Japan Expo Paris 2025 Report

Date: 2025 July 20 15:41

Posted by Joe

France is the largest manga market in Europe, accounting for around 50% of all manga sales in Europe. As a result the French anime and manga scene is massive. Many people enjoy France's thriving Bande dessinée culture of comics, but Japanese manga and culture is also very popular in France.

With this in mind, we decided to visit Japan Expo in Paris. It's an event purely focused on Japanese culture, featuring anime and manga, video games, Japanese food and traditional Japanese culture. The July 2025 event attracted 230,000 visitors making it the third largest event in France for visitors per day! Having experienced the London event scene many a time we were keen to explore what the colossal French event looked like.

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When we got to Japan Expo it was clear that it was a well oiled machine. The entry process was quick and efficient. Once we got through the speedy security and ticket checks, we were in the huge event halls of Paris Nord Villepinte. The Expo itself is divided into clear logical zones, once we were in it was time to explore!


Photo Credit - Joe Curzon

This year's headline guests were horror manga maestro Junji Ito; acclaimed anime director Kazuya Tsurumaki; and DISCIPLES(REDICE STUDIO) the artist behind the Solo Levelling WebToon.


Photo Credit - Justine Van Mastrigt

As Junji Ito was one of headline guests of honour, there was a big gallery to showcase his work, with the history of the manga artist and many gruesome examples of artwork on display. The gallery included a haunted house type alley you walk along and horrors from his stories flash up and scare you.

The video game area was dominated by a big Nintendo area promoting the Switch 2 and Mario Kart World. There was a Nintendo pop-up shop where you can buy special Nintendo merchandise such as t-shirts, key-rings and other fun stuff.

Streaming giants Crunchyroll had a big presence with various fun activities and with free goodies for subscribers. Gachiakuta was one of the main titles promoted this time around.

There were plenty of stalls selling merchandise, such as figures and little blind box sets from popular series. They were mostly grouped together in their own merchant's area.


Photo Credit - Joe Curzon

In the artists village lots of independent artists were showcasing and selling their own artwork. Several artists had display cards listing which languages they could speak (e.g. English and French, French and Chinese, etc). We spotted several artists we recognised from the UK scene.


Photo Credit - Joe Curzon

The manga section of Japan Expo was colossal. France is the biggest manga market in Europe and we could see that from the selection. The major French manga publishers dominated with shelves and tables stacked high with this seasons favourites. Smaller independent publishers were also present too. Some publishers had exclusive editions or were selling things ahead of release date. Some had deals where if you bought several books you'd get a bit of merchandise such as a tote bag. All the manga sold here is French. With the more popular releases French manga can be one or two volumes ahead of the English language release. There are many titles that have yet been licensed for English available in France too.

There were stalls selling books and manga in Japanese. We enjoyed browsing a wide variety of artbooks, spending our time deciding which one to bring back to remember the event.


Photo Credit - Joe Curzon

Those in need of lunch were not overlooked, with a food section selling popular Japanese street food, from okonomiyaki, yakitori, sushi and more. It was tricky to choose what to eat as we felt spoilt for choice. If you were looking for Bubble Tea they had you covered with numerous stalls offering different twists on the drink.


Photo Credit - Laurent Ducassou

There was a Wabi-sabi area filled with a market of Japanese crafts and small Japanese independent businesses selling various things. There were many examples of traditional Japanese culture, crafts and demos going on throughout the expo. We particularly enjoyed browsing the rich kimono fabrics.

Across the multiple stages there were J-Pop performances, martial art demonstrations, panels with the guests, and industry panels too. There's so much to do during the whole convention.


Photo Credit - Joe Curzon

Cosplay was well represented with the ECG Finals held at Japan Expo. Various cosplay groups had displays and workshops running throughout the weekend.

The event was easy to navigate, even for people who weren't French speakers. The Japan Expo Website and app are available in English, where you can access a map of the halls along with a schedule. Signage is in French and English in most places at the event too.


Photo Credit - Christopher Kibali

Japan Expo itself is at Paris Nord Villepinte the largest exhibition centre in France. It's easy to get to; you can fly in from Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, and then take a train or taxi from the airport. If you're coming in from Eurostar, Gard Du Nord is train ride away from the Paris Nord Villepinte station. There are plenty of hotels a short bus or taxi ride away. The whole area is very walk able too.

We had a great weekend and returned home with a big bag of treasures! We will definitely be looking to visit again.