We can now confirm that the X JAPAN lives scheduled for Paris on November 22 and Saitama Super Arena on December 24 and 25 have been postponed until 2009.

The official statement on X JAPAN’s website (currently in French) says the decision to push the concerts on November 22nd show was due to a number of administrative decisions by tour management. The full announcement can be found on X JAPAN’s French website right here.

For a translation of the official announcement into English, you can read the latest in our forums.

A very rough first-draft translation is here:

Notice concerning the management of X JAPAN and the changes in the XJP world tour
Production Management Committee worked with the strong intent of all the members of XJP to make their world tour debut in Paris at any cost.

However, to assure the success of this world tour, we made a partnership with the largest management companies in the US, including AZOFF MANAGEMENT (with Mr Irving Azoff as president), and also Filament Inc, directed by the creator of the group Warner Brothers Records, Mr Phil Quartataro so that they coordinate everything with a global vision. We are also in the process of exchanging with the world leader of concert promoters, AEG, for the details of this global tour.

After many exchanges between the above noted parties about bringing about the success of this global tour, it was decided that AZOFF MANAGEMENT would play the role of leader with full power of decisions, working for the global promotion of X JAPAN with FILAMENT INC.

AZOFF MANAGEMENT and FILAMENT INC were in agreement with their new strategy to restart the entire program until next year, which included the concert in Paris on 22 November as well as the concerts announced for 24 and 25 December at Saitama Super Arena. Consequently, the tour will start for the at the end of the year of 2008, though the concerts in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Taiwan and Korea will take place in the summer as announced previously.

Next spring, there will be a national Japanese tour which will take place by a new concert in Paris to replace the one in November as well as supplementary concerts in Scandinavia including Sweden, et cetera.

For all those who planned to attend the shows in Paris and/or Saitama Super Arena, please accept our apologies for this sudden announcement… Please give us a little more time to finalize these new global strategic plans for X JAPAN.