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Namaste India, Japan's largest Indian festival, will be held for the 29th time this year.
In 1991 India opened its market after Cold war age of the world. Though Japanese chamber of commerce recommended to develop bisiness. with India, since India was Socialist country earlier ,Japanese business community who already was there had a delayed its start.
Embassy of India kindly acknowledged 2011,Namaste India held in Japan was the biggest one in the whole world out India. Economic relation between India and Japan is rapidly developing . India decided to take Shinkansen now. Under the circumstance, cultural relation should be better and stronger. So, we are now trying to offer more attractive event.
We will make the event to let the people experience whole India from various area. Knowledge, Food, Culture, Economy, Indian dance, Music, Lecture, Saree wearing, Yoga, Ayur Veda, Mehendi, Goods sale, Bookfair of India , Tea Corner, spice, Indian Restaurants, Tourism, Travel Information, are offered.
Various presentation about India will take place such as Lecture and workshop of Yoga, workshop of Indian classical dance, Cultural introduction of Ainu ethnic minorities. Biratori Society of Hokkaido which Preserves the culture of Ainu ,the ancient inhabitants of Japan had been participating in Namaste Event from 2007. Since India has more than 500 ethnic minorities ,we understood it is important to introduce our Ainu people for deeper mutual understanding. Japanese Parliament recognized Ainu as our original inhabitants.
Elephant park, Folk art’s park, Adults and kid’s park, and we will be introduced as new items for entertainment for all kinds of guests who wants to know more about India. On stage, dancers specially sent by Govt of India ICCR will perform along with Bollywood dance, seven classical dance of India, such as Bharat Natyam ,Classical Musical Instruments performance of North India such as Sitar, dance, Veena, of South Indian Music, dance, folkdance which involve almost 600 participants for gorgeous performance. Bodhisena Booth, Ainu Booth are directly held by Namaste India Office. Namaste India committees will arrange information house which show the latest Indian Film. NGO and NPO group concerning India are planning to have their own Booth. Onagawa town received the kind help from 47 Rescue team of India at the time of Northeast Japan Earthquake disaster and the relation is continuing till today. You can see the details here.
India Japan association, Govt. of India Tourist office, Air India, Bank of India, State Bank of India etc will have each booth this year too. The return Air ticket to India will be provided by air india and many other attractive items will be offered in our Loto Counter.
We request you to come and visit this Festival of India bringing your family, relatives and friends.
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Chugai Nippo (13 July, 2018) Tokio Hasegawa, Director, Mithila Museum
"Random Thoughts and Random Essay 3": "Continuation of the Festival of India in Japan: Later Became the Symbol of the Japan-India Exchange”
It has to be said that the economic liberalization policy of 1991 played major role in forming today's Indian economy. Then the Prime Minister of India, Narasimha Rao made a historical decision to open up the Indian economy which faced with the possibility of default. At that time, India lost much of foreign reserves due to the collapse of USSR, India's major trading partner at the time, and the boiling oil price triggered by the Gulf War.
By 2000, India emerged as ICT country, in less than 10 years from the economic liberalization. India called Indian IT engineers back from US and established technology universities inside the country one after another. It became successful in the outsourcing business by taking advantage of the time differences between India and countries of client companies.
However, Japanese companies were very much reluctant to the call by the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry to enter Indian market because they had bitter experience with India which used to be a socialist country. Mr. Hideaki Yamashita, then the Chairman of the Japan-India Business Co-operation Committee, organized an Indian festival named "Namaste India" to provide opportunity for Japanese and Japanese companies to learn about India, believing that it would be difficult to enter India without understanding and liking its culture. I was requested to support the effort by JIBCC as many of them were business persons who had no knowledge in Indian culture or organizing cultural events.
I suggested JIBCC to invite dance troupe or musicians from India as main attraction of the festival. Initially, the Namaste India was held in a facility of Sumida Ward but as the festival became popular, we had to shift the venue to Tsukiji Hongwanji Temple to accommodate the increased number of visitors. However, JIBCC decided to stop it in 2004 when Japanese economy started to stagnate.
I decided to continue JIBCC's effort by establishing my own NPO, the Society to Promote India-Japan Cultural Relations. My NPO became the main organizer of the Namaste India. We shifted the venue to Yoyogi Park in Tokyo. Because of the generous support and cooperation from the Embassy of India, Tokyo, various India-related organizations and individual persons, we were able to continuously organize the festival. We will be organizing the 26th Namaste India on 29th and 30th September this year. There will be performances by 600 dancers and musicians, including dancers or musicians dispatched by the Indian Government. As India is the diverse culture, we invited Japan's minority tribe in Hokkaido, the Ainu, to perform at the Namaste India. They have participated in the festival for over a decade now. We have had a seminar house at the Namaste India where people can learn about Indian philosophy. This year, we decided to name it as Hajime Nakamura House, after the late prominent Indian researcher, Dr. Hajime Nakamura. In addition, we have over hundred booths introducing Indian cuisine, commodities, tourism and culture. At the festival venue, we also have a special house dedicated to Bodhisenna, an Indian monk who came to Japan as the first Indian. In the Bodhisenna house, we have the statue of Bodhisenna on display during the festival. Moreover, Onagawa City sets up a booth at the festival. In March 2011, 46 members of India's rescue team went to Onagawa City and engaged in rescue operation there.
We have about 200,000 visitors throughout this two-day festival. Namaste India is now recognized as the world largest Indian festival by EOl, surpassing those organized in New York and London in scale, and has become the symbol of Japan-India relations.
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