Cross Media, a London-based subsidiary of Toppan Holdings, will hold the Hyper Japan Festival 2024, the UK’s biggest J-culture event, from 19 to 21 July at Olympia London.
Taking the concept of ‘Bringing Japan’s Wonders to the World,’ the Hyper Japan Festival 2024 will showcase a broad array of Japanese content and culture for UK-based fans to enjoy. With participation from a diverse range of companies, the event will go beyond simply manga and anime to present traditional Japanese crafts, food, and alcoholic beverages, as well as promoting tourism to Japan itself.
This is the first time that Cross Media is holding the event since becoming a Toppan Group company.
The Hyper Japan Festival 2024 will be the 20th event since the first exhibition was held in 2010. It will feature more than 50 booths from companies active in the Japanese anime, video game, content, food, alcoholic beverage, and traditional craft sectors, as well as from public-sector organizations.
Food stalls and more than 300 exhibits by individual participants, all coming together under the same roof, will help drive promotion and sales directly to UK consumers. Japanese artists and performers active in the UK are scheduled to perform on the main stage, and the event is expected to attract in the region of 40,000 people.
In addition to the event itself, multiple channels for engaging with UK-based fans of Japan have been established through newsletters with more than 50,000 subscribers and social media accounts with a cumulative total of more than 100,000 followers.
The Toppan Group aims to leverage the event and cross-border e-commerce to launch sales of anime-related products in the UK.
Global growth in demand for over-the-top (OTT) media services has contributed to rising interest in intellectual property (IP) from Japan. However, there are only a limited number of channels by which Japan-based IP holders can reach end-users in Europe directly, and it has been difficult to acquire customers and understand their purchasing habits.
In Europe, the Toppan Group has turned its attention to the UK, where the content market is growing at an annual rate of 6%,1 and acquired Cross Media in March this year to address the challenges faced by Japanese IP holders.
Hyper Japan Festival 2024, the first event since the acquisition, will take place from July 19 to 21, with the Toppan Group aiming to deliver solutions to Japanese companies looking to expand overseas and companies facing challenges in broadening sales channels in the UK.
The Toppan Group intends to expand Hyper Japan events to amplify exposure of Japanese content and opportunities for sales in the UK as well as establishing a platform for distributing Japanese content in Europe. By doing so, the Toppan Group aims to drive promotion and penetration of Japanese content in the UK and the rest of Europe as well as establishing local sales channels and supply chains.
Established in Tokyo in 1900, the Toppan Group is a leading and diversified global provider committed to delivering sustainable, integrated solutions in fields including printing, communications, security, packaging, décor materials, electronics, and digital transformation.
