A gesture that becomes dance, a movement that transforms into music, an inked mark that speaks to distant centuries, a cup of tea to share. Japan comes closer through its arts, rituals, and know-how passed down from one generation to the next. And it meets Palermo, a city long accustomed to welcoming different languages and cultures, allowing each to leave something of itself.
From November 20 to 26 Palermo will host Japan Week, an event promoted by the International Friendship Foundation (IFF) that each year brings Japanese culture to a different city in the world, and which arrives in Palermo in close collaboration with the Municipality, thanks to long work coordinated by the municipal Tourism department led by Alessandro Anello.
Born in Florence in 1975 and growing year after year, Japan Week celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in Manchester in 2025, and returns to Italy eight years after the edition in Turin. It does so in a significant year, the 160th anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship and Commerce signed in then-Edo (today Tokyo) on August 25, 1866: the moment when diplomatic relations between Italy and Japan were born.
“Hosting Japan Week 2026 is a source of pride for Palermo, which is consolidating its position at the center of major international cultural circuits,” says Palermo’s mayor Roberto Lagalla. “I thank the International Friendship Foundation for choosing our city and for the synergy created with the municipal administration.”
“The festival will offer citizens and tourists the opportunity to immerse themselves in the millenary culture of the Land of the Rising Sun; and it will allow the large Japanese delegation to discover our cultural treasures,” explains Tourism Councillor Alessandro Anello. “It will be an exceptional return in terms of global visibility and a concrete boost to off-season tourism. The countdown has begun.”
What convinced the Japanese Foundation was precisely Palermo’s history: “a fascinating city, known and appreciated in the Land of the Rising Sun. Many Japanese dream of visiting it; it exerts a particular charm thanks to its history, having been for centuries a crossroads of cultures and exchanges in the Mediterranean, able to welcome different traditions and to develop a unique historical and artistic heritage. With Japan Week, we wish to introduce Palermo’s residents to the charm of Japanese culture and, at the same time, offer participants from Japan the opportunity to discover the beauties of this city,” explain representatives of the International Friendship Foundation. The journey will thus go both ways: Palermitans will meet Japanese artists and artisans; those arriving from Japan will find a city ready to tell its story.
Between Teatro Politeama Garibaldi, Real Teatro Santa Cecilia and the ZAC space at the Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, the Japanese “world” will take shape: performances, exhibitions, workshops and opportunities for meeting. A very large Japanese delegation is expected, with masters of various disciplines, artists and artisans.
From the grace of dances to the energy of performances, from the timbres of traditional instruments to calligraphy, from textile arts to cuisine. And there will be time to pause around tea, discovering how an apparently simple custom can tell the story of an entire culture: attention to others, care in gesture, the value of hospitality. These are only some previews of a program that will bring together tradition and contemporary research, also bringing to Palermo tastes, stories and impressions from Japanese regions. At the center is the desire to get to know one another through shared experiences, with the curiosity of those encountering a distant world for the first time.
Admission to all events, performances, workshops and ceremonies will be free, but registration is required on the website https://palermojapanweek.it/ where the full program can be found.
