Japan Expo, 20 years of fun facts: 4th Impact

Back in 2002, Japan Expo had already become THE place to be for manga, anime, and Japanese culture fans. On July 5-7, the festival moved again to a new and bigger venue to welcome its first Japanese guests – Tsutomu NIHEI, the author of the manga BLAME! and NOiSE, and Nami AKIMOTO, of Ultra Cute (Urukyu) and Miracle Girls –, and more!

The organization of Japan Expo at the CNIT venue at La Défense near Paris coincides with Nintendo coming to Japan Expo for the first time. The Japanese company resorted to drastic measures and came with a big truck full of equipment. The problem was the truck was too big for the venue tunnels and their booth was at the opposite of the unloading area. Like proud Pikmins, Japan Expo’s team carried all the machines themselves to the booth. Hard work that came with a reward as explained by Thomas Sirdey, the festival Vice-President: "In the evening, we switched the electricity back on to play video games."

3 days · 21,000 attendees · 9,000 sqm (3 times bigger than the previous year) · 69 exhibitors · About 40 guests

We’ll go further to the 5th Impact and the art of dealing with any situation soon: follow our news for a new story in a few days!