Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > JAPANESE GOVERNMENT POLICIES IN EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND CULTURE 1993 > CHAPTER 2 �2 2 (1)

In order to answer the recent increased desires of the public to participate in cultural activities, since 1986 the Agency for Cultural Affairs has been holding the National Culture Festival as a unique type of public program aimed at the creation of new forms of art and culture. Amateurs from many fields gather from all over the nation for opportunities to meet and compete with other artists, demonstrate their skills and establish contacts with other individuals with similar interests. Major goals of this festival are to heighten interest and increase participation in cultural activities, to stimulate new creative art and culture and to contribute to cultural development in communities.

The National Culture Festival consists of projects undertaken by sponsors (the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the movement of the host prefecture and other cultural organizations) and projects undertaken by co-sponsors (local governments and cultural organizations).

Projects undertaken by sponsors include 1) "festival-wide events" such as opening parade and festival which display new directions in amateur cultural activities, 2) "symposiums" whose themes center around examining movements within Japanese culture from various angles (including amateur cultural activities. local cultural activities. etc.) and 3) "events and competitions" taken part in mainly by groups recommended by respective prefectures, whose performances and exhibitions are classified according to field (folk entertainment, music, drama, literature, art, daily life culture and so on). These sponsor-undertaken projects are carried out every year as "successive projects". There are also "original projects", which are carried out each year mainly under the initiative of the host prefecture and which reflect the local characteristics of the region hosting the festival.

Co-sponsors also support and cooperate with the goals of the National Culture Festival by undertaking projects such as public performances, contests, festivals, displays, and lecture courses, the majority of which are held for duration of three to six months.

The first National Culture Festival was held in Tokyo, with the following festivals being annually held in the different prefectures. This festival has become solidly established and enriched both as a public festival and as a site for the communication of local cultures to the entire nation. The seventh festival, which had as its theme "Tradition and Creation", was held in 1992 in Ishikawa Prefecture and attracted about 20,000 performers and 500,COO spectators. The eighth festival is scheduled to be held in Iwate Prefecture for ten days in October 1993 with the theme of "Message from the Jomon Period; Discovery of the Future". The schedule for future National Culture Festivals and their tentative sites is listed in Table l-2-2.

Table l-2-2 The Schedule for Future National Culture Festivals

In laying the plans for further National Culture Festivals, it will be necessary to make the required preparations for the participation of prefectures other than the host prefecture and to strengthen collaboration with local governments and cultural organizations in promoting their cultural projects in relation to the festival.