The Tokyo International Anime Fair also known as was one of the largest

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

trade fair A trade show, also known as trade fair, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific Industry (economics), industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest Product (business), products and se ...

s in the world, held annually in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The first event was held in 2002 as "Tokyo International Anime Fair 21". The event was held at

Tokyo Big Sight , officially known as , is a convention center, convention and exhibition center in Tokyo and the largest such venue in Japan. Opened in April 1996, the center is located in the Ariake, Tokyo, Ariake Minami district of the on the Tokyo Bay waterf ...

, a convention and exhibition center in

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan spanning the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture, on the southern coast of the island of Honshu. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. Th ...

, in late March. Usually, the first one or two days of the fair were weekdays and the entrance was open only to industry members and the press; the last two days were scheduled on the weekend and the fair was open to the public. Besides being an international trade fair, the TAF included related events such as business symposia and other events. Notably, the

Tokyo Anime Award The Tokyo Anime Awards started in 2002, but was named in 2005. The first, second and third award ceremonies were simply named 'Competition'. The award ceremonies were held at the Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF) until 2013. In 2014, after the ...

s were given for domestic and foreign creations and creators in the event with the name of the event. The event was supported by the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Affairs of Tokyo. Although the event did not have a long history, it and its prizes were recognized in the industry. In 2014, it was merged with the Anime Contents Expo to form

AnimeJapan AnimeJapan is a Japanese anime consumer show held annually at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center in Tokyo since March 2014. It was created from the merger of the Tokyo International Anime Fair with the Anime Contents Expo. It is organized ...

Event history

This table shows the number of visitors and participants:

Official theme song

2011 event

In December 2010 a group of ten large manga publishers known as the announced plans to boycott the 2011 event. The boycott was in protest at revisions to the Tokyo Youth Development Ordinance that increased regulation of manga and anime sales to under-18 year olds. This was seen as a deliberate snub of

Shintaro Ishihara was a Japanese politician and writer, who served as the Governor of Tokyo Metropolis, Governor of Tokyo from 1999 to 2012. Being the former leader of the Far-right politics, radical right Sunrise Party, later merged with Toru Hashimoto's Japan ...

, who was closely associated with both TAF and the changes to the law. Japanese Prime Minister

Naoto Kan is a Japanese former politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) from June 2010 to September 2011. Kan was the first Prime Minister since the resignation of Junichiro Koizumi in 2006 to ...

had expressed concern about the impact of the boycott and urged the parties involved to work towards resolving the situation. Due to the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the northeast coast of Japan on March 11, 2011, it was announced five days later, that the 2011 event would be canceled. In addition, Tokyo Big Sight, where the event was held annually, suffered unspecified damage during the quake in the Tokyo area.

References

External links

Tokyo International Anime Fair official site
(Japanese)
Tokyo International Anime Fair official site
(English)

Convention reports

"Tokyo International Anime Fair"
by Jon Tarbox, Anime News Network, 3 April 2003 *, by Kat Avila, ''Sequential Tart,'' April 2006

by

Virginia Heffernan Virginia Heffernan (born August 8, 1969) is an American journalist and cultural critic. Since 2015, she has been a political columnist at the ''Los Angeles Times'' and a cultural columnist at ''Wired''. From 2003 to 2011, she worked as a staff w ...

, ''New York Times,'' 2 April 2006
"Tokyo International Anime Fair 2010 at Tokyo Big Sight"
, by Kanako, musicJAPANplus, Tokyo, 6 April 2010 {{coord, 35, 37, 50, N, 139, 47, 42, E, type:landmark_source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title 2002 establishments in Japan 2013 disestablishments in Japan Defunct anime conventions Recurring events established in 2002 Recurring events disestablished in 2013 Annual events in Japan Culture in Tokyo Trade fairs in Japan Tourist attractions in Tokyo