Japan Expo

Japan Expo is a convention on Japanese popular culture – the largest of its kind outside Japan – taking place in Paris, France, although it has branched out into a partnership festival – Kultima – and expanded to include some European and US pop culture as well. It is held yearly at the beginning of July for four days (usually from Thursday to Sunday) in the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre (the second-largest convention centre in France). The attendance has increased steadily over the years, with 2,400 visitors welcomed in the first edition in 1999 and more than 252,510 for the 2019 edition.

Japan Expo
Status	Active
Genre	Japanese culture Interactive entertainment
Venue	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre
Location(s)	Villepinte, Paris
Country	France
Inaugurated	1999
Most recent	July 3, 2025; 55 days ago (2025-07-03)
Attendance	252,510 (2019)
Organized by	SEFA EVENT JTS Group
Website	www.japan-expo-paris.com/en/

This article is about the Japanese pop culture convention. For the 1970 world's fair in Osaka, see Expo '70.

As with the Olympic Games and many other mass gatherings, the 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

History

Momoiro Clover Z performed at Japan Expo 2012. The group is ranked as number one among female idol groups according to 2013–2017 surveys.^[1]

The first exposition took place in 1999 at the ISC Paris Business School and welcomed 2,400 visitors, a number which has grown steadily. In 2002, Japan Expo was hosted at the Center of New Industries and Technologies (CNIT) in La Défense, Paris.

In 2005, the event was cancelled out of security concerns due to the large number of visitors. The exposition has since moved to the larger Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre.

In 2020 and 2021, the event was cancelled due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.^[2]

Event history

Dates	Venue	Attendance	Guests
1999	ISC Paris Business School	2,400
June 24–25, 2000	EPITA	3,200[3]
December 8–10, 2000	Espace Champerret	8,000[4]
June 29 – July 1, 2001	Espace Austerlitz	12,000[5]	Eric Etcheverry, Brigitte Lecordier, Eric Legrand, Michel Barouille, Liliane Davis, Enrique, Jean-Pierre Savelli[6]
July 5–7, 2002	CNIT[7]	21,000[8]	Nami Akimoto, and Tsutomu Nihei[9]
July 5–6, 2003	CNIT	29,000[10]	Keiji Goto, Nobuhiro Okaseko, and Ryosuke Sakamoto[11]
July 2–4, 2004	CNIT	41,000[12]	Hisashi Abe, Masakazu Katsura, Mana, Andy Seto, Hiroshi Watari, and Kanemori Yoshinori[13]
July 1–3, 2005	Convention canceled[7]
July 7–9, 2006	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center[7]	56,000[14]	Hitomitoi, Kenjiro Kawatsu, Morishige, Hideki Owada, Aki Shimizu, Mamiya Takizaki, Kazuhide Tomonaga, Takaharu Okuma, Plastic Tree and Anna Tsuchiya[15][16]
July 6–8, 2007	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center	83,000[17]	Dio – Distraught Overlord, GARI, Halcali, Keiko Ichiguchi, Sachiko Kamimura, Masachika Kawata, Minae Matsukawa, Ichirou Mizuki, Junko Mizuno, Olivia Lufkin, Moon Kana, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Hiroyuki Takei, Hironobu Takeshita, Syuji Takeya, Nana Kitade and Yoshiki[18]
July 3–6, 2008	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center	134,467[19]	Yutaka Izubuchi, Junko Kawakami, Toshihiro Kawamoto, Kazuo Koike, Setona Mizushiro, Go Nagai, Takeshi Obata, Oh! great, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Scandal, Ra:IN (Pata and Michiaki only[20]), Munehisa Sakai, Chihiro Tamaki, Tetsuya Tsutsui, and Miyavi[21]
July 2–5, 2009	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center	165,501[22]	CLAMP, AKB48, Shinichirō Watanabe, Moriyasu Taniguchi, Mizuho Nishikubo, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, Shiori Furukawa, Akemi Takada, Natsuki Takaya, Sakae Esuno, Daisuke Nishijima, Dai Satō, Hitoshi Ichimura, Tetsuya Nishio, Junko Takeuchi, Takami Akai, Akemi Hayashi, Kazuya Hatazawa, Showtaro Morikubo, Hikari Yamaguchi, Yuuichiro Hirata, Shintaro Akiyama, Ryousuke Katoh, Kanon Wakeshima, Benjamin (Zhang Lin), Ji Di (Zu Ya-Le), Aurore, Benjamin Reiss, Ludo Lullabi, School Food Punishment, Ra:IN[23]
July 1–4, 2010	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center	173,680[24]	Tsukasa Hojo, Noriyuki Iwadare, Morning Musume, An Nakahara, Masakazu Katsura, Hiro Mashima, Seikima-II, HITT & Guests, Jun Mochizuki, Suika, die!!die!!color!!!, Kazue Kato, Anipunk, Aya Kanno, Gibier du Mari, Yukari Tamura, X Japan (Toshi and Yoshiki only), Vivid[25]
June 30 – July 3, 2011	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center	192,000[26]	Hangry & Angry, Dream Morning Musume (Yoshizawa and Ishikawa), DJ Shiru's K-ble Jungle Akira Yamaoka, Nobuteru Yūki, Yumiko Igarashi, H. Naoto, PASSPO☆, Head Phones President
July 5–8, 2012	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center	219,614[27]	Christielle Huet-Gomez, Alice Briére-Haquet, Samantha Bailly, Hideo Katsumata, Chiaki Miyamoto, Yoshihisa Kishimoto, Moto Hagio, Natsumi Aida, Mariya Nishiuchi, Hideo Baba, Katsuhiro Harada, Haruhiko Mikimoto, Masao Maruyama, Kamui, Sakizo, Triple Tails.S (Kana and Mio Shirai), Satsuki, Shiitake, Salagir, Jérôme Morel, Gogeta Jr., Marlène, Ibi, Furo and Mimi, Berrizo, Monsieur To, TroyB, Tetsuya Tsutsui, Professor Sakamoto, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Toshio Maeda, Ein Lee, Tetsuya Saruwatari, Anli Pollicino, Man With A Mission, Daizystripper, Makoto Shinkai, N0isY☆KidS, Rei Toma, Kohei Tanaka, Junko Iwao, Virgo a.k.a. Hammer, Hemenway, Momoiro Clover Z, Idoling!!!, Keiji Inafune, Flow, Naoki Urasawa,[28] Top 16 French StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty players From 2012 StarCraft II World Championship Series:France Nationals[29]
July 4–7, 2013	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center	232,876[30]	Tetsuo Hara, Masahiro Ikeno, Atsuhiro Iwakami, Shōji Kawamori, Kim Byung Jin, Keito Kōme, Toshiyuki Kubooka, Tomonori Ochikoshi, Aya Oda, Mamiya Takizaki, Tatsuyuki Tanaka, Aki Akana, angela, °C-ute, Dear Loving, Deathgaze, Dempagumi.inc, J☆Dee’Z, Kao=S, Anam Kawashima, Kylee, May'n, Maywa Denki, Nightmare, Ninjaman Japan, Sansanar, Urbangarde, Tsubasa Masuwaka, Una, Hideo Baba, Katsuhiro Harada, Shinji Hashimoto, Yoshinori Kitase, Hisashi Koinuma, Tetsuya Nomura, Motomu Toriyama, Naoki Yoshida, Samantha Bailly, Jérôme Hamon, Shiitake, Ray Fujita, Laure Kié, Kikutaro, Katsuyuki Konishi, Natsuna, Kazma Sakamoto, Daisuke Sekimoto, Hiromu Takahashi, Junko Takeuchi[31]
July 2–6, 2014	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center	240,189[32]	°C-ute, Nogizaka46, Kalafina, Wagakki Band, Shoko Nakagawa, Kamui Fujiwara, Yoshiki, Tatsurō Iwamoto
July 2–5, 2015	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center	247,473[33]	Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Pink Babies,[34] Tsubasa Sakaguchi, K-ble Jungle
July 7–10, 2016	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center	234,852[35]	Junichi Masuda, Hiro Mashima, Hironobu Kageyama, Psycho le Cému, Man with a Mission
July 6–9, 2017	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center	238,241[36]	Kenji Kamiyama, Yoshiki Sakurai
July 5–8, 2018	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center	247,919[37]	Buichi Terasawa, Shinichiro Watanabe, Nobuyoshi Habara, Atsushi Ohkubo, Daimaou Kosaka, Toshihiro Kawamoto, Imitoshi Yamane, Crystal Lake
July 4–7, 2019	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center	252,510	Angela, Yuegene Fay, Yaya Han, Aya Hirano, Kamui, Mika Kobayashi, Leiji Matsumoto, Go Nagai, Akito Osuga, Ryosuke Sakamoto, Yoko Takahashi, Yoshiyuki Tomino, Dadaroma, Twin Cosplay, Tony Valente[38]
July 2–5, 2020	Convention postponed to 2022[2]
July 14–17, 2022[2]	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center	254,084[2]	Yuzu Natsumi, May'n, Sorgenti, Blue Encount, Yūsuke Kozaki, True, Tsukasa Hojo[39]
July 13–16, 2023[40]	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre	255,259[41]	Tsukasa Hojo, Yuzu Natsumi, Vickeblanka, Noriko Tadano, Batten Girls, Sakurazaka46
July 11–14, 2024	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre	200,716[42]
July 3–6, 2025	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre		Junji Ito, Yoko Takahashi, Kazuhiko Torishima, Toyotarou, Oh! Great, Broken by the Scream[43]
July 9-12, 2026	Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre

°C-ute at Japan Expo 2014

Japan Expo in other cities

Other than the main convention in Paris, Japan Expo has expanded to 4 cities in 3 countries on 2 continents:

• France
  • Japan Expo Centre in Orléans
  • Japan Expo Sud in Marseille
  • Chibi Japan Expo in Montreuil
• Belgium
  • Japan Expo Belgium in Brussels
• US
  • Japan Expo USA in Santa Clara, California