The 6th World Cosplay Summit is held in Nagoya on August 2 and 3 this year. Cosplayers from 13 countries are participating in events, such as cosplay parade and championship. Thousands of Japanese anime/manga lovers are expected to come for the event, join them in Nagoya.
Costume play has been a trend among Japanese youth, and various events are held in Japan. The World Cosplay Summit organized by Aichi Television Broadcasting Co. has begun in 2003, and the 6th summit takes place on August 2 and 3 in 2008. Cosplayers from 13 countries, including Brazil, China, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand, and USA participate in the event.
Japan is proud to have manga as one part of its culture. With its immeasurable popularity all over Europe, America and Asia, it is now usual for bookstores to have a manga corner in many countries around the world. At present, many young people overseas start learning about Japan through manga. These young people who know Japan from manga say… JAPAN is COOL!
In response to this popularity, many events with Japanese manga as a common concept, have gained notoriety with thousands of people involved and tens to hundreds of thousands of guests. In many of these events the performance and presentation of cosplayers who identify with Japanese animation characters is among the most anticipated moments. The World Cosplay Summit began in the fall of 2003, with the concept that cosplayers play a leading role in introducing Japanese manga and animation through the visual renderings of Japan and Japanese manga characters to people around the world. At the same time, it is also partly for people in Japan, so as not to take for granted the treasured things that exist around us.In the summer of 2004, the second World Cosplay Summit was held, with eight cosplayers from Italy, Germany, France and the United States participating, garnering much media attention.
Beginning in 2005, ‘the stage performance’ was incorporated into the format of the contest and forty cosplayers from seven countries competed in a contest held at the Expo Dome at the World Exposition in Aichi Prefecture. The three thousand seats at the Expo Dome were completely filled, and more than thirty domestic and international media outlets were present.
The World Cosplay Summit 2006 was the fourth to be held, with cosplayers from Singapore, Thailand and Brazil joining to make a record total of nine countries competing. Along with the Osu Kannon parade, the Oasis 21 venue in central Nagoya was also used for the presentation of the 2nd annual World Cosplay Championships. A press conference was held in Akihabara, Tokyo, and there were even more media attention than the previous year.The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport promoted the World Cosplay Summit 2007 as one event in the ‘Visit Japan Campaign.’ Cosplayers from 12 countries around the world gathered, with Mexico, Denmark and Korea being the three new participating countries. 200 cosplayers from around Japan participated in the Osu cosplay parade.The level of the performances was higher than usual this year at the championship.Roughly 10,000 spectators came to watch. And now on to 2008, and the World Cosplay Summit is progressing further towards new objectives.