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Japan Expo is a Japan pop culture event hugely popular in France that made headlines for crossing over to America last year. The American version, titled Japan Expo USA, will be held again this year in August. According to the official site for Japan Expo USA, the event will be held over the same three days as last year’s event: Aug. 22-24.
However, the event is not returning to the Santa Clara Convention Center where it was held last year, but rather is moving to the San Mateo Event Center, which is also in the Silicon Valley area. Differing from Santa Clara, which is on the south side of Silicon Valley in California, San Mateo is on the north side. The venue is closer to the San Francisco International Airport and is considered a suburb of San Francisco, being about 30 minutes from downtown.
According to the sponsors of the event, SEFA Entertainment, the San Mateo Event Center has ample facilities for Japan Expo. In addition to this, there are plans to use the outside grounds as part of the event as well, including creating the main stage outdoors. It is thought that such a venue will bring out the festival atmosphere indicative of Japan Expo. By changing the venue from Santa Clara, which consisted primarily of an indoor booth area, stage, and lecture hall, the flavor of the event will change as well.
Although it will be an advantage for the event to be closer to the densely populated San Francisco area, this also brings new concerns. One is creating a rivalry with J-Pop Summit Festival, a yearly Japan culture event held outdoors in San Francisco. J-Pop Summit Festival, which has become a big success after several years of rapid growth, will be held in July, a month before Japan Expo USA. This means that Japan Expo USA will have to do something to distinguish itself from it. Another concern is the fact that there are no major hotels in the vicinity of the San Mateo Event Center. This will likely prove to be an inconvenience to visitors and guests coming from Japan.
Japan Expo USA is being sponsored by SEFA Entertainment, an American corporation of the JTS Group which is the parent company to SEFA, the sponsors of Japan Expo in Paris, France. According to SEFA’s 2014 Japan Expo PR booklet, 9,442 people attended Japan Expo USA in 2013. For this year, 16,000 people are projected to attend. The original Paris Japan Expo saw 23,000 attendees in 2013, and, with the 2014 event extended from four to five days, attendance this year is projected at 25,000. Japan Expo USA is certainly buzzing because of its roots, but it might be better to view it as still being in its trial stage this year.
Source: animeanime
