A Japanese fan blog I read found the only answer that has made sense to me, and after Arashi's reaction to the fans' call for them to sing it at Tokyo last night, I feel fairly confident that this is the right one, because this totally sounds like something Jun would want:
Jun apparently said at some point, possibly a long time ago, that one of his goals was for them to one day have many songs that were better than A-RA-SHI. He said he sometimes felt they were relying on A-RA-SHI during concerts as a crutch, and he wanted to reach the point where they didn't need it anymore.
They surely would have known in advance that the Dome tour would be followed by the Asia tour, and the Dome tour is only ten shows (small in comparison to the usual arena tours). If Jun wanted them to challenge themselves, I guess this is the time to do it: only ten shows at the Domes, and it's a year with more than one tour, so it's not like they're depriving the fans for a whole year by striking it from the setlist (but until this weekend, fans didn't know for sure there would be another tour, which is why the crazy freakouts over them striking it from the setlist...going a whole year without performing it is kinda harsh).
And it seems like a lot about this tour is about shaking up the things fans have considered standard and doing new things...so I feel like Dream-A-Live is the tour for them to challenge themselves, and Around Asia 2008 (which will be going on over the ten-year-anniversary mark) will be about getting back to the roots. I think it's certain Around Asia will bring it back to its rightful place in the setlist.
Re: A.ra.shi
Jun apparently said at some point, possibly a long time ago, that one of his goals was for them to one day have many songs that were better than A-RA-SHI. He said he sometimes felt they were relying on A-RA-SHI during concerts as a crutch, and he wanted to reach the point where they didn't need it anymore.
They surely would have known in advance that the Dome tour would be followed by the Asia tour, and the Dome tour is only ten shows (small in comparison to the usual arena tours). If Jun wanted them to challenge themselves, I guess this is the time to do it: only ten shows at the Domes, and it's a year with more than one tour, so it's not like they're depriving the fans for a whole year by striking it from the setlist (but until this weekend, fans didn't know for sure there would be another tour, which is why the crazy freakouts over them striking it from the setlist...going a whole year without performing it is kinda harsh).
And it seems like a lot about this tour is about shaking up the things fans have considered standard and doing new things...so I feel like Dream-A-Live is the tour for them to challenge themselves, and Around Asia 2008 (which will be going on over the ten-year-anniversary mark) will be about getting back to the roots. I think it's certain Around Asia will bring it back to its rightful place in the setlist.