Nippon 2007 Worldcon Bid

A great WorldCon has great fans, great events and activities and a great location. Nippon 2007 promises all of these.

The Nippon 2007 WorldCon bid is very exciting and holds a lot of promise. If you have been to one of the Nippon 2007 bid parties over the past three years you know how gracious and enthusiastic the Japanese fans are. The Federation of Science Fiction Fan Groups of Japan has decided to combine the Japan SF Convention for 2007 with Nippon 2007 WorldCon.

This will bring about an interesting combination of Japanese SF fans with fans from other countries. There are already over 1,100 Pre-supporting members. These members come not just from Japan, USA and Canada but also the UK, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands. This is a great opportunity to have a truly international WorldCon.

Japan is known for its Anime. Tokyo is not far away and is the home of the famous Akihabara "Electric Town" where Anime DVDs and computer games abound. For those interested in comics and graphical novels the Jimbo-Cho is close to the convention complex and has a large number of dealers in Manga. In addition to the usual WorldCon events there is the opportunity for cultural adventures outside of Science Fiction fandom. The giant bronze Great Buddha statue in Kamakura and other sights of both ancient and modern Japan are available.

The site for Nippon 2007 is the Pacifico Yokohama Convention Complex located in Yohohama. This facility has already been the site of two major Japanese SF conventions and thus there is a familiarity between the site and the Japanese SF community. The Complex consists of the The National Convention Hall (3200-5000 seats), the Conference Center, the Exhibition Hall (20,000 Square Meters), the Annex Hall and the Yokohama Grand Intercontinental Hotel. In addition there are numerous other hotels nearby. Within a 10 minute walk are the Yokohama Museum of Art and Yokohama Maritime Museum as well as other attractions in the Minato Mirai 21 area. See http://www.pacifico.co.jp/index-e.html for more information on the site. The Yokohama area and the Pacifico Yokohama is served by many trains and subways and there are many connections from Haneda Airport.

Much of the information from this article is from the bid website: http://www.nippon2007.org/eng/e_main.html; please visit it for more information.