The exhibition galleries and programme

The programme has two halves. The ground floor is largely given over to the public exhibitions of Japan's artist associations, groups such as Nitten, Nika and Inten, which have held open juried shows for a century and which fill the galleries with hundreds of large canvases, calligraphy scrolls and sculptures by living members. These are little known to foreign visitors and are a fascinating look at the mainstream of Japanese art today. The upper floors host the blockbuster loan shows organised with museums abroad and Japanese newspapers, from the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay and the Pushkin Museum to retrospectives of fashion designers, architects and manga artists.

Because there is no collection, the museum describes itself as an art centre rather than a museum, and it was set up by the national government to gather information about art, to educate and to give space to artists rather than to own things. Check the programme before you visit, because what is on show changes completely every few months, and remember that each exhibition has its own ticket and its own entrance in the atrium. Queues form at the escalators for the most popular shows, so buy the ticket online first.

Did You Know? The special exhibition gallery on the second floor is big enough to have hosted a full-size reconstruction of a Tokyo street for a Studio Ghibli show.