It’s supposed to be fun, people. Unfortunately, a piano meant to be open for the public became a point of controversy when the company that owns it made it clear that only good players were allowed.
The instrument in question is the Nanko Street Piano at the ATC Seaside Terrace in Suminoe, Osaka. The piano’s set up in a food court on the second floor and run by the food court management company Goo-Note. It was available to play from between 2pm to 6pm. On its Instagram, Goo-Note invites people to “play to your heart’s content.”
However, it seems they didn’t really mean that. Recently, the piano’s operating company put up a sign that asked people to “please practice at home.”
“This piano is in a food court,” it explained. “We’ve received many complaints about clumsy performances, and if it keeps up, we’ll have no choice but to remove the piano.”
The statement continued, “We’re happy to have you play after you’ve practiced a while and can perform without stumbling. ‘Music’ is music when it reaches someone. A self-indulgent performance is just noise.”
The statement drew a firestorm of controversy on social media, with the Oricon News article on Yahoo! News JP piling up over 7,000 comments. Most pointed out the obvious – that limiting a “street piano” to professional-grade players means it isn’t a street piano at all.
After a couple of days of this backlash, the operator’s official X account apologized for the controversy. It followed this up immediately with a post reading, “We additionally apologize for misunderstanding what people understand a ‘street piano’ to mean. We will commence with removing it.”
Some commenters lambasted the company for evading responsibility. “Seems like you’re saying, ‘It’s your guys’ fault that this became such a flame war.'”
Others laid into the company for expecting to get TikTok-able performances for free as a form of no-cost advertising. “We should be removing these people, not the piano, one wrote.”
“If you tell people, ‘please graffiti this wall,'” another criticized, “you can’t just expect Banksy to show up.”
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