2017 marks the 60th anniversary of Japan and Malaysia’s business collaboration.
To celebrate the long-standing relationship between the two countries, IME Malaysia, Toybox Projects and Ishida Taiseisha Inc are bringing over several pop artistes from Japan for a unique cross culture performances together with Malaysia’s very own artistes.
Dubbed as “Japan x Malaysia Friendship Concert 2017”, the concert will be held on Saturday, 23 September 2017 at the Sunway Surf Beach, Sunway Lagoon, as it aims to introduce the various types of music genres to the bigger market, and to deepen the relationship between the two countries as well as their artistes.
The first-wave line-up of performers for the exciting festival has already been announced, and Harajuku dance rock outfit, An Café, as well as electro-rap duo, Charisma.com, from Japan will be performing in Malaysia for the first time ever.
An Café, short for Antic Café, is known among Harajuku and Visual kei fashion fans for their oshare kei image, which is a basically a version of visual kei and is seen as the most fashionable and cutting edge of the styles as it mixes a lot of different patterns, bright colours and punk elements to create a unique look.
Meanwhile, Charisma.com which consists of MC Itsuka and DJ Gonchi, is known for speaking out on the rights of the working world and society through their songs – which is understandable because even though they’re performers, in real life, they are working as independent office ladies.
On the Malaysian side, iconic pop rock trio Bunkface will also be performing at the event. The band previously represented Malaysia at Japan’s annual rock festival Summer Sonic Tokyo 2015 and they event went to the Ishikawa prefecture for the promotional travelogue of the festival.
Many of the scenes from their travel were included in the music video of their hit song, “Darah Muda”.
Furthermore, up and coming musical band Fazz, known for their fun and jazzy tunes will also be part of the line-up. The band previously performed at the Haneda International Anime Music Festival 2015 in Tokyo, and had toured Tokyo in 2016.
More performers will be announced for the music festival, so stay tuned for the second-phase line up!
Other than Friendship Concert, there is also Japan Expo Malaysia event going on in conjunction with Malaysia-Japan of’s 60 years diplomatic relationship.