Sakurai-Mini-stag

Sakurai Takamasa-san, someone whom we at AFACHAN had the chance of meeting and work with, has suddenly passed away this morning in an accident, with confirmation from his colleagues in Japan.

He was to be contributing a monthly column that would have provided us with more insights into the Japanese Entertainment Industry. In fact he was editing our translations just yesterday, combined with the fact that the last meeting with was at the Anime Festival Asia 2015 in Singapore last weekend. Only makes the news more shocking, sad and disorienting.

For those who don’t know Sakurai-san, he is a Producer, a Specially appointed professor of Hollywood Digital University, and the Executive Director of International Otaku Expo Association. He is currently on a mission of cultural diplomacy travelling through 27 countries and 150 cities around the world. And has served in various conference committees such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Only last weekend, he was in Singapore’s AFA15 to explain why Japanese Idols are so popular, and it’s history, ending to the rousing applause of the audiences.

There he announced his collaboration with AFACHAN, and you can imagine how proud we were at that very moment.

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To us, he is a passionate character, travelling the world with his willingness to share his knowledge on the inner happenings of Japan Pop-culture with everyone. It is no doubt that he will be missed, not only by us but also the many industry participants and fans.

May he rest in peace.

Tributes by artiste,