Tokyo Crazy Kawaii Paris

 The Tokyo Crazy Kawaii Paris includes manga, anime, games, music, fashion, and sundry goods. It’s an event for the creation of business platforms. It’s held for three days in the forest of Vincennes, Paris. I was employed as the executive committee chairman.

 There were two main points: “Total power” and “Participation.”

 First: total power. In addition to the virtual content of manga, anime, and games; the “physical” businesses of fashion, food, and sundry items were added to present the culture of Japan in a unified manner. Every year in July there is a “Japan Expo” that is run by the French and features manga, anime, and games. The “Tokyo Crazy Kawaii Paris” event presents Japan in a more holistic manner and Japan is entirely responsible for the planning and management of the event.

 It is also a participatory event. Over 70 businesses from a variety of genres, artists including Shonen Knife, and fans of Japan all participate in the event. The “Japan Expo” tends to draw “otaku” (geeks), but our event also draws in teens in Lolita fashions, normal families with children, and general consumers.

 On the exhibition floor, my eyes stopped on the Lolita fashion, the grilled octopus, and the purikura (picture booths).

 I was surprised by the number of people in Lolita dress. It was more “Lolita” than costume play. It’s a fashion that originated in Europe, but now Japan is the center of the movement. Japanese teens took the trend, rearranged it, and formed a new culture. Now this culture has been exported back to its point of origin. The same goes for manga, anima, and games. These use techniques and manners of expression that originated in the West, but Japan developed them and now exports them overseas.

 Even more than ramen, tonkatsu, udon, sushi, and soba; the line for grilled octopus (TAKOYAKI) was the longest of all. Everyone knows about the popularity of sushi and tempura, but grilled octopus? I suspect that there are still more genres of Japanese culture that will be a hit overseas.

 There was also a long line for the purikura (picture booths). I saw many people dressed as Miku Hatsune (a humanoid persona with a synthesized singing voice) as well. These paint a good picture of Japanese culture. They represent a combination of cultural power and technical power. The wish to create a decorated picture combined with the technical skill to do so. A cute animated character combined with the technology to breathe life into her. They are both the popular result of expression and technology.