After six months of trying, organizers say they still don’t have the necessary OK from the U.S. government to bring the horse girl concert to the City of Angels.
One of the clearest examples of the surging worldwide popularity of Japanese pop culture is the fact that Umamusume has established a passionate and sizable fanbase in the U.S. A sports anime/video game series centered on the souls of real-world Japanese race horses reincarnated as schoolgirls is exactly the sort of thing that used to have no shot at an official overseas release, but the franchise has had so much success in America that two Umamusume concerts are going to be held in Los Angeles this week.
Well, maybe they’re going to be held, because a visa issue could now mean that the performances will have to be cancelled.
Back in June, Umamusume’s7th Event World Tour: The Stage kicked off with a pair of concerts held at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo. The next stage of the globetrotting event is supposed to be October 22 and 23 at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater, with 17 Umamusume voice actresses/vocalists scheduled to make the trip across the Pacific to perform.
At 8 p.m. on October 18 (Los Angeles time), though, both the English and Japanese official Umamusume Twitter accounts announced that the concert organizers have still not been able to obtain the required visas for the concert to take place. A statement, posted to the official Umamusume website, says:
“In preparation for the 7th Event: The Stage in Los Angeles concerts planned for Oct 22–23, 2026, we had been working with lawyers and promoters in the US to secure the visas necessary to enter the US since over six months ago, but as of now the visas have yet to be approved.”
Six months seems like it should be plenty of time to process the paperwork for a two-day musical performance, but the United States visa process is notoriously time-consuming in the best of times, and it’s unlikely that the especially chaotic conditions of American bureaucracy these days is making things any easier. That said, while the concerts will only be held for two days, it’s possible that the performers’ talent agencies, since they’re going to the expense of flying so many performers to the U.S., are hoping to have them engage in other promotional activities or professional appearances while in the country, which could be adding complexity to the application process.
Regardless of whether or not six months should be enough time for the U.S. government to have processed the applications, the critical fact is that the concert organizers still don’t have the visas they need, and that’s putting the concerts in jeopardy. A final decision on whether or not to hold the concerts will be made by 10 p.m. on October 19 (Los Angeles time).
Cancelling the concerts would result in some severe headaches for everyone involved, with the matter of refunds being the most immediate problem. Ticket pre-sales for the Los Angeles shows started on July 23, with prices ranging from US$80 all the way up to US$350 for special VIP passes with included merch bundles. Viewing tickets for live-streams of the concerts have also been on sale, priced at US$39 for one day’s performance or US$74 for both, and livestream tickets have even been on sale in Japan for fans who want to watch their favorite voice actresses make their mark on an overseas stage.Then there’s all the concert merchandise that’s scheduled to be offered at the venue, some of which is specific to the Los Angeles performance and would thus be a hard sell if there’s no actual concert happening in the city.
Of course, photo finishes in which victory comes by a split-second margin aren’t uncommon in horse racing, and hopefully all the visa issues can get sorted in time for the concerts to take place as planned, and also that there won’t be any similar problems with the world tour’s next stops in London and Seoul.
