The Japanese Emperor's Birthday Celebration was held on February 23 at the Japan Information Center, the Consulate General of Japan in Chicago. The distinguished guests from U.S.-Japan relations, cultural exchange, and education gathered to celebrate the Emperor's 64th birthday.

A Day of Remembrance (DOR) was held at the Chicago History Museum on February 18 to remember President Franklin Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066, which made possible the incarceration of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans.

Psychology Professor Dana Nagata of the University of Michigan spoke about the impacts of incarceration on the nisei, sansei, and yonsei.

Under the theme “Together for a Brighter Tomorrow”, the 41st Lunar New Year Celebration was held on February 10 at Drury Lane in Oak Brook. This year, the Japanese American community took the role of host for the annual event of the Asian American Coalition of Chicago (AACC) for the first time in 10 years, and the event venue was filled with a lively atmosphere.
AACC President Megan Nakano said, “This year’s theme, ‘Together for a Brighter Tomorrow,’ is a reminder that some of our communities may be dismissed as statistically insignificant, together, Asians are the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S. and cannot be ignored.”

    The eighth annual Heritage Japanese Language Speech Contest was held on February 4 at the Consulate General of Japan in Chicago’s Japan Information Center. Twenty contestants from Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin competed with their Japanese language skills. The titles of the speeches reflected the contestants’ multiple language and cultural backgrounds which made their speeches very interesting.

The "Taste of Japan in Chicago," an event showcasing sake and other Japanese flavors, was held on January 25 at the ballroom of the Art Institute of Chicago. Organized by JETRO Chicago, the event featured 21 tables set up with sake, umami dashi, seasonings, soy meat, Shizuoka melon, and more. Each table was staffed by sake brewers, food ingredient makers, importers, and distributors, who introduced their products to the visitors, encouraging them to taste and sample them. Sake expert Tona Palomino of the Breakthrough Beverage Group also gave a lecture on sake.

The 51st Annual Glass Show and Sale is coming to Chicago’s suburb on March 9 and 10. Hosted by the 20-30-40 Glass Society of Illinois, the Show is the second longest-running Depression Glass Show in the U.S. and the only once-a-year opportunity to see a variety of beautiful depression and elegant glassware and speaking with dealers in the show.

The Japanese American Community will host the Asian American Coalition of Chicago’s 41st Annual Lunar New Year Celebration on Saturday, February 10, 2024 at the Drury Lane in Oakbrook, Illinois. The members of The Chicago Japanese American Council (CJAC) have already made “Our Team 2024” and actively preparing the events where more than 1,000 Asian Americans from 16 Asian countries get together every year to strengthen the Asian American community.

A webinar “How to Make the Most of the Osaka-Kansai Expo” was held on January 18, and Sachiko Yoshimura, Director General of the Public Relations and Promotion Bureau, Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition, spoke about updates on the Expo 2025, Osaka, Kansai, Japan. It will be held from April 13, 2025, to October 13, 2025, for 184 days. The webinar was organized by the Japan America Society of Chicago.

The Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Chicago (JCCC) celebrated the 2024 New Year at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel in Schaumburg on January 14, featuring traditional rakugo performer Tozaburo Yanagiya as the special guest. About 530 JCCC members and guests attended the gathering and enjoyed Yanagiya’s performance, janken games, and big raffles.

The Taiko Legacy, performed by the Tsukasa Taiko, celebrated its 20th anniversary at the Edlis Neeson Theater of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago on December 17, 2023. Now the Taiko Legacy 20 has grown to a group of professional performers, who invite national and international musicians and performers, to present a conceptually diverse and dynamic musical performance.

A Nagasaki Hibakusha Delegation led by Masao Tomonaga visited Chicago and gave a presentation “Hibakusha: Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors’ Stories and Hopes for the Future” on November 14 at the Japan Information Center, Consulate General of Japan in Chicago. The delegation aimed to have first-hand dialogues with the people of the United States where many nuclear weapons were stored, and talked about the tragedy and inhumanity of the nuclear weapons and the importance of peace to the U.S. citizens, especially, young generations.

Mr. Ralph Fujimoto, a longtime Chicago resident whose efforts to promote business alliances between Japan and America made him a well-known figure in Chicago’s Japanese and Japanese American community, died on December 7, 2023, at his home in South Carolina where he lived with his second wife, Shirley.

   The Sankosha U.S.A., a leading company of commercial laundry and dry cleaning press machines, celebrated its 30th anniversary on November 15. At its office building located in the Chicago Northwest suburb of Elk Grove Village, the company had an open house to show its machines. It also invited its customers and supporters to a commemorative dinner at Shaw’s Crabhouse in Schaumburg.

The Chicago Japanese Club celebrated its 30th anniversary on November 4 at the Doubletree Hotel Arlington Heights, and about 100 people of guests, founding members, and past and present members attended. Vice President of CJC, Yuki Juretic, emceed the celebration, and its history video was presented to look back at its activities along with its mission.

The 45th Bank of America Chicago Marathon brought huge excitement both in Chicago and Japan. Everybody knows Kenia’s Kelvin Kiptum set a new world record 2:00:35 for the first time breaking 2:01 in a record-eligible marathon. From the other side of the glove, seven Elite Athletes from Japan competed in Chicago.

The World Business Chicago welcomed Masayoshi Matsumoto, Chairman of the Kansai Economic Federation, and hosted a welcome reception on October 5 at the Ivy Room, an event space right in the heart of Chicago's River North neighborhood. Many business people both from the Japanese side and the U.S. attended the networking event.

A pairing event on Japanese sake and cuisine, “Sake Gourmet, Embark on a Culinary Exploration across Japan,” was held on October 3 at the official residence of the Consul General of Japan in Chicago, Jun Yanagi. The event was hosted by the Consulate General of Japan in Chicago, and 40 industry professionals such as restauranteurs, liquor wholesalers, and liquor shop owners were invited.

Consul General Jun Yanagi and his wife Norika visited the Montrose Cemetery on September 29 to pay floral tribute to the ancestors who had pioneered to establishment of the Japanese-American community in the Chicago area.

The Montrose Cemetery on the north side of Chicago was only the cemetery that accepted burials of Japanese people amid a difficult time of severe racial discrimination in the 1900s.

The Grand Cru took place on the third day of the Chicago Gourmet at the rooftop of the Harris Theatre, where a crowd of wine and world cuisine fans gathered.

Taking advantage of the event circumstance, the Consulate General of Japan in Chicago and the Chicago Office of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) together introduced a variety of Japanese sake and matching Japanese cuisine.

A film screening of The Last Passenger was held at the Chicago Filmmakers on September 14, and its director Takashi Horie talked about the film. A full house of 85 audiences recalled the disaster, which happened on March 11, 2011, and thought about the minds of affected people both survived and dead.

Director Horie made the film to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Great Earthquake and Tsunami in the Tohoku Area, especially, around the City of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture where Horie was born.