The Japanese Association at Kearney hosted the 24th annual Japanese Festival last week in the Nebraskan Student Union Ponderosa Room. The festival explored the Heisei era of Japanese culture, which lasted from 1989 to 2019.
Over 200 attendees participated in activity booths while enjoying Japanese food and performances.
“We hold this festival because we want to create an opportunity for UNK students to learn about Japanese culture,” said Mahiro Hasetsu, vice president of JAK.
Hasetsu said she thinks most people think of Japanese culture as sushi and anime, but they can learn about other fascinating parts of Japanese culture through the festival.
A video about the history of Japan’s Heisei era played at the beginning of the event. The Heisei period corresponds with the reign of Emperor Emeritus Akihito and symbolized a time of peace and prosperity.
During the Heisei era, Japan experienced several devastating natural disasters, including the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake killed over 15,000 people and led to the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
One of the stations at the festival educated attendees on the natural disasters of this era with newspaper clippings from throughout the period and a map of where these accidents took place in Japan.
The era was also marked by an expansion of Japan’s cultural influence across the globe, with Japanese manga, anime, video games and music gaining international popularity. Japan also experienced rapid growth in technology and engineering during the Heisei era, which helped its cultural influence to spread worldwide.
Throughout the room, there were posters of Japanese contributions to film, television and video games. Attendees were able to participate at a Japanese painting station and play a Pokémon ball toss game.
A new addition to this year’s festival was musical performances by UNK students. Chisaki Hirukawa, Sakura Ueda, Rintaro Tanaka and Yuta Nakano played popular Japanese songs from the Heisei era. Several groups of students also performed dances to Japanese songs from the Heisei era.
“Last time, we only had dancing performances, but this time we had a band performance, which I feel like is kind of new,” said Miyu Abiko, a pre-pharmacy junior.
The food served at the festival included matcha pudding, sesame dressing salad, stew diced pork and Japanese seasoned rice. Hasetsu and Abiko said matcha pudding was their favorite Japanese food.
Festival organizers hosted a quiz about Japanese culture. Attendees gathered in groups of three or four and answered a series of true or false questions.
JAK is a student organization that supports UNK’s Japanese international student population. Many of the student members of the organization, including Hasetsu and Abiko, were involved in planning the festival.
“I think it’s a little bit hard to do this perfectly, like do live dancing,” said Hitomi Ochi, an exchange student studying marketing. “Many people are involved in this event.”
Photos by Jenju Peters / Antelope Staff
