The Cultural Cities of East Asia commenced based on the agreement in the Japan-China-ROK Meeting of Ministers of Culture. This project selects three cities in Japan, China and the ROK to hold various cultural and artistic events with the aim of promoting artistic and cultural development in the East Asia region and enabling the three countries to foster mutual understanding and sense of unity in the region. The project also enhances the ability to convey the highly diverse cultures in East Asia.

Niigata is home to a rich lifestyle with an abundance of water and soil. It has a world-renowned food culture centered on rice as well as deeply-rooted regional traditional performing arts. As a port town, it has also adopted foreign cultures and grew own culture of “Omotenashi (hospitality)”. Niigata‘s “Cultural Creative City Niigata” urban development initiatives based on this background which takes advantage of creativity of culture and the arts have been praised in Japan, and Niigata was designated as Japan’s second Cultural City of East Asia in 2015 following Yokohama in 2014.

The three cities, Niigata city of Japan, Cheongju City of ROK and Qingdao City of China will mutually implement various entertainment, artistic and food culture exchanges, and Niigata will host a variety of events incorporating Chinese and Korean culture and arts.

In this time, we announce the attractions of the spring events that will be held from now: “Art Mix Japan 2015”, “La Folle Journée de Niigata 2015” and “Port City Niigata Spring Festival 2015 ~Lights, Music and Dance~”, are introduced below.