Week-long festival to showcase Japanese culture in Delhi

The Embassy of Japan along with The Japan Foundation and other institutions is organizing the Japan Festival. A seven-week-long celebration of enchanting music, delightful dance, engrossing films, awe-inspiring sports and of course the irresistible food from the Land of the Rising Sun will be held in New Delhi.

As part of the festival, a series of events have been planned at various venues across the city from October 27 to December 16. The festival will kick off with an opening event at the India Habitat Center, which will be attended by H.E. Kenji Hiramatsu, the Ambassador of Japan to India along with other dignitaries. The highlights of the opening event will be performances by Makoto Kuriya, Creative Jazz Ensemble Japan, Wasabi, a Japanese traditional music group, Japanese cultural heritage tour using VR technology, interaction with NAO – an autonomous, programmable humanoid robot-and trailer screening of films to be screened during the Japanese Film Festival along with other film screening events.

The Festival will include events such as the Japanese Film Festival, Japanese music performances, Traditional Japanese dance performance with Kathak and Indian Classical Music, Comic Con Delhi, etc. Most of the events are open to public. On the Japan Festival, Ambassador Hiramatsu says, "I am delighted to celebrate the year of Japan-India friendly exchanges together with people of India. The Japan Festival is certainly an important part of the celebration. The celebration is going to be exciting as there will be cultural performances from Japan as well as by Indian performers. This will provide an opportunity to artists and citizens of both countries to interact and embrace the diversity of cultures."

During Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi's visit to Japan in November 2016, Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to mark the year 2017 as the 'Year of Japan-India Friendly Exchanges' to further enhance people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. The year 2017 also marks the 60th anniversary of the Japan-India Cultural Agreement. On this occasion, various commemorating events including the Japan Festival are being held in both countries.