Central Park West was aglow with multi-sensual glee on Saturday May 10 as many thousands basked in the sights and sounds of the fourth annual Japan Day Parade. Rising Sun flags, kimonos, Japanese fans, drummers and much, much more were featured: the works!
The weather for the event, whose introductory ceremony began at 12:30 p.m., before the parade proper kicked off around 1 p.m. was wonderful, with temperatures rising to the 70s. While some allergy sufferers were displeased with the wind whipping pollen hither and yon, such are the rites of spring.
Wait, what’s that? You didn’t know there was a Japan Day Parade? If so, you’re not alone. Because its tender age and its relatively small footprint—the parade’s line of march proceeds south “only” from West 81st to West 67th Streets—its pageantry is easier to miss than the major midtown parades, with their many road closures, heavy police presence and media attention.
The roots of the Japan Day Parade do go back to May 2007, when Motoatsu Sakurai, then the Ambassador and Consul General of Japan in New York, organized an event called Japan Day @ Central Park. Created to highlight Japanese culture, history and art, and sponsored by members of New York’s Japanese business community, the event ran for thirteen years, through 2019. In its later years, it included a popular footrace, the Japan Day 4 Mile Run, reflecting Japan’s ardent interest in distance running.
Knocked out by COVID in 2020, and held remotely the next year, the Japan Day Parade was born 2022, with an estimated 2,400 participants and 20,000 spectators present for its birth, as well as and its associated street fair on West 72nd Street between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West.
In an op-ed published in the New York Post prior to this year’s parade, Mikio Mori, Ambassador, Consul-General of Japan in New York, waxed eloquent on the heritage and importance of Japanese-Americans relations:
“As cherry blossoms bloom each spring, we are reminded of the enduring friendship between Japan and the United States.
The sakura were one of Japan’s first gifts to the United States. In 1912, Japan shipped thousands of flowering cherry trees to the US to be planted in public parks including Central Park and recently opened Cherry Walk in Riverside Park.
Today, cherry-blossom festivals are held in cities like New York, Buffalo, Washington, DC, and nationwide as tributes to this lasting relationship, rooted in deep trust.
These community celebrations, and the quiet Sakura Park tucked away in Upper Manhattan, are reminders that the bonds between Japan and the United States are continuously forged at the grassroots level.”
Mori went on, noting such items of local interest as Japanese-made MTA subway cars; the annual Anime NYC convention; all the students are “eagerly learning Japanese language and culture, if not the economy or history of Japan”; Mets pitcher Kodai Senga and Knicks coach Dice Yoshimoto; and “of course sake, sushi, ramen, matcha and more are all part of most New Yorkers’ diets.”
This passion is a two-way street too. Japanese newspaper giant, Yomiuri Shimbun has an office here, and their English language site, The Japan News includes a regular “Letter from New York” column by Lower East Side-native Jacob Margolies, who is also the company’s General Counsel.
There’s also the story of internationally acclaimed, New York-based artist and muralist, Stephen “ESPO” Powers. Best known for his large-scale public art projects, a couple years ago Powers was invited by Japanese admirers to open a combination gallery and store in Tokyo. Named—what else?—ESPOKYO, the venture has thrived in the city’s Shibayu district, with the uniquely brilliant and affable Powers becoming something of a Japanese folk-hero in the process.
With Powers presently in Tokyo, he was unable to attend this year’s parade—which isn’t to say it lacked for star power, as the ceremonial introductions at the grandstand between 70th and 71st Streets showed.
Hosted as in past years by Sandra Endo, news correspondent of KTVV Fox 11 television in Los Angeles, it began with a performance by five women from the stunning Japanese drum group, Soh Daiko, which was followed by the U.S. and Japanese national anthems, performed by Victor Carillo Tracey (who made his Broadway debut in “The Outsiders”) and classical soprano Suzuna Ikeda, respectively.
The introduction of this year’s Grand Marshal, the beloved Iron Chef himself, Masaharu Morimato, followed, as some other salutations, and words from Mayor Eric Adams, who hustled over from an earlier appearance at the Haitian Culture Parade. Wearing a blue baseball cap with “LOVE” written on the front, Hizzoner was greeted politely—and perhaps even warmly by the crowd.
Other solons present included State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who joked that the Iron Chef’s careful English was much better than his non-existent Japanese; State Assembly member Linda Rosenthal, who spoke briefly; and Council Member Gale Brewer, who, though she didn’t address the crowd, nonetheless appeared happy to be there.
Among the parade highlights: world peace marchers from New York, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki; the drummers and umbrella twirlers of the Japanese Children’s Taiko Group;
The always stirring NYPD Police Band; the violinists and others of the Keio Academy marching band and cheerleaders; the traditionally dressed marchers, dancers and musicians from both Tokushima Prefecture and the Japan Performing Arts of New York; and, among many many others, each delightful in their ways, all the way from Japan, members of the cast of “Attack on Titan: The Musical,” a musical adaptation of the hit manga series.
Afterwards, hungry spectators—and parade reporters—bopped over to the 72nd Street Fair to make an attack on noodles and dumplings.
Oishii!
AloJapan.com