Japan Expo is a convention on Japanese popular culture – the largest of its kind outside Japan – taking place in Paris, France, although it has branched out into a partnership festival – Kultima – and expanded to include some European and US pop culture as well. It is held yearly at the beginning of July for four days (usually from Thursday to Sunday) in the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre (the second-largest convention centre in France). The attendance has increased steadily over the years, with 2,400 visitors welcomed in the first edition in 1999 and more than 252,510 for the 2019 edition.

As with the Olympic Games and many other mass gatherings, the 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

History

The first exposition took place in 1999 at the ISC Paris Business School and welcomed 2,400 visitors, a number which has grown steadily. In 2002, Japan Expo was hosted at the Center of New Industries and Technologies (CNIT) in La Défense, Paris.

In 2005, the event was cancelled out of security concerns due to the large number of visitors. The exposition has since moved to the larger Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre.

In 2020 and 2021, the event was cancelled due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Event history Dates Venue Attendance Guests 1999 ISC Paris Business School 2,400 June 24–25, 2000 EPITA 3,200 December 8–10, 2000 Espace Champerret 8,000 June 29 – July 1, 2001 Espace Austerlitz 12,000 Eric Etcheverry, Brigitte Lecordier, Eric Legrand, Michel Barouille, Liliane Davis, Enrique, Jean-Pierre Savelli July 5–7, 2002 CNIT 21,000 Nami Akimoto, and Tsutomu Nihei July 5–6, 2003 CNIT 29,000 Keiji Goto, Nobuhiro Okaseko, and Ryosuke Sakamoto July 2–4, 2004 CNIT 41,000 Hisashi Abe, Masakazu Katsura, Mana, Andy Seto, Hiroshi Watari, and Kanemori Yoshinori July 1–3, 2005 Convention canceled July 7–9, 2006 Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center 56,000 Hitomitoi, Kenjiro Kawatsu, Morishige, Hideki Owada, Aki Shimizu, Mamiya Takizaki, Kazuhide Tomonaga, Takaharu Okuma, Plastic Tree and Anna Tsuchiya July 6–8, 2007 Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center 83,000 Dio – Distraught Overlord, GARI, Halcali, Keiko Ichiguchi, Sachiko Kamimura, Masachika Kawata, Minae Matsukawa, Ichirou Mizuki, Junko Mizuno, Olivia Lufkin, Moon Kana, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Hiroyuki Takei, Hironobu Takeshita, Syuji Takeya, Nana Kitade and Yoshiki July 3–6, 2008 Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center 134,467 Yutaka Izubuchi, Junko Kawakami, Toshihiro Kawamoto, Kazuo Koike, Setona Mizushiro, Go Nagai, Takeshi Obata, Oh! great, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Scandal, Ra:IN (Pata and Michiaki only), Munehisa Sakai, Chihiro Tamaki, Tetsuya Tsutsui, and Miyavi July 2–5, 2009 Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center 165,501 CLAMP, AKB48, Shinichirō Watanabe, Moriyasu Taniguchi, Mizuho Nishikubo, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, Shiori Furukawa, Akemi Takada, Natsuki Takaya, Sakae Esuno, Daisuke Nishijima, Dai Satō, Hitoshi Ichimura, Tetsuya Nishio, Junko Takeuchi, Takami Akai, Akemi Hayashi, Kazuya Hatazawa, Showtaro Morikubo, Hikari Yamaguchi, Yuuichiro Hirata, Shintaro Akiyama, Ryousuke Katoh, Kanon Wakeshima, Benjamin (Zhang Lin), Ji Di (Zu Ya-Le), Aurore, Benjamin Reiss, Ludo Lullabi, School Food Punishment, Ra:IN July 1–4, 2010 Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center 173,680 Tsukasa Hojo, Noriyuki Iwadare, Morning Musume, An Nakahara, Masakazu Katsura, Hiro Mashima, Seikima-II, HITT & Guests, Jun Mochizuki, Suika, die!!die!!color!!!, Kazue Kato, Anipunk, Aya Kanno, Gibier du Mari, Yukari Tamura, X Japan (Toshi and Yoshiki only), Vivid June 30 – July 3, 2011 Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center 192,000 Hangry & Angry, Dream Morning Musume (Yoshizawa and Ishikawa), DJ Shiru's K-ble Jungle Akira Yamaoka, Nobuteru Yūki, Yumiko Igarashi, H. Naoto, PASSPO☆, Head Phones President July 5–8, 2012 Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center 219,614 Christielle Huet-Gomez, Alice Briére-Haquet, Samantha Bailly, Hideo Katsumata, Chiaki Miyamoto, Yoshihisa Kishimoto, Moto Hagio, Natsumi Aida, Mariya Nishiuchi, Hideo Baba, Katsuhiro Harada, Haruhiko Mikimoto, Masao Maruyama, Kamui, Sakizo, Triple Tails.S (Kana and Mio Shirai), Satsuki, Shiitake, Salagir, Jérôme Morel, Gogeta Jr., Marlène, Ibi, Furo and Mimi, Berrizo, Monsieur To, TroyB, Tetsuya Tsutsui, Professor Sakamoto, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Toshio Maeda, Ein Lee, Tetsuya Saruwatari, Anli Pollicino, Man With A Mission, Daizystripper, Makoto Shinkai, N0isY☆KidS, Rei Toma, Kohei Tanaka, Junko Iwao, Virgo a.k.a. Hammer, Hemenway, Momoiro Clover Z, Idoling!!!, Keiji Inafune, Flow, Naoki Urasawa, Top 16 French StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty players From 2012 StarCraft II World Championship Series:France Nationals July 4–7, 2013 Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center 232,876 Tetsuo Hara, Masahiro Ikeno, Atsuhiro Iwakami, Shōji Kawamori, Kim Byung Jin, Keito Koume, Toshiyuki Kubooka, Tomonori Ochikoshi, Aya Oda, Mamiya Takizaki, Tatsuyuki Tanaka, Aki Akana, angela, °C-ute, Dear Loving, Deathgaze, Dempagumi.inc, J☆Dee'Z, Kao=S, Anam Kawashima, Kylee, May'n, Maywa Denki, Nightmare, Ninjaman Japan, Sansanar, Urbangarde, Tsubasa Masuwaka, Una, Hideo Baba, Katsuhiro Harada, Shinji Hashimoto, Yoshinori Kitase, Hisashi Koinuma, Tetsuya Nomura, Motomu Toriyama, Naoki Yoshida, Samantha Bailly, Jérôme Hamon, Shiitake, Ray Fujita, Laure Kié, Kikutaro, Katsuyuki Konishi, Natsuna, Kazma Sakamoto, Daisuke Sekimoto, Hiromu Takahashi, Junko Takeuchi July 2–6, 2014 Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center 240,189 Moumoon, Shoko Nakagawa, Berryz Kobo, °C-ute, Nogod, Kamui Fujiwara, Izumi Matsumoto July 2–5, 2015 Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center 247,473 Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Pink Babies, Tsubasa Sakaguchi, K-ble Jungle July 7–10, 2016 Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center 234,852 Junichi Masuda, Hiro Mashima, Hironobu Kageyama, Psycho le Cému, Man with a Mission July 6–9, 2017 Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center 238,241 Kenji Kamiyama, Yoshiki Sakurai July 5–8, 2018 Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center 247,919 Buichi Terasawa, Shinichiro Watanabe, Nobuyoshi Habara, Atsushi Ohkubo, Daimaou Kosaka, Toshihiro Kawamoto, Imitoshi Yamane, Crystal Lake July 4–7, 2019 Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center 252,510 Angela, Yuegene Fay, Yaya Han, Aya Hirano, Kamui, Mika Kobayashi, Leiji Matsumoto, Go Nagai, Akito Osuga, Ryosuke Sakamoto, Yoko Takahashi, Yoshiyuki Tomino, Dadaroma, Twin Cosplay, Tony Valente July 2–5, 2020 Convention postponed to 2022 July 14–17, 2022 Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center 254,084 Yuzu Natsumi, May'n, Sorgenti, Blue Encount, Yūsuke Kozaki, True, Tsukasa HojoJuly 13–16, 2023Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre255,259Tsukasa Hojo, Yuzu Natsumi, Vickeblanka, Noriko Tadano, Batten Girls, Sakurazaka46July 11–14, 2024Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre200,716July 3–6, 2025Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition CentreJunji Ito, Yoko Takahashi, Kazuhiko Torishima, Toyotarou, Oh! Great, Broken by the ScreamJuly 9-12, 2026Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre

Japan Expo in other cities Other than the main convention in Paris, Japan Expo has expanded to 4 cities in 3 countries on 2 continents:

Japan Expo Centre in Orléans Japan Expo Sud in Marseille Chibi Japan Expo in Montreuil

Japan Expo Belgium in Brussels

Japan Expo USA in Santa Clara, California

References

External links

Chibi Japan Expo – Smaller version in November