Credits: Ecostylia Media, image generated with the help of AI, official logo for Japan Expo’s 25th anniversary.
An inflatable torii gate, planted at the end of an endless aisle. Under that red gateway, two fairies with glittering wings — Winx Club characters — are striking pose after pose. A few yards away, a Luffy brushes past an Erza, and a Pikachu greets an Ellie straight out of The Last of Us. Welcome to Japan Expo 2026. For four days, Japanese fiction took over the whole place.
From Thursday, July 9 to Sunday, July 12, 2026, the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center hosted the 25th edition of Japan Expo. It is Europe’s largest event dedicated to Japanese culture. More than 800 exhibitors and dozens of stages spread across about 154,000 square meters, or roughly 20 soccer fields. A sea of cosplayers celebrated an anniversary that, in its own way, tells the story of the enduring love between France and Japan. What remains with us is four days of fervor, somewhat dimmed by a brutal heat wave.
Villepinte, Europe’s Largest Japanese Village
For anyone who has never been, Japan Expo is often summed up in one word: manga. The reality is broader. It’s a massive manga and comics convention. But also entire halls devoted to video games, figurines, fashion, crafts, food, and martial arts. In just a few steps, you can move from a calligraphy demo to an e-sports tournament. Farther on, an origami workshop, then a J-pop showcase. It’s as much a snapshot of Japanese pop culture as a dive into traditional Japanese culture.
The event has not always been this big. Born in 1999 from the passion of a handful of fans, it has kept growing. It has become Europe’s leading event dedicated to Japan, and regularly draws more than 200,000 visitors. The contrast with its beginnings is striking. The event first came to life 25 years ago in a university basement. Its founders, a group of enthusiasts, were betting on a crazy idea: bringing together French manga and anime fans. The bet far exceeded their hopes. Since then, the Paris manga convention has become both a pilgrimage and a barometer. If you want to take the pulse of French passion for Japan, this is where you need to come.
Because one French particularity needs to be remembered. After Japan itself, France is one of the most ardent countries in the world for Japanese culture. People read more manga here than anywhere else in Europe. They grew up with the cartoons from Club Dorothée, and they’re introduced to ramen and matcha tea here. This enthusiasm has its roots in the 1980s, when Goldorak, Candy, and Dragon Ball rocked an entire generation.
Forty years later, that same generation brings its children. Japan Expo is the full-scale mirror of that passion: people come as insiders, but also out of curiosity. Many walk through the Villepinte gates knowing nothing about Japanese pop culture. A cartoon they loved as a child, a series they followed on a streaming platform, curiosity about their children’s interests: the reasons are many.
For its 25th anniversary, the lineup was ambitious. On the music side, the show brought in Yoshiki, founder of the cult band X Japan, as the anniversary headliner. On the manga side, this edition paid tribute to Keisuke Itagaki, the father of Baki, putting the celebration under the sign of combat. Around that, highlights kept coming. The 30th anniversary of the Persona video game saga, an anniversary exhibition, the Daruma Awards for manga and animation. And also the final of a Street Fighter 6 tournament.
Cosplay, The Common Language
In the aisles, one thing is obvious: cosplay is everywhere. The practice takes its name from the English words “costume” and “play.” It means embodying a fictional character by imitating their appearance and attitude. The heroes first come from Japanese manga, anime, and video games. But the worlds happily mix, from My Hero Academia to Wicked.
In the aisles, you can’t take three steps without running into a cosplayer. In the line, two young women traveled from one of France’s regions, in hand-sewn costumes, for their first Japan Expo. Farther on, a boy about ten years old, dressed as a creature from a horror game, walks with mechanical precision under the flashes. Another visitor is portraying a kitsune, the nine-tailed fox from Japanese folklore, with a cape and mask made by hand. For these enthusiasts, a costume often represents months of work and several hundred euros.
This fervor reaches its peak in the Extreme Cosplay Gathering (ECG), the show’s major cosplay competition. This year, about 20 nations competed: from South Africa to Denmark, via Morocco and France. Under the spotlights as much as in the aisles, the costume works like a common language. People recognize one another, exchange a number, a photo, a passion.
From Yoshiki To Nintendo Controllers: The Anniversary On Stage
On the main stage, music delivered. Yoshiki’s concert, a figure of Japanese rock, was among the most anticipated moments. Alongside it, the Anisong Festa brought together several artists from Japan. The show claimed more than 80 concerts and showcases over the entire weekend.
Video games were not left out. In Hall 6, Nintendo occupied a large demo area. Visitors could try Splatoon Raiders, Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, Village in the Shade, or Orbitals before release. Not far away, major franchises rolled out their exclusives, led by Dragon Ball and its figurines. Between two games, entire lines formed in front of a simple preorder booth.
Ankama, 25 Years On The French Side: French Creation Fed By Japan
At Villepinte, Japanese culture is not just an import: it also fuels French creation. At one of the large booths, a studio was celebrating its own 25th anniversary. That was Ankama, the Roubaix-based publisher of the online game Dofus.
The studio is going through a strong period. Its flagship game has found a second wind since the launch of a new version at the end of 2024. Its community, loyal for 20 years, mixes nostalgia for the early days with the arrival of a new generation. On the booth, parents came in to play with their children. This attachment is so strong that the studio still maintains older versions of the game, to accommodate longtime fans.
Above all, Ankama embodies a French way of living Japanese pop culture. Many of its players first came through the animated series, the comic, or the manga. This transmedia logic, where a single universe lives across every format, is directly inherited from the Japanese model. The studio claims it proudly and independently, having kept control of its capital while others sold out to acquisitions. Proof that you can be a pure product of French passion for Japan and still keep your home base.
The Flip Side Of The Celebration: Heat, Prices, And Artists In The Red
That said, this anniversary, meant to make a lasting impression, leaves a mixed aftertaste. Past the gates, the 2026 edition was, by several exhibitors’ own admission, an odd year. At the booths, publishers, booksellers, and especially independent artists came away exhausted, and sometimes in the red.
Several factors combined. First, a heat wave turned the lines into an ordeal. The organizers even rented an entire hall to shelter visitors from the sun. Then, a surprisingly quiet Saturday after a Thursday that got off to a fairly strong start. To date, no official attendance figure has been released for 2026. Last year, our report on the 2025 edition already described a convention that drew more than 220,000 visitors over four days.
Added to these ups and downs is a tense economic equation. Admission — around 40 euros for a day, 107 euros for a four-day pass — is a major point of criticism. In a context where purchasing power is under pressure, the bill weighs heavily. At the booths, some artists spent the weekend unable to even get up, packing away a stock that was almost untouched. Many expressed their bitterness, on social media as well as in the aisles. At the same time, a very different kind of business was booming: One Piece and Pokémon trading cards. Now speculative objects, they follow a financial logic that is beyond the reach of the average fan.
One episode especially stuck with people: the presence, for four days, of French customs officers. Uniformed agents banned the sale of many fan art pieces, those creations that reinterpret existing franchises. But a portion of artists makes a living from those drawings. The issue is the strict application of the law. In June 2024, the Rennes Court of Appeals convicted a painter for copyright infringement after he altered the character Tintin. Enough to raise questions about a model where, in France, fanzines end up in the crosshairs. In Japan, these same amateur creations are nonetheless tolerated. Behind the celebration, a deeper question emerges. At what point do records and ever more guests make Europe’s biggest Japanese convention start to lose its identity?
These reservations do nothing to diminish the essential point. In 25 years, a convention built by fans has become the beating heart of French passion for the archipelago. A place where people discover as much as they celebrate. In Villepinte, once again this year, thousands of visitors left with stars in their eyes. And in their suitcases, a bit of that dreamed-of Japan that, in France, keeps gaining ground.