A Culture City of East Asia is a city chosen in the 3 countries of Japan, China, and South Korea based on an agreement among the ministers of culture in these countries. Each city aims to develop culture and arts, and carries out a variety of cultural and artistic events related to diverse cultures of everyday life. This project strives to encourage the formation of mutual understanding and sense of community within East Asia, and strengthen the ability to communicate various cultures in East Asia to the world.
In addition, cities that have been chosen as a Culture City of East Asia take advantage of this project to work toward continuous development by leveraging cultural characteristics to promote culture and arts, creative industries, and tourism.
A Creative City is a city that utilizes creativity in culture and arts across areas such as regional and tourism/industry development to tackle the resolution of regional issues. This undertaking is being advanced in numerous cities around the world based on regional alliances. The City of Kitakyushu has also presented a plan to promote culture that utilizes culture and art in areas such as the regional economy, education, and welfare to encourage creative community development.
Having historically and geographically developed as the gateway to Asia, in addition to producing many cultural figures the City of Kitakyushu has endeavored to enrich an array of cultural facilities and advance culture and arts to form a rich cultural bedrock. Furthermore, the city has made the most of experiences such as overcoming pollution, and has conducted international technical cooperation and urban exchange with Asian cities many times over to foster exchange not only between governments, but also grassroots exchange between residents.
“Culture City of East Asia in Kitakyushu” brings together various artists, industries, and residents in East Asia and other places to the City of Kitakyushu to further deepen mutual understanding within East Asia, produce and develop new value, and contribute to peaceful progress through exchange, collaboration, and integration while fully eliciting the creativity of each. At the same time, the endeavor aims to realize the Creative City: Kitakyushu as a driving force for this project.
The official logo was determined by publicly calling for submissions from residents and accepting votes cast by approximately 13,000 people at locations that included various ward offices, branch offices, and elementary schools.
On the left side of the logo is the first letter of Kitakyushu, “K” that is styled after the textile called “Kokura-ori,” and on the right side is a blend of triangles in 3 colors that expresses the sharing of cultures from Japan, China, and South Korea, and exchange among people. The logo is configured on the concept of amiably joining and weaving together connections in all directions.
Due to the impact of COVID-19, the event period has been extended. The City of Kitakyushu will serve as the host city in 2021, and the event name has been changed to the “Culture City of East Asia 2020▶21 Kitakyushu.”
Moving forward with time, forming connections through sharing.
From past to present,
cultures that have fostered people continue to
transcend history and national borders to
be carried into the future through interpersonal communication.