Liguria. It is Liguria, with its colors and its flavours, that represents the nation at “Italia, Amore mio!”, the largest Italian festival in Japan underway at the Tokyo Fair; an opportunity to enhance cultural, food and wine and tourist excellence towards the Japanese public who, in recent years, has shown itself to be increasingly interested and attentive to Liguria. The Region’s promotional work started this afternoon in Tokyo (late morning in Italy) with a seminar focused on the tourist value of Liguria, in which more than fifty people took part, including Japanese tour operators, travel agencies, journalists and influencers.
The participants, after the presentation of the tourist destination and an experiential journey through the tastes and aromas of Ligurian cuisine, were able to enjoy an exclusive preview of the Liguria area which was set up for the occasion in the Roppongi Hills Arena: one one of the largest real estate complexes in Japan is in fact the location where this edition of “Italia, Amore mio!” is being held, running until Sunday 26 May.
From tomorrow, May 25, the area will be open to the general public who will take part in the event. Here there will be various moments of show cooking, curated by the starred chef Ivano Ricchebono, which will feature pesto and walnut sauce. The flavors of Ligurian cuisine, together with oil and wine, will be the true protagonists of the event, as the only “official” cuisine of the Festival. There will also be focaccia prepared by the chef in collaboration with the chef of “Focaccia di Recco 500”, Kenichi Nakama, who trained in Liguria before opening his restaurant in the East in 2023. Furthermore, Ivano Ricchebono also coordinates the “The Dream Dining” area, a sort of lounge upon reservation in which authorities, ambassadors and representatives of local authorities will be able to enjoy an entirely Ligurian menu, including pesto, trofie and pandolce.
“Italia Amore Mio!”, now in its ninth edition, takes place with the support of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Japan and holds the title of the largest Italian festival in the country. Previous editions of the event recorded an attendance of around 50,000 visitors in two days, plus significant media coverage.
The participation of the Region in the festival, the only Italian present, is part of a series of actions designed as tools to strengthen the image of Liguria on the tourism and business market of the Far East and thus develop coordinated actions within the “Road” project to Japan”, which will have its peak in the participation in the Osaka Expo in 2025. Liguria’s mission in Japan, not surprisingly, began on May 23rd in Osaka, with a first meeting with the Italian consul general in the city Marco Prencipe, which was followed by some 2025 themed meetings.
“In Osaka for some preparatory meetings in view of Expo 2025 and then in Tokyo for the “Italia Amore Mio!” event organized by the Italian-Japanese Chamber of Commerce – explains the Region’s tourism councilor – An increasingly international Liguria continues to work towards new and exciting goals in the tourism sector with important benefits for the economy and employment. I thank the consul for the precious time he dedicated to us and the director of international relations of the Expo, Minoru Fujitsuka, who explained to us the great opportunities that the great 2025 event will offer to our region and prepared for the expectations of the public which will be composed mainly of citizens Japanese, Korean and Chinese”.
