Short answers, pulled from the story.
Japan Expo is a convention dedicated to Japanese popular culture, held yearly in Paris, France at the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre, the second-largest convention centre in France. It is the largest convention of its kind outside Japan. The event typically runs for four days at the beginning of July, from Thursday to Sunday.
Japan Expo began in 1999 at the ISC Paris Business School in Paris. The first edition welcomed 2,400 visitors. By 2019 that figure had grown to more than 252,510.
The 2005 edition of Japan Expo was cancelled due to security concerns stemming from the large number of visitors the event was attracting. Following the cancellation, the convention moved to the larger Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre starting in 2006.
Yes, Japan Expo was cancelled in both 2020 and 2021 because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The event returned in July 2022 and drew 254,084 attendees, exceeding pre-pandemic highs.
Japan Expo has expanded to Orléans, Marseille, and Montreuil in France, as well as Brussels in Belgium and Santa Clara, California in the United States. That brings the convention to four cities across three countries on two continents.
Japan Expo has hosted a wide range of figures from Japanese culture, including manga artists Go Nagai, Naoki Urasawa, and Leiji Matsumoto, anime directors Shinichiro Watanabe and Yoshiyuki Tomino, and video game creators Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, and Tetsuya Nomura. Musicians such as AKB48 and Morning Musume have also performed at the event.