J-POP SUMMIT Festival 2016

On Saturday, July 23, Consul General Yamada attended the opening ceremony of J-POP SUMMIT 2016. Consul General Yamada greeted the audience, expressed the great opportunity they had to experience the latest in Japanese pop culture firsthand at the festival, and thanked the organizers for creating such a large and impressive avenue to locally explore modern Japan.

The Consulate jointly sponsored the J-POP Idol Karaoke Contest to encourage Japanese language education amongst local youth interested in Japanese. Finalists selected through online video preliminaries participated in onstage finals and impressed the audience with their high caliber talents which nearly surpassed the professional singers whose songs they covered. Though the competition was quite close, the duet Marco and Simone were selected as the overall winner, with Dibur and Yanovi coming in at a near second. Consul Ichioka, Director of the Japan Information and Cultural Center, participated as a judge during the competition and awarded certificates of merit to the first and second place winners.

On a special stage as part of Nippon Travel Agency’s “Travel Pavilion”, the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco partnered with local chapters of the Urasenke Foundation (July 23) and Omotesenke Domon Kai (July 24) to present tea ceremony demonstrations to introduce the charms of Japanese hospitality.

The Consulate held an information booth with materials and staff to promote Japanese culture, tourism, the JET Program and study abroad. The ever-popular robot seal, Paro, also helped to greet attendees.