Press releases

MINSK, 24 September (BelTA) – The festival of Japanese culture named Japanese Autumn in Belarus will take place in Minsk on 26-29 September, BelTA learnt from the Embassy of Japan to Belarus.

The program of the festival will include a Japanese language speech contest, a costume show with the participation of popular characters of Japanese anime and manga at the festival of youth East-Asian culture Higan, and a concert of the traditional Japanese bamboo flute shakuhachi.

The 13^th Japanese language speech contest will be held at the Institute of Journalism of the Belarusian State University on 26 September. The contest is organized by the Association of Japanese Language Teachers in Belarus. The participants of the contest present prepared speeches in Japanese language and they take part in a Q&A session. The jury led by Japan’s Ambassador to Belarus Shigehiro Mimori will name the winner who will represent Belarus at the CIS International Japanese Language Speech Competition in Moscow in October 2015.

The 10^th festival of youth East-Asian culture Higan will be held at the concert hall Minsk on 26-27 September. The Japanese embassy will provide the festival with information support as well as prizes for the winners in the Japanese karaoke nomination and the J-live competition (live performance in Japanese language). Japan’s Ambassador to Belarus Shigehiro Mimori and Japanese bamboo flute player Yosuke Irie, who will open the second competition day of the Higan festival, will judge the performance of contestants.

The Japanese shakuhachi flute concert featuring Yosuke Irie will take place at the Molodechno Oginski Music College on 28 September and the Minsk Glinka State Music College on 29 September. It will be the second visit of the Japanese composer to Belarus. The flute player will perform his works as well as famous traditional and modern shakuhachi compositions. The Japanese composer will also play together with the students of the Belarusian music colleges.