YOKOHAMA City will showcase the best of ASEAN culture this week when its hosts the ASEAN Festival 2013 on October 5 and 6.
A full programme has been lined up for visitors, including live music, cultural performances, handicraft displays and diplomatic representation from South-east Asian countries.
Twenty chefs, two from each country, will be flown in to prepare national dishes, as sampling local food was consistently ranked as a high priority for Japanese travellers to South-east Asia. Dishes from Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are not easily available in Japan.
Entertainers to perform include Hien Thuc, a popular Vietnamese singer, and Over Dance, a Lao pop group, as well as other acts from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia and Singapore.
Organised by the ASEAN-Japan Centre, the festival commemorates 40 years of friendship between Japan and the South-east Asian bloc.
In 2012, four million Japanese travellers visited ASEAN member states and 4.2 million are expected to do so this year, according to PATA forecasts.
