Biggest Japanese pop culture event organisers join forces to bring C3 AFA to various countries

SOZO, organiser of Anime Festival Asia events and Sotsu Co., Ltd, organiser of C3 events, have joined together to create “C3 AFA”. This new event aims to become the regional Cool Japan Event of Asia by developing a B2C event representing various Japanese contents such as anime, characters, comic, game, music, novel and more.

The collaboration will bring new contents to consumers who are already familiar to both the C3 and Anime Festival Asia brands. SOZO, part of the Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc group has been organising Anime Festival Asia since 2008, bringing Japanese pop culture content to South East Asia countries such as Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. Sotsu Co. Ltd is Japanese powerhouse managing animated products such as the famed Mobile Suit Gundam series and producing animated and live-action programs.

Sotsu and SOZO will unveil the first installment of C3 AFA in June 2017 in Bangkok, continuing with the other cities which they already have experienced track records in, including Jakarta, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong between 2017 and 2018.

■ About AFA

Started in 2008 in Singapore by SOZO. With artiste concerts and many stage programmes, it is the largest Japanese Pop Culture Event in Southeast Asia. With its 2016 edition covering three countries, it saw a total of over 210,000 event attendees over the three countries (94,000 in Singapore, 62,000 in Indonesia, 55,000 in Thailand).

■ About C3

Image: C3 CharaExpo 2016 Facebook Page

Started by organiser Sotsu in 2000 in Tokyo with “Character, Culture and Contents” as its focus. Its strength lies in the many character goods manufacturers exhibiting at the event. In 2009, the event began its East-Asia expansion to Hong Kong, and reached Beijing in 2016.

■ Line Up of Events

C3 AFA BANGKOK 2017
DATE: Sat 10 – Sun 11 June 2017
VENUE: Siam Paragon, Bangkok, Thailand

C3 AFA JAKARTA 2017
DATE: Fri 18 – Sun 20 August 2017
VENUE: JIEXPO Jakarta, Indonesia

C3 AFA TOKYO 2017
DATE: Sat 26 – Sun 27 August 2017
VENUE: Makuhari Messe, Japan

C3 AFA SINGAPORE 2017
DATE: Fri 24 – Sun 26 November 2017
VENUE: Suntec Convention Center, Singapore

C3 AFA HONG KONG 2018
DATE: TBC
VENUE: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong