In the Czech Republic, a wide variety of EU-Japan Year of People-to-People Exchanges events took place, with 74 in total, ranging from The Tale of Genji to anime, Gagaku (Japanese imperial court music) to rock music, and sumo to soccer. In the backdrop of these many events is the growing closeness of the relations between Japan and the Czech Republic in recent years, through high-level governmental exchanges (the visits to the Czech Republic by Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress in 2002, and by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan in 2003; the visit to Japan by Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek of the Czech Republic in 2005); the dynamic investment activities of Japanese companies (in five years the number of Japanese companies doing business in the Czech Republic has increased threefold to 160 companies); and the increase in the number of Japanese tourists to the Czech Republic (whose number has increased 1.5 times to 150,000 in five years).

The Year of Exchanges in the Czech Republic was opened with an energetic Japanese drum concert performed by Za Ondekoza. Tickets for this event were sold out a week after going on sale, and on the day of the concert, the concert hall was filled with crowds of spectators greatly thrilled by the group’s perfectly coordinated performance.

In the spring, Japanese and Czech sumo wrestlers held a fabulous sumo demonstration. A demonstration of matawari, where wrestlers sit with their legs in a straight line, drew exclamations of admiration for the flexibility of the wrestlers’ bodies, and a demonstration of uwatenage or "overarm throw" caused the 700 spectators to burst into applause for the wrestlers’ deft technique, through which a heavy wrestler could be easily thrown.

In autumn, an artistic stage performance by the Kikuno Kai, "Japan’s Dance—Tradition and Creation-", including Japanese drum, Kyogen (comedy played during Noh play) and Japanese folk dance, was held at the State Opera, Prague. The humor of the Kyogen play, "Bo-Shibari (Bar Binding)," created a sensation among the 1,000 spectators, while the excitement of the Awaodori dance brought the whole auditorium together as one.

As the closing event, Creative Tradition 2005, comprising Gagaku and Bugaku (Japanese imperial court music and dance), and Shomyo (Buddhist chanting), was held at Prague Castle with the audience of the First Lady of the Czech Republic Livia Klausova. It is of the greatest symbolic significance that the closing event of the Year of People-to-People Exchanges, representing a year of excitement, was held at Prague Castle, the residence of a long line of kings, including Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, and now the office of the President of the Czech Republic.