Report: 26th São Paulo Japan Festival 2025 and the 2nd Furusato “Iimono” Expo

Event overview

From Thursday, July 10 to Sunday, July 13, 2025, the 26th São Paulo Japan Festival and the 2nd Furusato “Iimono” Expo were held in São Paulo, Brazil.

About the São Paulo Japan Festival

The São Paulo Japan Festival is one of the world’s largest Japan-themed events. This year, in addition to consumer-facing booths serving Japanese regional cuisine run by the local associations of all 47 prefectures, many Japanese food businesses exhibited. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) also set up a booth, promoting Japanese agricultural, forestry, and fishery products and Japanese cuisine, hosting sake seminars by Sake Samurai and Miss SAKE, and even welcoming Myaku-Myaku, the official character of the ongoing Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai. A video message from Agriculture Minister Koizumi was shown at the opening ceremony.

About 200,000 people visited the festival, and the seminars at the MAFF booth were packed throughout the three days, contributing greatly to raising awareness and spreading Japanese food locally.

About the 2nd Furusato “Iimono” Expo

Held in a special area within the festival, this was a B2B trade fair for food and beverage makers and promotional organizations from all 47 prefectures of Japan. Through business matching with local importers and restaurant professionals, it aimed to expand sales channels and promote exports to the Brazilian market.

• Scale: 104 companies from 47 prefectures (40 prefectures last year), including agricultural, forestry, fishery, food, and beverage makers and support organizations.
• Visitors: About 1,100 local importers, retailers, restaurant professionals, and others—more than last year

Seminar-style promotions and individual meeting booths created business opportunities, making it an event that contributed to orders for and exports of Japanese products.

Activity report

Over four days, we offered tastings and samples to more than 600 people and conducted surveys. We offered tastings of selected products such as beverages including sake, sweets, and dried noodles, as well as samples of seasonings, and held business meetings and networking with more than 40 people, providing detailed product information and answering visitors’ questions through interpreters.

We also reached out to the local prefectural associations, cooperating on booth setup, introducing products, enjoying the food at their booths, and exchanging information to deepen our ties.

On July 12, a reception was held for exhibitors and organizers, where next year’s event was also mentioned. Among speeches by representatives of MAFF, the Federation of Prefectural Associations, JETRO, JICA, and others, our representative Nishida—who has been exhibiting and promoting at the festival since two years earlier, which led to the creation of the Iimono Expo—addressed the participants dressed in samurai attire.

Individual meetings inside and outside the event

During the event, we held individual meetings with importers and trading companies at the meeting booths, as well as before and after the Iimono Expo. Setting aside dedicated time for each allowed for more in-depth product introductions and discussions.

The results were as follows.

• About 80 products exhibited, promoted, and negotiated across our booths

• Sake, canned foods, dried noodles, beverages, sweets, seasonings, and more were well received for their taste and generated inquiries; product specifications and quotations are being proposed for 26 products

• Around 10 products are already moving toward export; we will continue these negotiations

Observations

• We confirmed that demand for Japanese food ingredients and sake is high and growing year by year, and that there is real demand and popularity not only among Japanese-Brazilians but also among local Brazilians.

• Many Japanese food seminars were held, and we saw many people well versed in how to enjoy Japanese food, as well as consumers eager to learn and deepen their knowledge.

• For food products, we felt it is very important to help people concretely imagine when and how they would eat them. Tastings were effective in this respect, and when we followed up with arrangements and other ways to enjoy the products, people listened with great interest.

• Sake and shochu seem to be strongly associated with enjoying them alongside food, so we recognized the importance of proposing matching Japanese or local dishes and collaborative recipes together with each drink’s characteristics.

Next steps

• Next year’s São Paulo Japan Festival and Furusato “Iimono” Expo have been confirmed

• We will continue communicating and negotiating with local trading companies and restaurants, supporting companies as they explore market entry.

• While preparing for next year’s Iimono Expo and planning other trips to São Paulo, events, and exhibitions, we plan to raise local awareness, build and advance relationships, and develop sales channels.

• As an event in São Paulo, Brazil, where Japanese food is widespread, there is much room to make better use of it and many chances to expand, and we strongly sense the market’s growth potential.

Toward the next edition

With next year’s São Paulo Japan Festival and Furusato “Iimono” Expo already confirmed, and having felt the growth of the local market and rising interest in Japanese food, we strongly believe it is essential to start preparing early and approach it strategically.

To make the most of this year’s results, we need to further strengthen relationships with local partners and stakeholders, and to draw up and carry out concrete plans that prevent missed opportunities due to insufficient preparation.

In particular, by setting the direction of preparations for the next edition by around October this year, we believe we will have enough time to consider and implement effective measures.

We will work closely with all stakeholders to build more effective initiatives and lead the next edition to success. We appreciate your continued understanding and cooperation.

July 18, 2025