The FY2025 income statement shows admission revenue of ¥1,157,124,898. In the same statement, revenue from the operating grant (the amount recognized as revenue in the year) was ¥5,916,991,799, and total ordinary revenue (revenue for the year, excluding extraordinary items) was ¥9,180,538,103.
The supplementary schedules break admission revenue down into six columns by museum. The National Crafts Museum has no column of its own, and the National Art Center, Tokyo has one.
The National Museum of Western Art took ¥347,755,180 and the National Art Center, Tokyo ¥430,796,512. The National Art Center, Tokyo has no collection exhibitions, so the total of more than ¥1.1 billion includes its share. None of the museums separates collection and special exhibitions, and the National Film Archive of Japan's figure also includes screenings, so the financial documents cannot show how much came in from collection exhibition fees.
Days and people admitted free
The report also sets out when no fee is charged. In FY2025, on International Museum Day (18 May) and Culture Day (3 November), collection exhibitions and the National Film Archive of Japan's exhibitions were free (except at museums closed that day). High school students and younger, and those under 18, are admitted free to collection exhibitions, the museums' own special exhibitions, and the National Film Archive of Japan's exhibitions.
Some museums also have free days of their own, such as Kansai Culture Day. As a rule, the National Museum of Western Art makes its collection galleries free on the second Sunday of each month (Kawasaki Free Sunday), and the National Museum of Art, Osaka makes its collection exhibitions free on the first Saturday.
University students have a membership scheme called the National Museum of Art Campus Members. Universities, junior colleges, colleges of technology, vocational schools and others join it, and students and staff of member schools are admitted free to collection exhibitions at the museums covered by their school's membership category (all museums, the Kanto museums, the Kansai museums, or one museum), on showing their ID. In FY2025 there were 108 member schools and 110,131 users (the report does not say how users are counted). The announcement says this benefit also continues.
Reading the Structure
Category shares in the Western Art museum's bulletin, the other museums' reports, students and screenings
Totals by museum in the institution's reports
The visitor numbers in the performance report are totals by museum. They do not separate paying and free visitors, and give no numbers by age or category. The institution's annual report for FY2024, released in December 2025, has a collection exhibition table with four columns: days open, number of rotations, visitors and satisfaction.
The institution's reports alone cannot show how many collection exhibition visitors paid the general fee and how many were admitted free.
Category shares in the National Museum of Western Art's bulletin
Move on to the museums' own reports, and they do not all report in the same way. The annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art includes a pie chart breaking down its collection gallery visitors by category. The latest issue, No. 59 (published January 2026), covers FY2024.
- Special exhibition tickets / Campus Members49%
- General23%
- Free18%
- Elementary and junior high school students5%
- University students3%
- High school students3%
According to the bulletin, general visitors were 23% and university students 3%, 26% together. The collection exhibition fee applies to these two categories. Applied to 690,302 people, that comes to about 180,000 (the shares are rounded to whole numbers and the six categories add up to 101%, so the headcount is an approximate calculation).
The bulletin does not explain how visitors are sorted into these categories. As a rule, the museum makes its collection galleries free on the second Sunday of each month (Kawasaki Free Sunday), and there were 12 such days in FY2024. It also made the collection galleries free on 18 May (International Museum Day), and 9,062 people visited them on that day alone.
The bulletin does not say whether visitors on free days were counted as "General" or as "Free" (reduced fees, exemptions and free tickets, according to the Japanese legend). The 26% is the share of the fee categories, not necessarily the share of people who paid. Because fee categories do not reflect income, this share cannot answer whether only people who have money will be able to go; that needs other figures.
The largest category, at 49%, is "special exhibition tickets / Campus Members". Since a special exhibition ticket at this museum also admits visitors to the collection galleries, these visitors did not pay a separate collection exhibition fee. High school students, elementary and junior high school students, and the "Free" category together made up 26%. High school students and younger are covered by free admission to collection exhibitions.
The year before looked much the same. In FY2023, general visitors were 25%, university students 4%, and special exhibition tickets / Campus Members 46%. FY2024 was the year the exhibition "Monet: The Late Waterscapes" drew 807,566 people, and the institution's annual report says that exhibition also helped raise collection exhibition attendance. Even so, in both years general visitors and university students stayed below 30%.
By the FY2024 categories, about one in four visitors to this museum's collection exhibition fell in the categories to which the fee applies. Nearly half came in on special exhibition tickets or through Campus Members. Special exhibition fees are not covered by this revision, and the Campus Members benefit continues. According to the announcement, the National Museum of Western Art's new fees start on 20 March 2027.
"Collection exhibition only" at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
The FY2024 activity report of the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto gives, of its 121,249 collection exhibition visitors, 30,147 who came for the collection exhibition only. That is about one in four (calculated). This "collection exhibition only" figure includes people who were admitted free, so it is counted differently from the National Museum of Western Art's 26%.
The rest did not visit the collection exhibition alone. No numbers by fee category are given.
Museums that report only totals
The FY2024 activity report of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (including the National Crafts Museum) gives collection and special exhibition visitors as totals by museum. The National Museum of Art, Osaka's FY2024 activity report (published February 2026) also gives collection exhibition visitors by exhibition and in total, which comes to 45,446 over 111 days. It has no figures by category.
Of the five museums, the National Museum of Western Art is the only one for which we found category shares. It accounts for around 60% of collection exhibition visitors, but figures by fee category for the other four are not in their annual reports or activity reports.
University students divided by membership
University student admission will be ¥500 at most museums. Students at Campus Members schools, however, remain free on showing their student ID at the museums covered by their school's category.
Two university students can therefore pay ¥0 or ¥500 for a collection exhibition, depending on whether their school has joined and whether that museum is in its category. The National Museum of Western Art's bulletin counts Campus Members in the same category as special exhibition tickets, separate from the university student category. How many students from non-member schools visit each year cannot be found in the other museums' reports.
Screenings where those aged 65 and over and high school students pay
Screenings at the National Film Archive of Japan are treated differently from collection exhibitions. The fee rise applies to its collection screenings: general admission rises from ¥520 to ¥1,000, and university students, high school students and those aged 65 and over go from ¥310 to ¥500. The ¥100 fee for elementary and junior high school students is unchanged. According to the archive's visitor information, free admission to collection screenings covers holders of disability certificates with one companion, and students and staff of Campus Members schools whose category includes the archive (day-of tickets only). The announcement says both continue.
In FY2025, 76,422 people attended the screenings. Appendix table 3 of the performance report lists attendance and co-hosts for each screening series, but does not say which are charged the collection screening fees. How many were aged 65 and over or high school students is not in the performance report either. People who are admitted free to collection exhibitions pay at the screenings.
The figures needed to check
The medium-term objectives that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology set in February 2026 say: "detailed disclosure of visitor numbers, admission revenue and other income will be advanced" (translated from Japanese).
To check the effect of the fee rise, we need figures in the same categories as the National Museum of Western Art's pie chart for all five museums, both before and after the revision. With the following figures as well, we could see how many people faced a higher burden and whether they kept coming:
- Collection exhibition admission revenue, separated from special exhibitions
- Campus Members users, broken down by museum
- Screening attendance, broken down by fee category
How to count whether a policy reaches the people it is meant for is also covered in our guide to why policies miss the people they are meant for（このサイトの記事）.
Remaining Questions
The National Museum of Western Art publishes a breakdown of its collection gallery visitors by category. The institution's reports and the other museums' activity reports mostly give totals.
Even if general visitors fall after the fee rise, totals alone cannot tell whether that is because of the fees or the exhibitions. Will category figures appear for all five museums, before and after the revision?
Recommended Reading
- 趣味の社会学 文化・階層・ジェンダー (Sociology of Taste: Culture, Class and Gender)（外部サイト、新しいタブで開きます） (片岡栄美, 青弓社). Drawing on social surveys and statistical analysis, the book examines how cultural tastes and cultural participation in Japan are tied to social class. It offers a way to think about who actually visits museums.
References
Annual Bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art No. 59 (April 2024 to March 2025) — National Museum of Western Art (2026). National Museum of Western Art
Annual Bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art No. 58 (April 2023 to March 2024) — National Museum of Western Art (2025). National Museum of Western Art
FY2025 annual performance report — National Museum of Art (2026). National Museum of Art
Financial statements for FY2025 (25th business year) — National Museum of Art (2026). National Museum of Art
Supplementary schedules to the financial statements for FY2025 (segment information) — National Museum of Art (2026). National Museum of Art
National Museum of Art Annual Report 2024 — National Museum of Art (2025). National Museum of Art
National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Activity Report FY2024 (Japanese and English) — National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (2026). National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo Annual Report 2024 — National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (2026). National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
NMAO Report FY2024 (Japanese and English) — National Museum of Art, Osaka (2026). National Museum of Art, Osaka
Revision of admission fees for collection exhibitions at the National Museum of Art — National Museum of Art (2026). National Museum of Art
Visitor information (in Japanese) — National Film Archive of Japan (2026). National Film Archive of Japan
Visitor information (in Japanese) — National Museum of Western Art (2026). National Museum of Western Art
Visitor information (in Japanese) — National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (2026). National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
Access, opening hours and admission (in Japanese) — National Museum of Art, Osaka (2026). National Museum of Art, Osaka
Tickets (in Japanese) — National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (2026). National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
For school administrators (National Museum of Art Campus Members) — National Museum of Art (2026). National Museum of Art
Medium-Term Objectives for the National Museum of Art (27 February 2026) — Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2026). Agency for Cultural Affairs
National Museum of Art sharply raises admission fees; the state's call for exhibitions that earn draws the response that a country that slights culture is not an advanced nation (in Japanese) — Tokyo Shimbun (2026). Tokyo Shimbun (25 September 2026)
Statistics cited in this article
- 1National Museum of Art, revision of admission fees for collection exhibitions（September 2026） Open source
- 2National Museum of Art, FY2025 annual performance report, appendix table 1（June 2026） Open source
- 3National Museum of Art, FY2025 annual performance report, appendix tables 3 and 4（June 2026） Open source
- 4National Museum of Art, financial statements for FY2025 (25th business year)（2026） Open source
- 5National Museum of Art, supplementary schedules to the financial statements for FY2025, segment information（2026） Open source
- 6National Museum of Art, FY2025 annual performance report（June 2026） Open source
- 7National Museum of Western Art, Annual Bulletin No. 59 (April 2024 to March 2025)（January 2026） Open source
- 8National Museum of Western Art, Annual Bulletin No. 58 (April 2023 to March 2024)（January 2025） Open source
- 9National Museum of Art, Annual Report 2024（December 2025） Open source
- 10National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Activity Report FY2024（February 2026） Open source
- 11National Museum of Art, Osaka, NMAO Report FY2024（February 2026） Open source
Questions to Reflect On
- At a museum where nearly half of collection gallery visitors come in on a special exhibition ticket or through Campus Members, who does a higher collection exhibition fee actually reach
- What should we make of university students facing different costs depending on whether their school belongs to Campus Members
- If all five museums published category shares in the same way, what could be checked
Key Terms in This Article
- Operating Grant
- Money the state provides to an independent administrative institution to fund its operations. It rests on Article 46 of Japan's general law on independent administrative institutions, under which the government may, within its budget, provide all or part of the amount needed to fund the institution's work. Because the money comes from taxes and other public funds, the institution must try to use it properly and efficiently (Article 46(2)).
- Medium-Term Objectives
- Operational objectives that the competent minister sets for a period of three to five years, issues to an institution and publishes, under Article 29 of Japan's general law on independent administrative institutions. They set the period and cover the quality of services, operational efficiency and financial improvement. The institution then draws up a medium-term plan based on them and has it approved by the minister (Article 30).
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