contribute to various areas, including lifelong learning, tourism promotion, human development and the creation of a new industry. The Museum is also expected to contribute to cultural activities of local communities in various ways. The Museum has been attracting a great deal of attention as a pioneering project that provides an example that could be followed in other regions.
Another popular form of contemporary Japanese culture is “J-pop”, which is an abbreviation for Japanese pop. The term “J-pop” was first coined by a Japanese radio station, J-Wave. While it first merely differentiated classical and folk genres from new stars, the J-pop category has now outgrown itself. In Japan today, punk, rock, rap, and an eclectic array of mainstream stars can all fall under the J-pop category. A distinctive strain within J-pop is undoubtedly the unique, international flavor of several top female vocalists such as Utada Hikaru, Crystal Kay, MISIA, and Namie Amuro.
Japanese pop music sounds similar to Western pop music. The lyrics are mostly in Japanese; however, many songs celebrities of the J-pop scene are very popular and appear frequently in various television programs, and enjoy a certain popularity in other Asian countries.
J-pop began to be known all over the world since Japanese music industry became big enough to influence Japanese pop culture and young people. Music industry in Japan is now one of the biggest industries in the world and affecting the music scene in other countries. The basics of J-pop are made up from Japanese traditional music and folk music. Japanese music scene has been developed by Japanese artists and influences from overseas artists, mainly from U.S. and U.K. Japan has been importing other cultures, adjusting to them, and then even adding them into a part of Japanese culture since the opening of a country to western countries in 19 century. Even now, Japanese people are doing the same things as before, importing new music from overseas and changing them into a part of J-pop. Once the new music is rooted in Japanese music scene, they are no longer imported music. They are made in Japanese, by Japanese and for Japanese. They all are changed into Japanese flavors.
A MEMORABLE EVENING IN KOLKATA:
Celebration of the 101st Foundation Day,
Concluding Ceremony of the Japan-India Friendship Year,
and launching of “Gallerie” and “Eternal Bond”
Release of “Gallerie” by Mr. Noro Motoyoshi, Consul General of Japan, Kolkata
The Consulate General of Japan in Kolkata hosted an unforgettable event on the 16th of March, 2008. It was an evening dedicated to pay homage to the century-old endeavour of the Consulate General of Japan in Kolkata to promote diplomatic ties in eastern India, with a touch of aspiration for a glorious future with the successful culmination of the year-long “Japan-India Friendship Year” and a solemn promise of further consolidation of ties of friendship tying Japan and India in an “Eternal Bond”.
The Consulate General of Japan, one of the oldest diplomatic missions in India, was established on 16th March, in the year 1907, in Kolkata, and completed its 100th year in 2007. Besides, to commemorate the 50th year of the signing of the Cultural Agreement in 1957 between Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi of Japan and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, the Japanese Consulate in Kolkata organised 23 cultural programmes in 2007. These events encompassed a panorama of cultural manifestation in all its forms, that was highly appreciated by the people from all walks of life in Kolkata. Such coincidence of two major milestones of diplomatic ties between two Nations in the same year is a tryst of destiny and Divine Providence. The launching of the book “Eternal Bond”, a compilation of the speeches by Mr. Noro Motoyoshi, Consul General of Japan in Kolkata, addressed in this significant year, was a major highlight of this festive evening. This book is a memento of the multi-faceted aspects of Indo-Japan relations for posterity.
In the beginning, Congratulatory Messages from His Excellency Mr. Hideaki Domichi, the Ambassador of Japan in India, and the Hon’ble Governors of Orissa and West Bengal, were read out by Mr. Mitsuo Takamatsu, Deputy Consul General of Japan in Kolkata, and Messages of the Presidents of leading Japanese companies operating in
