Japan Expo 13th Impact, The Best of Japanese Culture in Paris

Japan Expo has been the European leader in Japanese culture and entertainment since 2007. Created in 1999, it quickly became number one with more than 190,000 attendees last year. Japan Expo is the best place to know everything about Manga, Anime, video games, technology, J-Music and traditional Japanese culture. Save the date for the 13th Impact! Japan Expo is back from July 5 to 8 in the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center.

Manga is an essential part of Japanese pop culture. This year, Japan Expo is welcoming Naoki Urasawa as Manga Guest of Honor. He is going to talk about his work, give signing sessions, and even perform on stage, interpreting the music he created for 20th Century Boys. Other Mangaka are present, such as Natsumi Aida (Switch Girl!!), Tetsuya Saruwatari (Free Fight), Moto Hagio, Toshio Maeda (Urotsukidôji), and many more.

As for Anime, Japan Expo is glad to welcome Haruhiko Mikimoto. This Anime Guest of Honor is giving a conference about his work on Macross and signing sessions. Among others, Masao Maruyama (creator of Mad House studio) is also one of the festival guest.

The Video Game Music Guest of Honor, Kōhei Tanaka, gets the best of both worlds! He composed music for One Piece and Dragon Ball, and is meeting his fans during signing sessions and two showcases!

You may know our J-Music Guest of Honor thanks to titles used as openings for Naruto or One Piece: FLOW! They are giving an exclusive gig on Friday after Japan Expo, and are available for signings and a conference during the festival. The festival has many more J-Music artists performing at the J.E. Live House, such as Momoiro Clover Z, Hemenway, ViRGO a.k.a. HAMMER, MAN WITH A MISSION, DaizyStripper, Anli Pollicino, Professor SAKAMOTO and even Kyary Pamyu Pamyu !

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is a young model and singer, and happens to be our Fashion Guest of Honor. She is the icon of Harajuku style in Japan and her song PONPONPON has been viewed more than 27 million times on YouTube. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is leading the Japan Fashion Days, a special event bringing together fashion from Japan and Europe.

Keiji Inafune, our Video Game Guest of Honor, has worked on games such as Resident Evil 4, Street Fighter IV or Monster Hunter. He is not the only one representing video games at the festival and a stage is fully dedicated to them.

Last but not least, Japan Expo allows its attendees to discover Japanese traditional culture through arts and artistic techniques such as Nihonga painting or calligraphy. The cultural stage is hosting Samurai No Kokoro, an association preserving armors from the Samurai's feudal era, or concerts of Taiko, Koto, and Sanshin (traditional music instruments). Japanese cooking allows attendees to enjoy every aspect of Japanese culture. Meditation and relaxation are part of it too and everyone can relax thanks to Anma during the festival.

Japan Expo is bringing the best of Japan to Paris for four days of exploring all of its culture in the heart of Europe. See you from July 5 to 8 for a taste of Japanese culture à la française. J