Ithra's Japan Cultural Days draws more than 200k visitors to Dhahran
The event, which began on Jan. 23, attracted more than 200,000 visitors in its first 10 days.
Japanese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Morino Yasunari toured the exhibitions, engaged with artists and cultural representatives, and highlighted the importance of strengthening cultural ties between the two countries.
His visit underscored the significance of the festival in fostering dialogue and mutual appreciation.
The program featured a wide range of activities for both children and adults, ensuring an engaging experience for all ages. Families took part in hands-on craft workshops, traditional calligraphy, origami and manga drawing sessions, while younger visitors enjoyed storytelling sessions featuring Japanese folktales and legends.
One of the most anticipated performances came from Drum Tao, the globally renowned Japanese drumming ensemble known for its powerful stage presence and theatrical performances.
The group combined traditional taiko drumming with modern choreography and lighting effects, delivering a high-energy spectacle that captivated audiences.
A metaverse experience in Ithra's plaza allowed visitors to explore virtual Japanese markets and cultural celebrations.
The festival also explored Japanese storytelling through literature and anime. Several sessions on Japanese literature highlighted its unique introspective nature, referencing authors like Haruki Murakami.
Music played a central role in the festival, with performances ranging from the meditative tones of the shakuhachi flute to high-energy drum ensembles. Visitors also explored Japanese culinary traditions, gaining insights into the precision and artistry behind dishes such as sushi and wagashi.
One of the most celebrated workshops covered kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. Attendees were invited to transform shattered ceramics into decorative pieces, embracing the philosophy of finding beauty in imperfection.
Ithra's Japan Cultural Days featured many other activities, ensuring that visitors could engage with Japan's cultural heritage through a variety of creative, educational and interactive experiences.
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Saudi Gazette
a day ago
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Speaking in Chinese on Douyin, China's domestic version of TikTok, Kato recounted scenes from the film: "People were lined up along the river and then the shootings began... A baby, the same age as my daughter, was crying in her mother's arms. A Japanese soldier rushed forward, grabbed her, and smashed her into the ground." He said he had seen many people on the Japanese internet denying the Nanjing Massacre had happened, including public figures, even politicians. "If we deny it, this will happen again," he continued, urging Japanese people to watch the movies and "Iearn about the dark side of their history".The video quickly became one of his most popular, with more than 670,000 likes in just two the comments are less positive. The top-liked one quotes what has already become an iconic line from the movie, uttered by a Chinese civilian to a Japanese soldier: "We are not friends. We never were."For China, Japan's brutal military campaign and occupation are among the darkest chapters of its past – and the massacre in Nanjing, then the capital, an even deeper has made it fester is the belief that Japan has never fully owned up to its atrocities in places it occupied – not just China, but also Korea, what was then Malaya, Philippines, Indonesia. One of the most painful points of contention involves "comfort women" – the approximately 200,000 women who were raped and forced to work in Japanese military brothels. To this day, the survivors are still fighting for an apology and his video, Kato seems to acknowledge that it's not a subject of conversation in Japan: "Unfortunately these anti-Japanese war movies are not shown in Japan publicly, and Japanese people are not interested to watch them."When the Japanese Emperor announced on 15 August that he would surrender, his country had already paid a terrible cost – more than 100,000 had been killed in bombing raids on Tokyo, before two atom bombs devastated Hiroshima and defeat, however, was welcomed in large parts of Asia, where the Imperial Japanese Army had claimed million of lives. For them, 15 August carries both freedom and lingering trauma – in Korea the day is called 'gwangbokjeol', which translates to the return of light."While the military war has ended, the history war continues," says Professor Gi-Wook Shin, of Stanford University, explaining the two sides remember those years differently, and those differences add to the tension. 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Salute to the martyrs," a popular RedNote post on Nanjing Photo Studio reads."We are not friends...", the now-famous line from the movie, "is not just a line" between the two main characters, says a popular review that has been liked by more than 10,000 users on is "also from millions of ordinary Chinese people to Japan. They've never issued a sincere apology, they are still worshipping [the war criminals], they are rewriting history – no-one will treat them as friends", the comment says, referring to some Japanese right-wing figures' dismissive has issued apologies, but many Chinese people believe they are not profuse enough."Japan keeps sending a conflicting message," Prof Shin says, referring to instances where leaders have contradicted each other in their statements on Japan's wartime years, in Chinese history classes, students have been shown a photo of former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt kneeling before a memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1970. The Chinese expect a similar gesture from wasn't always the case, Japan surrendered in 1945, the turbulence in China did not end. For the next three years, the Nationalist Kuomintang – then the ruling government and the main source of Chinese resistance against Japan – fought a civil war against Mao Zedong's Communist Party war ended with Mao's victory and the Kuomintang's retreat to Taiwan. Mao, whose priority was to build a communist nation, avoided focusing on Japanese war crimes. Commemorations celebrated the Party's victory and criticised the Kuomintang. He also needed Japan's support on the international stage. Tokyo, in fact, was one of the first major powers to recognise his wasn't until the 1980s – after Mao's death – that the Japanese occupation returned to haunt the relationship between Beijing and Tokyo. By then, Japan was a wealthy Western ally with a booming economy. Revisions to Japanese textbooks began to spark controversy, with China and South Korea accusing Japan of whitewashing its wartime atrocities. China had just begun to open up, and South Korea was in transition from military rule to Chinese leaders moved away from Mao – and his destructive legacy – the trauma of what happened under Japanese attack became a unifying narrative for the Communist Party, says Yinan He, associate professor of international relations at Lehigh University in the US."After the Cultural Revolution, Chinese people for the large part were disillusioned by communism," she told the BBC. "Since communism lost its appeal, you need nationalism. And Japan is [an] easy target because that's the most recent external [aggressor]."She describes a "choreographed representation of the past", where commemorations of 1945 often downplay the contributions of the US and the Kuomintang, and are accompanied by growing scrutiny of Japan's official stance on its wartime hasn't helped is the denial of war crimes – prominent right-wing Japanese don't accept the Nanjing massacre ever happened, or that Japanese soldiers forced so many women into sexual slavery – and recent visits by officials to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours Japan's war dead, including convicted war hostility between China and Japan has spilled over into everyday lives as nationalism online peaks – Chinese and Japanese people have been attacked in each other's countries. A Japanese schoolboy was killed in Shenzhen last economic rise and assertiveness in the region and beyond has changed the dynamic between the two countries again. It has surpassed Japan as a global power. 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One Piece, first published in 1997 as a manga by Eiichiro Oda, is one of the most popular franchises in the world. The manga has sold more than 520 million copies while the TV series has run for more than 1,100 series has a large and dedicated fan base in Indonesia, where Japanese anime is well the same way the pirates in the series, led by their leader Monkey D Luffy, raise the Jolly Rogers as a symbol of freedom against their government, some Indonesian residents say raising the flag is a "symbol that we love this country, but don't completely agree with its policies".The anime reflects the injustice and inequality that Indonesians experience, said Ali Maulana, a resident of Jayapura city in the Papua province."Even though this country is officially independent, many of us have not truly experienced that freedom in our daily lives," he told BBC him and many others, the decision to fly the flag was a response to a speech given by President Prabowo in late July."Raise the red and white flag wherever you are. Red represents the blood shed for our independence, white represents the purity of our souls," Prabowo had Christanto, who owns the Wik Wiki apparel store in Central Java, said he has received "thousands of orders" for the flags following the president's speech."Since the end of July, I received hundreds of orders a day from all over Indonesia," Dendi told news outlet Jakarta top officials however, have been less than House Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, widely regarded as Prabowo's right-hand man, described the movement as "a coordinated attempt to divide the nation"."We must collectively resist such actions," he had said earlier last lawmaker from the centre-right Golkar Party, Firman Soebagyo, suggested that displaying these flags could even amount to on Tuesday, the country's state secretary minister Prasetyo Hadi said the president himself had "no objection" to the flags as a form of "creative expression"."However, it should not be used to challenge or diminish the significance of the red and white flag. The two should not be placed side by side in a way that invites comparison or conflict," his office said in a Indonesia, there are no laws that restrict the display of fictional flags, but the law stipulates that if they are flown alongside the red-and-white national flags, the country's flag must always be hoisted in the capital Jakarta have said they are "monitoring the use of non-national flags and symbols that don't align with the spirit of nationalism, including pirate or fictional-themed flags".Indonesia's hard-won democracy, the third largest in the world, has faced growing challenges in recent popular former leader Joko Widodo rose to power as a promising democrat, but his one-of-us image lost some of its sheen towards the end of his second term, when he revived the death penalty for drug traffickers and appointed Prabowo, a controversial ex-general, as his defence frustration has intensified since Prabowo took over as president last October. In February, thousands took to the streets to protest budget cuts and legislative changes that would allow the military to take a bigger role in government."The red-and-white flags are too sacred for us to raise now," said one user on Instagram, in a post that has been widely while some lawmakers have criticised the display of the Jolly Rogers, others say they accept it as a form of public are a way for people to "convey their expectations", said Deputy Home Affairs Minister Bima Arya Sugiarto. "Such a form of expression is a natural phenomenon in a democracy.""This kind of symbolic action is better than street protests that could turn violent," said Deddy Yevri Sitorus from the opposition Democratic Party of of One Piece's popularity among Indonesians of all ages, the flags have offered a way to "raise awareness around political issues in a different and unique way", said Dominique Nicky Fahrizal, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International for some Indonesians, the government's mixed response to the Jolly Roger underscores the symbol's power."By treating a cartoon flag as a threat to national security, they have inadvertently validated the entire premise of the protest," Farhan Rizqullah wrote on the Medium publishing platform."They have shown that the dream of Monkey D Luffy, the simple, unwavering desire to be free, is the one thing they truly fear." — BBC
