The Japan Day (German: ''Japan-Tag'') (Japanese: 日本デー) is a German-Japanese festival celebrated every year in May or June at

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The celebration can be seen as the successor of the Japan Week (German: ''Japan-Woche''), which was first held in 1983 and again in 1993, as well as of the Japan Year (German: ''Japan-Jahr'') 1999/2000. It is the largest festival of its kind in the world.

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

is the home of the biggest

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

community in continental Europe. According to German media in 2014 and 2016 Japan Day attracted about 750,000 visitors, while the Japanese Consulate in Germany claims for the 2007 event a record figure of more than one million spectators.

Program

Düsseldorf, Rheinpromenade, Japantag 2016 -- 2016 -- 2575.jpg, Japan Day 2016 Japan-Tag 2016 04.jpg, Martial arts show 2016 Japan-Tag 2016 02.jpg,

Cosplay Cosplay, a blend word of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and Fashion accessory, fashion accessories to represent a specific Character (arts), character. Cosplayers often i ...

in 2016 Feuerwerk1 Japantag Düssedorf 2014.JPG, Fireworks in 2014 Düsseldorf, Japantag 2016 -- 2016 -- 2573.jpg, 2016 cosplayers Feuerwerk Japantag 2023 Düsseldorf.jpg, 2023 fireworks Every Japan Day features the sale of

Japanese food Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (Japanese: ) is based on rice with miso soup and other ...

and drinks, as well as an extensive stage and sports program. Previous events have had performances by

Japanese music In Japan, music includes a wide array of distinct genres, both traditional and modern.ref> The word for "music" in Japanese language, Japanese is 音楽 (''ongaku''), combining the kanji 音 ''on'' (sound) with the kanji 楽 ''gaku'' (music, comf ...

ians, including koto players, choirs,

J-Pop J-pop (often stylized in all caps; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in trad ...

, and

J-Rock , sometimes abbreviated to , is rock music from Japan. Influenced by American and British rock of the 1960s, the first rock bands in Japan performed what is called group sounds, with lyrics almost exclusively in English. Folk rock band Happy End ...

groups, as well as

martial artists Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; and the prese ...

. In addition, several stalls are showcasing

Japanese culture Japanese culture has changed greatly over the millennia, from the country's prehistoric Jōmon period, to its contemporary modern culture, which absorbs influences from Asia and other regions of the world. Since the Jomon period, ancestral ...

, such as

kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn Garment collars in hanfu#Youren (right lapel), left side wrapped over ri ...

-fitting and a

sake Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asi ...

-seminar. Another attraction was a samurai army camp. Late in the evening, a

Bon dance or just is a fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese Buddhism, Buddhist custom to veneration of the dead, honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday d ...

marks the final event of the day. Spectators are invited to take part in the dance and

Happi A is a traditional tube-sleeved Japanese coat, usually worn only during festivals. typically feature symbols and/or text on the lapels, with a larger design on the back of the coat, typically the name or the festival or the participating a ...

s and Japanese fans are distributed to those participating. The celebration closes with Japanese

fireworks Fireworks are Explosive, low explosive Pyrotechnics, pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large numbe ...

, consisting of several parts, each dedicated to a different topic.

Cancellations

For the first time since its inception, the 2020 Japan Day event scheduled for 16 May was canceled with no plans for a postponed event to take place later in the year due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. It was expected to resume as normal by the next planned event, taking place on 29 May 2021, but that was also cancelled, in favour of returning in May of 2022. As an alternative, there were a series of smaller Japan Day events in its place that were organised later that year, most of them online.

Post-Pandemic

Japan Day returned in full on 21 May 2022, as well as 13 May and 01 June on the following years, with an estimated 630,000 attendees and visitors in 2024. An extension to a Japan Week is planned for 24 May 2025.

Sources

External links

Official Info about the Japan Day
{{DEFAULTSORT:Japan Day In Dusseldorf Culture of Japan Japanese diaspora in Germany Events in Düsseldorf Tourist attractions in Düsseldorf

Program

Cancellations

Post-Pandemic

See also

Sources

External links