Well, As far as I know, there is no such thing as "filming permissions" in Tokyo, so unless they wanted to bother themselves with getting permissions from all the owners of each of the buildings that have been covered in the footage, I think they just kept it silent they're filming. Not to mention the crew probably didn't have much of idea who's on the posters (unless the crew was Japanese)...

And I think it was 109 who paid Ayumi, when it comes to that Xmas photo. I guess it was them promoting their own shop...

The thing is that maybe they didn't plan to include 109 from the start, and avex paid them to do so. But that's just speculations, I'm good at them ;).

hehe I couldn't help but wonder if an ayu poster would find it's way into the movie

I'll have to keep my eyes open if i do end up seeing this

Oh wow! Thanks for this information :D

OMG ayu is such an actress now!

Just wondering but wouldn't it be impossible to film on the streets of Tokyo because of the amount of traffic from both automobiles and people?

Also now that I think about it.. this will boost that movie's sales by at least 5 or 6 people lol :)

Sure they didn't really go downtown Tokyo to film racing cars, as you say, there's too much traffic in there. They did many shoots in L.A. (probably most of them) and the racing scenes were shot using greenscreen.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but if there are scenes of racing downtown Tokyo, then it's surreal.

The filming locations are:

Hawthorne Plaza - 12124 Hawthorne Blvd, Hawthorne, California, USA
(parking garage scenes)


Los Angeles, California, USA


Tokyo, Japan


USA


Victorville, California, USA

From IMDB

^ They dressed up California like Tokyo, right?

:thud Oh well.. At least she's still there XD

I think, I did'nt really focus on the backgrounds. But I geuss they did if they wanted to like put a japanese sign somehwere.

Oh, and if some of you wanted to know, the scene which the two billboards appear are about 25 minutes into the movie.

i saw the movie and she is indeed there!!! wahaha!!! i was so glued to the movie background that i didnt bother to watch that much before she came out... wehehehe!!

Sweet! I'll go watch the movie since it's because of that half second of Ayumi! Just kiddin' ! Hahaha...

Anyway, it's nice to see Ayumi's billboard appear randomly on movie. I wonder wot does people think 'bout her. And how Ayumi feel 'bout it. By the way, does anyone know that there's another Ayumi's billboard appeared in one of the Matrix movie too?

Why in Matrix movie?...... they shot Matrix in Tokyo? Thought it was in Australia... ?___?

^ they shot it in Australia?! kool!

and Ayu poster in The Matrix?? u serious? if so i will definately watch it!

i think it was not IN the matrix movie but in the special features or something for the movie...right?

I was just watching the HBO Making of Tokyo Drift AND..

I saw the Mika Nakashima and Ayumi Hamasaki billboards TWICE
They DID dress up parts of California like Tokyo.

^ where did you watch HBO Making of Tokyo Drift?

I'd be guessing it was on american HBO channel ;)

Well I'm not really sure, but I feel like I've seen a making of footage or read/heard about it, that most of the city scenes (in the first movie, I think) were shot in either Sydney or other big city in Australia. After all, the city in the first Matrix movie doesn't look much like LA or anything, does it?...