Ever since purchasing my three-day pass for Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025 (SWCJ2025) in May last year I had been a little apprehensive about how overwhelming I’d find it all as I’d only ever done single days of such conventions. Despite a serious lack of sleep over the long weekend I was thankfully running on adrenaline at the start of the third day as I made my two hour journey to Makuhari Messe in Chiba for the final time.
On the opening day I’d gone late to avoid the entrance lines. The first half of my second day was spent queuing to get into the merchandise store and for Day 3 I decided to get there for when the doors opened at 9:00 am. Of course I didn’t get in immediately and had to queue up for about half an hour. No one likes such lines but due to the way this one was set up it did actually give me the chance to pass by the majority of people attending and see the costumes or Star Wars t-shirts they were wearing. It’s very different from sports matches where the majority of spectators are in very similar tops!
Panels beginning at 9:30 am frankly got the rough end of the stick as attendees barely had time to get in, maybe get their bearings and locate the correct stage. I passed a cool Empire Strikes Back photo booth as I rushed to see the Fantha Tracks podcast panel which was taking place on a stage as far away from the entrance as possible!
It had already begun on the Holonet News Stage when I entered the room. There was a young girl and I originally thought she was the daughter of one of the hosts. However, when she began talking quite a few of the audience members started to film her or take photos, and moments later I realised it was Kyriana Kratter a.k.a. KB from ‘Skeleton Crew‘.
As well as getting her thoughts on a range of topics, there was also a mini quiz and I actually came quite close to fluking my way to victory in the multi-option question contest. Justice was done in the end though and I didn’t win either of the prizes! I hung around after the panel to chat with the host Mark Newbold; a veteran of the fan community who I’ve been listening to on podcasts for a long time now.
When I went to Tunisia back in 2009 there was very little information about the filming locations from ‘A New Hope‘ (1977) and ‘Attack of the Clones‘ (2002) and the locals mostly had no idea about the movies. Fast forward a fair few years and there is now a travel operator running Galaxy Tours.
Talking with the guy at that booth for 5-10 minutes was the perfect way of getting me in the mood for my final panel of SWCJ2025. ‘Around the World with Star Wars‘ on the overly-sized Fan Stage at 12:30 was perhaps the panel I was most excited about having been to the vast majority of the filming locations from the original and prequel trilogies. I sat right on the front row in front of presenter Arthur Sacramento, and was enthralled by his information and entertaining stories which I told him afterwards when we had quite a long chat.
Over the three days I was given a fair amount of swag such as posters, stickers, postcards, patches, badges and so on. Having been to the Cantina Japan panel the day before I was keen to pick up their Force Map Japan booklet detailing many of the Star Wars themed restaurants, cafes, bars and shops around the country. I have been to many of them but there are a few in there that I was unaware of and will try to visit when I can.
One of the great things about this Celebration event being in Japan was the strong Japanese influence in various artwork and designs such as with the ‘Visions‘ animation series and the many samurai-influenced outfits being cosplayed.
Over at the Lego booth there were a couple of photo opps including a life-size K-2S0 figure.
There was also some beautiful artwork on display here, and indeed my time at the Lego booth was preceded by a walk round the Art Show area where there was so much amazing stuff. Very little was in my price range though.
As ever there were so many wonderful costumes on show so here is a montage of some of the best cosplayers I saw on the final day.
Not only did I miss many fantastic cosplayers but there were plenty of other things I also failed to see or experience in some way. It’s not easy to do it all, and sometimes you get a cool moment when you least expect it as was the case with seeing a couple of Mandalorian (with Grogu!) cosplayers whilst I was taking a short break upstairs from the main hall.
This is the way!
I may have gone to this event on my own but I never felt alone. I met up with some people I knew and shared some moments with complete strangers in the panels, on the floor or waiting in line. There were a few people I knew from Tokyo that would be present on this day but the only one I actually managed to meet up with was my friend Yuki who was attending her first ever convention. I met her shortly before she went off for a photo opp with Anthony Daniels a.k.a. C-3P0.
As she left I saw my number one Italian friend Jacobo again by chance which was nice. We were planning to meet up for the closing ceremony a bit later but this turned out to be our final encounter.
Having seen none of the Live Stage on the Saturday I decided to spend some time there on this day. In some ways it’s a little wasteful as you can see it later on YouTube but it’s always good to soak up the atmosphere of being in the crowd and really close to some of the stars that come on stage. Warm-up man Cameron Matthews did a fine job in whipping the crowd up into a frenzy between the presentations by Anthony Carboni, Kristin Baver and Reina Scully.
The onstage personalities I was in the audience to see included Ahmed Best, Rosario Dawson, Mads Mikkelsen, lead sound designer David W. Collins and a load of dancing wookies! Seeing these people up close is a good reason why many people are happy to spend a lot of their convention time hanging out at the Live Stage.
Just before the closing ceremony (broadcast from the main Celebration Stage) a bit of time was deservedly given over to Oki the vegetable god who had very much been a major part of the stage set-up carving away in the background of all the guests who he got to meet.
He was interviewed by the Live Stage team and demonstrated his carving one final time. A lot of affection was shown to him by the crowd (the kind of love reserved for the various stars who graced that stage over the weekend) and he was overcome with emotion as he got the recognition his fairly unique artistry deserves.
The next Star Wars Celebration was announced for Los Angeles in two years time which will be the 50th anniversary of the original 1977 film being released. There was a lot of excitement about that but I can’t imagine being in any position to be able to go so I guess I’ll just have to wait till it’s back in Japan!
One final photo before taking the 2-hour trip home for the last time
This event hopefully demonstrated that it was possible to do an event in Japan and overcome the major language obstacle which is probably why it took so long to return to these shores. Lets hope it’s not another 17 year wait till Celebration Japan is back!
Click here to read ‘Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025 Day 1: Ryan Gosling ‘& Sigourney Weaver Up Close, Animation & 90s Panels, Cuteness Overload, Cosplayers & Meeting A Fan Favourite’
Click here to read ‘Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025 Day 2: The Ridiculously Long Wait For Merchandise, A Trio of Entertaining Panels & Meeting Some Fan Community Favourites’
Click here to read ‘Reflecting On 15 Years Since Star Wars Celebration Japan & Looking Ahead To The Next One In 2025!’
Click here to read ‘The Countdown To Star Wars Day 2024 Has Begun With 11 Days of Festivities In Japan’s 2nd Biggest City’