Japan Expo · 2027

Agoris analysis · updated June 2026

Key takeaways

• 2027 edition of Japan Expo, from Thursday 8 to Sunday 11 July 2027 at Paris Nord Villepinte, over 4 days, from 9.45am to 6.30pm. The official website does not display an edition number for 2027.
• Yôichi Takahashi has been announced as guest of honour for the 2027 edition. No other 2027 programme details have been published to date.
• A predominantly general-public trade show with a professional strand (accreditation via the Espace Pro): Europe's premier gathering for Japanese popular culture, and the largest French trade show for the 15-25 age bracket since 2008 (134,467 visitors certified by Infora in 2008).
• Looking back at the 2026 edition (9-12 July 2026), the 25th anniversary edition: 154,000 m² and an additional hall opened for the occasion, more than 1,000 exhibitors, 713 events and 16 stages and spaces announced ahead of the festival (figures as of 26 May 2026), a forecast of 250,000 visitors. No final figures have been published since.
• Latest measured attendance: 222,016 visitors in 2025 (Infora), a year marked by the first visit of a French President to the festival.
• Organised by SEFA Event, a simplified joint-stock company chaired by Jean-François Dufour, founded in 2007 by Jean-François Dufour, Sandrine Dufour and Thomas Sirdey. SEFA Event is an independent company that uses Iconik Global as a supplier for stand fitting and the Second Life Events furniture reuse scheme.
• In 2026, exhibitors were spread across halls 3, 4, 5A and 6 according to the official exhibitor search tool; founder Jean-François Dufour also referred to halls 3, 4, 5, 6, 5B, 7 and 8 for the anniversary edition, with an additional hall opened for the occasion. The 2027 hall layout has not been published.

Who exhibits

Typical profile

Four families of exhibitors announced by the organiser:

• manga publishers and licences (rights holders, agencies, distributors),
• video game publishers and studios (consoles, mobile, platforms),
• lifestyle and merchandising brands (figurines, goodies, street/kawaii fashion, Japanese food),
• traditional cultural players (crafts, martial arts, J-music, Japan tourism, language schools).

Notable exhibitors

Official partners of the 2026 edition (list published by the organiser): Ankama, Arc System Works, Atlus, Bandai Namco, Crunchyroll, Doki-Doki, Glénat Manga, Kadokawa, Sega, Shogakukan, Shueisha, Toho Animation, TV Asahi, XP pen, as well as FNAC, France Inter, France TV and RATP on the media and services partners side.

Hall 5A manga (2025 edition): Glénat (E154), Pika Édition (G152), Ki-oon (B170), Kana, Kurokawa, Panini Manga, Kazé, Akata, Ototo, Taifu, Mangetsu, Nobi Nobi, Black Box, Vega-Dupuis (sources: publisher websites, 2025 edition feedback).

Hall 6 gaming (2025 edition): SEGA (Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board), Bandai Namco (Arknights Endfield), Nintendo Switch 2 with Pokémon Legends Z-A, Mario Kart World, Metroid Prime 4 Beyond, Donkey Kong Bananza, Super Mario Party Jamboree, Cygames (Granblue Fantasy, Umamusume Pretty Derby), JP Universe (Hajime Tabata, No Straight Roads 2). Crunchyroll Hall 6 stand F628 (400 m² in 2025): panels for Gachiakuta, To Your Eternity season 3, Demon Slayer with Takahiro Sakurai, Dr STONE SCIENCE FUTURE. Toei Animation hosted Eisaku Inoue (animator on Saint Seiya, One Piece) and Keiichi Ichikawa.

Full list for the 2026 edition on the official website: paris.japan-expo.com. The 2027 list is not yet open.

Visitor quality

• A predominantly general-public audience, core target 15-35 years, the leading French trade show for the 15-25 age bracket since 2008 (Infora).
• 222,016 visitors in 2025 (Infora), after 200,716 in 2024 and a peak of 255,259 in 2023. For 2026, the organiser had forecast 250,000 visitors ahead of the festival.
• Average visitor age in 2025: 27.6 years. Average basket in 2025: €202.90.
• Professional strand managed by accreditation via the organiser's Espace Pro (the 2026 accreditation campaign is now closed).

Activities & community

Events programme

For the 2026 edition, the organiser announced ahead of the festival 713 events, 605 hours of programming spread across 16 stages and spaces, including 101 concerts, 76 talks, 170 signing sessions, 20 shows, 21 cosplay events, 12 screenings, 155 martial arts demonstrations, 23 cooking demonstrations and 13 video game demonstrations (figures as of 26 May 2026). In 2025, the festival had offered more than 500 hours of activities spread across 11 stages.

The nature of the content is stable from one edition to the next: J-pop and J-rock concerts, orchestral live shows, fan conventions, cosplay demonstrations, mangaka and studio talks, animation screenings, signings, video game panels, demos of upcoming games, martial arts and traditional demonstrations (tea ceremony, ikebana, calligraphy).

Guests of honour and exhibitions

For 2027, only one name has been announced to date: Yôichi Takahashi, guest of honour.

In 2026, the guest of honour was mangaka Keisuke Itagaki (Baki), with an exhibition of more than 300 m² dedicated to his work for the series' 35th anniversary, and YOSHIKI (X Japan, The Last Rockstars) as special guest for the 25th anniversary. The anniversary edition also featured a retrospective exhibition of more than 600 m² on the history of the festival.

The 2025 edition was marked by the "Nightmares & Obsessions" exhibition by mangaka Junji Itō (horror, Uzumaki, Tomie), the visit of the disciples of REDICE STUDIO for Solo Leveling (first appearance in France) and of Kazuhiko Torishima, the historic tantō (editor) of Akira Toriyama (sources: press feedback from the 2025 edition).

Awards and competitions

National and international cosplay competitions with the Extreme Cosplay Gathering (ECG), whose season 14 took place in 2026, Daruma Awards rewarding manga and anime, a new mangaka competition organised with Shûeisha, J-music showcase launchpads. The 2027 results and competition programme have not yet been published.

2025 presidential visit

First visit by a President of the French Republic to the trade show: Emmanuel Macron came in 2025, a moment the organiser presents as a mark of the festival's place in the French cultural landscape.

On site: what you need to know

Access, parking and accommodation: see the Paris Nord Villepinte page.

Specific to the trade show:

• Halls: in 2026, exhibitors were spread across halls 3, 4, 5A and 6 according to the official exhibitor search tool, for 154,000 m² in total; founder Jean-François Dufour also referred to halls 3, 4, 5, 6, 5B, 7 and 8 for the anniversary edition, with an additional hall opened for the occasion. The 2027 hall layout has not been published.
• 2027 opening hours: the official website announces opening from 9.45am to 6.30pm across the four days.
• 2026 opening hours, for reference: entry at 9.45am for 1-day tickets and the weekly pass, 9.30am for the 4-day pass, 9am for FastPass, 8.30am to 8.10am for Zen, Zen+ Comfort and Ultimate badges; last entry at 6pm, closing at 6.30pm. Some evening events ran beyond 6pm, with a dedicated exit.
• Audience: open to all, ticket required, free for under-8s in 2026. Professional access by accreditation.

What it costs to exhibit

Exhibitor rates not published: applications to take part are made to the organiser via the Devenir exposant form. Figures not publicly available.

On the visitor ticketing side, 2027 rates are not yet open. For reference, the standard rate for the 2026 edition (applicable from 2 July 2026, source: official website) was as follows:

• Thursday €32.00, Friday €30.00, Saturday €41.00, Sunday €34.00,
• 4-Day Pass €107.00, Weekly Pass (Thursday and Friday) €58.00,
• FastPass €37.00 on Thursday, €35.00 on Friday, €46.00 on Saturday, €39.00 on Sunday,
• reduced rates genin (-10%), chûnin (-25%) and jônin (-40%) on presale, the last two sold out ahead of the festival.

Preparing your visit

For the exhibitor

• M-12: initial contact with SEFA Event via the Devenir exposant form, choice of hall and thematic positioning.
• M-9: application for panels, guest talks, themed exhibitions. Request for a stage slot (16 stages and spaces announced in 2026).
• M-6: stand finalisation, upstream communication plan across video game and manga communities (social networks, specialist press, creators).
• M-3: team briefing, preparation of signings, guest panels, game demos, general-public activities and evening programme.
• W-6: leveraging the Japan Expo and Iconik Global network (sister events, media, influencers relays).

For the decision-making visitor

• Thursday 8 July 2027: historically the quietest day, useful for scouting publisher stands and planning the following 3 days.
• Friday 9 July 2027: the most practical day for publisher and licensing networking ahead of the weekend crowds.
• FastPass recommended to target major guest talks given the visitor density on Saturday and Sunday, if the formula is repeated in 2027.
• The Zen and Ultimate formulas give early entry: relevant if the aim is to cover manga, gaming, cosplay and J-music without time constraints.

Policy & CSR initiatives

Japan Expo draws on the "Second Life Events" scheme run by Iconik Global: an online platform for the reuse of furniture and event items from one edition to the next and between Iconik Global's client events. No detailed public CSR charter at trade-show level to date, and no ISO 20121 certification mentioned. Impact figures (energy, waste, transport) not published.

How the trade show has evolved

Trajectory analysis

Over a quarter of a century, Japan Expo has travelled from a 2,500 m² student trade show in the basements of ISC Paris (Thomas Sirdey then an ESCP student, with Jean-François and Sandrine Dufour) to the leading French event dedicated to 15-25 year-olds. The festival moved to Paris-Nord Villepinte in 2006 after a stint at the CNIT in La Défense, and the creation of SEFA Event in 2007 marked the shift away from the associative model. SEFA Event uses Iconik Global as a supplier for stand fitting, in particular furniture pooling via Second Life Events.

Attendance measured by Infora peaked at 255,259 visitors in 2023, fell back to 200,716 in 2024, then rose again to 222,016 in 2025, the year of the first French presidential visit to the trade show. The 2026 anniversary edition pursued expansion: 154,000 m², an additional hall, more than 1,000 exhibitors and 713 events announced, for a forecast of 250,000 visitors whose actual outcome has not been published. The 2027 edition, from 8 to 11 July, opens for now on a single name, that of guest of honour Yôichi Takahashi: it is the 2026 figures, still awaited, that will show whether the growth trajectory holds up against the rising strength of Japanese publishers and studios in Europe.

Unless otherwise stated, all factual data in this listing comes from the organiser's official website (paris.japan-expo.com).