JLGC tent at Japan Day Festival Dusseldorf
JLGC took part in the 13th annual “Japan Day” festival in Düsseldorf held 17 May, on the banks of the River Rhine. This is the first time JLGC took part in such a festival in Germany, after recently beginning to take part in similar festivals in the UK on a regular basis. Part of JLGC’s role is to promote Japan’s regions and culture for tourists, as well as local products in foreign markets. Japan’s local government has a strong role in marketing their own regions to visitors from overseas. There is a large Japanese community in Düsseldorf, Germany. In 2008 the Consulate-General of Japan in Düsseldorf stated that about 11,000 Japanese, including both permanent and temporary residents, live in Düsseldorf. Since the 1950s Düsseldorf has hosted over 500 Japanese companies.
The crowds along the Rhine, an estimated 750,000 attended the festival
JLGC’s booth was manned by five staff, with tables displaying promotional material for all the areas of Japan, highlighting different region’s appeal in a range of ways from traditional arts and crafts, temples and histories, gourmet culture and specialist local delicacies to snowboarding and onsen resorts (hot springs). JLGC staff were able offer advice on where best to go in Japan for tourist with specific interests, and were at the same time able to carry out market research by handing out questionnaires to be filled out in return for a small free gift of branded goods from all over the country. The research will be used to help Japanese local authorities plan their PR strategy and material on the basis of the answers given.
The booth was also an opportunity to give out information on the JET Programme, which recruits graduates from the UK and Europe to work in Japanese local government and state schools on international links and foreign language education.
The festival went on into the night
The Japan Day in Düsseldorf was quite the biggest festival that JLGC has taken part in, with numbers well over any of the UK festivals including the annual Japan Matsuri and Hyper Japan festivals in London, with the organisers estimate of 750,000 visitors attending. The visit to Germany was also an opportunity to meet with colleagues from JETRO Düsseldorf, as well as the Japan National Tourism Organisation Frankfurt office and the Japan Agriculture (JA) office in Düsseldorf. JA has recently started promoting food from Japan’s regions within Europe, including high quality ‘wagyu’ Japanese beef, a highly prized delicacy which has recently become popular with high end restaurants and gastropubs in the UK.
The crowning glory of the Japan Day ended with a spectacular fireworks display with the theme of “Japan’s four seasons” with 1,500 fireworks in the form of flowers, umbrellas, colourful foliage and snow men of the Rhine. The finale this year was a dazzling shower of gold, which judging by the applause ringing out along the Rhine was probably the most popular element of this year’s fireworks. The Japanese community in Dusseldorf is, after London and Paris, the third largest in Europe. 500 Japanese companies operate in the area, of which about 360 in the state capital of Dusseldorf itself. In North Rhine-Westphalia State Japanese companies employ more than 31,000 people.
For more information on our public relations activity on behalf of Japan’s regions, as well as more details on Japan as a tourist destination, please see our newly updated website, and for more details on the Japan Day Festival in Düsseldorf see here.
