Abel Tesfaye brought his After Hours Til Dawn stadium run to Japan on September 19, opening the final Asian leg of the tour at Saitama's Belluna Dome with an unreleased track tailored directly to his hosts. Rather than leaning purely on his catalogue, the Canadian singer introduced a fresh composition titled Tokyo, joined onstage by veteran Japanese vocalist Yoko Takahashi.
Takahashi is best known across the world as the singer of A Cruel Angel's Thesis, the 1995 opening theme to the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. That history was not merely incidental to the guest appearance. The new piece, Tokyo, openly weaves elements of Takahashi's classic anime anthem into its musical framework. Above the stage, the Belluna Dome screens displayed imagery highlighting characters from both Neon Genesis Evangelion and the video game NieR:Automata, binding two significant strands of Japanese animation and gaming culture together.
The visual presentation came with notable pedigree. Yoko Taro, the creative director behind the NieR franchise, oversaw the visuals for this portion of the show. After the pair finished Tokyo, Takahashi remained under the stadium lights to sing A Cruel Angel's Thesis with Tesfaye providing live accompaniment. Following the performance, Tesfaye shared concert footage on social media, describing the segment as presented by Yoko Taro featuring Yoko Takahashi. The collaborative track was not a one-off improvisation either, as Tesfaye and Takahashi ran Tokyo again during the second Saitama date on September 20.
Debuting unreleased music anchored to a particular stop on the itinerary has turned into a signature device on this tour. Back in April, Tesfaye pulled off an equivalent spectacle in Brazil, teaming up with pop singer Anitta to premiere the unreleased track Rio. That stadium unveiling arrived complete with choreography, heavy pyrotechnics, and an animated backdrop directed by Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike.
These ambitious stage moments come during an unsettled, highly watched stretch of Tesfaye's career. With Hurry Up Tomorrow arriving in 2025 to close out the narrative arc begun with 2020's After Hours and 2022's Dawn FM, he had repeatedly hinted at abandoning his stage name altogether. His public rationale was simple enough, suggesting that he had cleared every creative hurdle available to him under the moniker.
That flirtation with walking away proved short lived. At a tour date in Stockholm last month, Tesfaye addressed the crowd directly, explaining that retirement did not fit him and clarifying that he intended to keep going. In a recent interview with GQ Hong Kong, he went further, remarking that contemplating an exit made him understand how much inspiration would be wasted. After catching a brief glimpse of what retirement felt like, he realized that stepping away meant throwing aside actual creative drive, concluding that it was simply not the right choice for him.
Given the commercial weight of the After Hours Til Dawn production, the decision to press forward makes sense. Touring continuously since 2022, the trek has established itself as the highest-grossing tour ever mounted by a solo male artist. A recent European run saw it launch in Copenhagen, take over Manchester's Etihad Stadium across two nights, and pack London's Wembley Stadium for five straight sold-out concerts.
With the two Saitama dates behind him, Tesfaye heads into the remainder of the Asian schedule. The production arrives in Jakarta on September 26 and 27, followed by stops in Singapore, Seoul, Bangkok, and Hong Kong, before winding down to its planned finale in Kuala Lumpur on November 4. With several cities still ahead, audiences will be watching closely to see whether any other regional collaborations surface before the final curtain drops.
