Special Events

13th Annual Japan Day @ Central Park

Wow! Incredible to think that we’ve been managing Japan Day @ Central Park for 11 of its 13 years! This year’s artwork is by the Grand Prize Winner, Lyubava Kroll!

This year’s festival will take place on Sunday, May 12th in Central Park’s Bandshell. As always, the day starts at 8am with a 5k run. At 9:30am, the activity tents open. Activities include some tech tents, traditional and contemporary activities, but most importantly – HELLO KITTY!

The stage show will start at 10:30am and promises to wow and entertain the audiences until 4pm! At 11:30am, the infamous foot tents open and will serve a variety of complimentary Japanese cuisine!

The mission of Japan Day is to show the local Japanese community’s appreciation toward their home city, New York; to build bridges of cultural understanding between the people of Japan and the U.S.; to facilitate stronger grassroots connections within the Japanese local community.

10th Annual Japan Day 2016

This year marks the 10th annual Japan Day @ Central Park. The mission of Japan Day is to show the local Japanese community’s appreciation toward their home city, New York; to build bridges of cultural understanding between the people of Japan and the U.S.; to facilitate stronger grassroots connections within the Japanese local community.

2016 marks my 8th year managing the festival. Each year brings new activities, food and stage events. This year’s festival is on Sunday, May 8th in Central Park’s Bandshell and Rumsey Playfield! The day starts at 8am with a 5k run. At 9am, the activity, tea and snack tents open. This year, there are a number of ‘tech tents’ to experience, as well as traditional activities that have been at Japan Day since its inception. The stage show starts at 10:30am in Rumsey Playfield. At 11:30am, the infamous food tents open and are ready to serve a variety of complimentary Japanese cuisine!

See you there!

Japan Day @ Central Park is an annual celebration which celebrates the culture of Japan, and is a ‘thank you’ to New York for hosting its citizens for more than 100 years. The day starts with a 5k race in Central Park ending at the infamous Bandshell stage, which is filled with activity tents for all ages – origamis, calligraphy, yukata, kabuki face-painting and many more. Live performances include traditional Japanese dancing, music and drumming to karate demonstrations to a variety of Japanese visual artists and ending with modern performers and music direct from the native country. Authentic Japanese food, snacks and drinks are distributed at no charge throughout the entire day. Each year the event brings together over 50,000 New Yorkers to celebrate love for Japan. See more details about the next Japan Day HERE. For more information, go to www.JapanDayNYC.org

Stage performers from the 10th Annual Japan Day @ Central Park, May 2016