TOKUSHIMA -- The quiet rural mountain town of Ikeda -- part of Miyoshi, Tokushima Prefecture -- greeted an unusual crowd of visitors last December: 130 fans of anime and video game characters gathered from across the nation for a cosplaying event. They had a great time striking poses and taking photos, including Wakichi (who declined to give her real name), who cosplayed from the anime "Katsugeki! Touken Ranbu" and took selfies with her friends.
This is the second time the event has been held in Ikeda. Wakichi, who lives in Kobe, said she wanted to use cosplay to help invigorate the area, which is suffering from an aging and declining population.
Cosplay spread throughout society alongside the dramatic rise of anime in the Heisei era, which began in 1989. Even now, it can help a local community come alive. Residents were also overcome with curiosity about the extraordinary scene.
Shizuya Miyakita, 20, who does track maintenance in Miyoshi, mingled in regular clothes with the people doing cosplay and sometimes jumped into the shot.
"Having so many young people come to these mountain recesses is incredible," Miyakita said. "Things come alive when young people are around."
People of more advanced age were also bemused. "I have no idea what's going on, but they look like they're having fun," Mitsuyo Baba, 72, said with a smile as she handed out yuzu tea to the young people.
On the rise
The culture of cosplay found its way into Tokushima Prefecture thanks to Machi Asobi (Playing in town), an anime event in central Tokushima that has become the next biggest tourist attraction in the prefecture after its famous Awa odori dance. The event is planned and run by Hikaru Kondo, 48, president of ufotable, an anime studio in Tokyo.
In 2009, Kondo set up a different studio in his native Tokushima. However, he was shocked to find that the shopping district that had flourished in his college days was shuttered and all the movie theaters had closed.
"Because it's Tokushima, I have to do something," he thought. He began walking through town, thinking of what that something might be.
Only a half year after establishing his Tokushima studio, Kondo began Machi Asobi. He created activities such as talk shows and live performances with voice actors at Mt. Bizan, the symbol of the city. Other anime-related events included sightseeing tours of the Shinmachigawa river.
Last autumn's event drew 83,000 people. He put a red carpet down the long walkway of a shuttered shopping district, creating a stage for cosplayers, and people flocked to it.
The event is constantly evolving, featuring new stage areas and activities each time, based on the idea that the people who travel all that way need to feel it was worth the trip.
"Anime can bring together this many people," Wakichi said, who participated in the event. She expanded her activities to Miyoshi.
A rare sight
About 12,000 people came to the first Machi Asobi event in 2009. In the eight years since then, the number of attendees has risen to seven times that level, with people coming from outside the prefecture accounting for 60 percent of the total.
"It's rare to have such an anime event that truly utilizes the area -- from walks along the riverbank to Mt. Bizan," said Hideaki Motoki, a senior researcher for the Tokushima Economic Research Institute. "Many people keep coming back year after year."
Kuichi Morizumi, 77, helped with an event along a shopping street. "I had no idea so many people would come to this event again," Morizumi said.
There are still many areas in need of people, but areas bustling with life are steadily rising.
Loved at home, abroad
The term cosplay comes from a smashup of the English words "costume" and "play."
Young people mostly attend cosplay events in major cities, but lately it's become more common to find such events in more remote areas of the nation. A shuttered junior high school in Kurate, Fukuoka Prefecture, is one location used, and a shopping area in front of Shizuoka Station in Shizuoka is temporarily taken over for an event as well.
Even without an event, many spots that look like they could appear in an anime (such as castle ruins, a garden or a shrine) become popular photo spots for anime fans, and seeing young cosplayers wandering around such places is becoming more commonplace.
Cosplay began in Japan and has taken root abroad as well. In 2003, Nagoya began the World Cosplay Summit, with the 2017 event featuring a cosplay contest and parade. A total of 320,000 people from 35 countries and regions participated.
The Foreign Ministry has added more people from its staff to help at the event, with the hopes of promoting cross-cultural communication.
"Cosplay is a representative of Japanese culture," said an official from the ministry's cultural exchange and foreign public relations department. "It's an opportunity to help people learn about Japan and plays a great role in diplomacy."
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