Nippombashi Street Festa in Osaka is canceled in 2020-2023 due to the COVID-19 epidemic
Image via Nippombashi Street Festa Website
© Nippombashi DenDen Town
Organizers of Osaka’s Nippombashi Street Festival, which they bill as “Japan’s largest cosplay event,” announced on Tuesday that the event will return in 2024, for the first time in five years. . The event will take place on May 12.
The event was completely canceled in 2020 due to concerns about the COVID-19 outbreak. It was later canceled on 2021, 2022 and 2023.
The annual parade takes place in the Den Den Town area of Nippombashi (Osaka’s shopping district famous for anime, games and manga merchandise, similar to Tokyo’s Akihabara). More than 200,000 people attend the outdoor event each year.
ANN covered the event in 2016, 2017 and 2018. 2020 marked the second cancellation in the event’s history; the parade was canceled following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. An unexploded bomb from World War II was unearthed at a construction site next to the parade route in 2015, just five days before that year’s Nippombashi Street Festival, but that year’s parade took place as scheduled.
Source: Nippombashi Street Festival via Hachima Kikō