What are the big issues affecting JEXA today?
The biggest issue affecting JEXA is also the biggest issue affecting the exhibition industry in Japan. That is the severe shortage of exhibition space in our country.The total exhibition space in the whole of Japan adds up to merely 350,000sqm, only one-twelfth of the 4.2 million sqm that China has. Germany, whose land size is about the same as Japan’s, has 3.2 million sqm, 10 times of ours.
What’s more is that there is not one exhibition centre in Japan that is sizeable by an international standard. Even Tokyo Big Sight, the largest venue in Japan, ranks only 67th in the world by size.
As a result, it is physically very difficult for existing exhibitions to expand and new exhibitions to enter. The industry as well as the country are missing out on a lot of opportunities because of the space shortage.
As chairman of JEXA, I can’t emphasise enough the importance of rectifying this problem by adding more exhibition space. We continue working very hard lobbying the support from politicians, government officials, prefectural governors, and other influential figures.
Are international attendance levels returning to pre-Fukushima levels in Tokyo and the venues in the north of Japan?
Thanks to the tremendous efforts of all involved, the exhibitions in Tokyo have almost fully recovered to their pre-quake level. But in Tokyo, the downturn in the international attendance level was rather short-lived. The exhibitions in the northern part of the country, however, are not doing as well. Dream Messe Miyagi, the largest exhibition centre in the Touhoku region, which was the most hard hit, only reopened in July. With the return of a wide variety of trade events, we are hopeful that the number of international visitors will begin to rise.
What investment in Japan's exhibition industry is the government making? Is it well supported?
Currently, the exhibition industry in Japan receives little support from the government, something that is quite unfortunate. Having said that, I feel that as a result of our continuous efforts, the government is gradually beginning to recognise the importance of our industry. For instance, this year the government has announced it will take the lead to create a certification system for the visitor count method; and in the ‘Country Revitalisation Strategy Plan’ recently announced by the government, developing the exhibition industry is stated as one of the areas to be focused on.
Nevertheless, compared to other countries, the support we receive in Japan is much less significant. It looks like we still have a lot of convincing to do, but slowly and steadily, we will get there.
What would JEXA like to achieve in the next 24 months?
JEXA’s primary mission remains to promote the importance of the exhibition industry to the political, governmental and financial bodies. In order to achieve that, we will step up our efforts to increase the number of our members. This will be the best way to increase our voice.
This was first published in Issue 4/2012 of EW. Any comments? Email exhibitionworld@mashmedia.net
