NEW YORK – The fifth Japan Parade event to promote Japanese culture was held in Manhattan, New York, on Saturday.
About 100 organizations including companies, schools and groups of Japanese nationals from various prefectures took part in the event. Participants marched through the streets, performing dances, martial arts and taiko drumming.
Festival-style stalls were also set up, offering Japanese food. According to the organizer, about 50,000 people attended the event.
Defying heavy rain, participants in the parade delivered their performances, such as a board-breaking karate demonstration, drawing cheers from the crowd.
At the end of the parade were cast members from a stage adaptation of the popular manga and anime series “Jujutsu Kaisen.” A woman living in New York wearing Japanese anime merchandise said she was happy to see cast members because she loves anime.
Lines formed in front of stalls selling such items as yakitori (charbroiled chicken skewers) and taiyaki fish-shaped pancakes containing sweet bean paste. A man who bought takoyaki (ball-shaped pancakes) containing pieces of octopus said it was his first time eating the popular Japanese dish and enjoyed it.
The New York Times included the city of Nagasaki in its “52 places to go” list for 2026. Nagasaki Prefecture featured local traditional female entertainers, known as geikoshi or geisha, in the Japan Parade event.
“We hope many tourists will visit regional cities,” not just Tokyo or other big cities, said Yoshihiro Date, a cultural and tourism official of the prefecture.
AloJapan.com