contemporary art space in Tokyo at that specific moment, and eventually I couldn’t let it go. KW: Globalisation and multiculturalism since the 90s have created an unprecedented interest in contemporary Japanese art in the international world. The new images of contemporary Japanese culture have been widely disseminated with the introduction of new terms such as “Cool Japan”, kawaii, anime and otaku, and artists who reflected these new images, such as Nara Yoshitomo and Murakami Takashi, have become internationally known. Meanwhile, young artists who were born after the 1970s have been turning away from these images and concentrating on smaller, fragmented, fragile, floating expressions that connect their works in an extremely loose manner. MK: Yes, at that time the international art scene was becoming more globalized, and the growing emergence of Asian Art were becoming visible in the 90s. Particularly, the first half of 90s, was a threshold of young galleries such as Tomio Koyama Gallery and his contemporaries who emerged around the same time. So I had this clear vision for what would later become Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, one functioning as something inbetween established museums and new commercial galleries. And, I had explored models such as Kunsthalle, or alternative spaces. I wanted the new space to be something closer to those functions, but one with access to a larger public. KW: The inaugural exhibition at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery was “Releasing Senses”, in 1999. And since 2003,