October 30, 2018
Music becoming key community-boosting tool in Japan
Various types of music are drawing attention as a key community-boosting tool in various parts of Japan. The move has come at a time when Japanese people think about how to better spend their spare time amid the maturing of society, coupled with a low economic growth.
No precise figures are available about how many of the municipalities across Japan, approximately 1,700 at present, have come up with music-related events as a town reactivating initiative, but it is believed that 100 or so cities and towns, small or big, organize or support events like music festivals for bolstering their economy.In Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, local culture-related organizations join forces with the city authorities to organize a city-wide music festival every October.
The 2018 Kurume Promenade Music Festival attracted tens of thousands of people at 10 different open-air performance sites, not just public parks but also a railway station corridor and a Buddhist temple.
The latest two-day festival, the sixth of its kind, brought together about 100 groups who played jazz, hard rock and classic as well as traditional Japanese music.
Appearing on the stage at the main site, just next to the city office building, Kurume Mayor Tsutomu Sasaki remarked, "This town gives weight to music and raises musicians." Actually, those who played at the festival included a few locally raised musicians.The 57-year-old mayor, who took office in January, then appealed for citizens' greater support to the initiative before those who packed the main event site.
The main site was surrounded with booths and shops set up by vendors in a picnic-like, casual atmosphere with not just young people but also older persons and kids present.At one booth beside the stage, a group of volunteers organized a class for kids to craft plastic straw flutes so that children may feel close to music.
