Hokkaido Toyako Summit

The WUB Uchinanchu Festival Opening Ceremony

Since as many as 360,000 Okinawans live outside of their home prefecture, Okinawa Prefecture is attempting to build a network of links to places all over the world. As a part of this effort, the prefecture organizes the World Uchinanchu Festival, in which Okinawan people who have gone out into the wider world are invited to gather in their home prefecture once every five years.

In addition, by capitalizing on its geographical position, which is relatively closer than the rest of Japan to most other Asian and Pacific countries, its natural characteristics such as its subtropical and maritime climate, and its historical characteristics including its rich cosmopolitanism, Okinawa is nurturing and strengthening its many different ties with the Asia Pacific Region.