# Japan Expo

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 | Convention canceled | 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 (with Anza Ohyama) |
| 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 Kōme, 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 | °C-ute, Nogizaka46, Kalafina, Wagakki Band, Shoko Nakagawa, Kamui Fujiwara, Yoshiki, Tatsurō Iwamoto |
| 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 | Convention postponed to 2022 | 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 Hojo |
| July 13–16, 2023 | Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre | 255,259 | Tsukasa Hojo, Yuzu Natsumi, Vickeblanka, Noriko Tadano, Batten Girls, Sakurazaka46 |

## 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:
* France
** Japan Expo Centre in Orléans
** Japan Expo Sud in Marseille
** Chibi Japan Expo in Montreuil
* Belgium
** Japan Expo Belgium in Brussels
* US
** Japan Expo USA in Santa Clara, California