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Speech by Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro Aso




　World Cosplay Summit 2003
 
The “World Cosplay Summit 2003” was held in October and was the inaugural year of the event.
3 countries from abroad (Italy, Germany, France) participated and a total of 5 international cosplayers took part. Not only was the event covered by all major networks in Japan, it was also broadcast internationally. In Italy alone articles about the event appeared in 5 of the major newspapers. Along with the event in 2003, Terebi Aichi broadcast the program “Manga wa Sekai no Kyotsugo” (Manga: Common Language of the World). This special production presented the popularity of Manga and Anime around the world and showed the personal lives of cosplayers from different countries.

　World Cosplay Summit 2004
 
In the second year of the event it was moved to the month of July in the summer. This year 2 cosplayers from 4 countries besides Japan took part (Italy, Germany, France, USA) coming to a total of 8 cosplayers from abroad. Osu, a district of Nagoya where young and old come to shop at its hundreds of stores is also famous for its shrines, temple and electronics shops. This was the backdrop for the cosplay parade, mixer event and a final stage performance. In particular the cosplay parade attracted a large crowd as around 100 cosplayers from Japan and around the world walked through the bustling, covered lanes of Osu.

　World Cosplay Summit 2005
 
The Cosplay Summit in 2005 essentially took place in 2 locations. One was in Osu where the cosplay parade, mixer event and stage performance were held on July 31st. The other event being the Cosplay Championship was held on August 7th in the Expo Dome at the Aichi Expo site.
The Cosplay Championship event on August 7th was a first for the Cosplay Summit. The competitors were selected to compete in 2 categories - group and individual - with 7 countries competing (Italy, Germany, France, Spain, USA, China, Japan) with a grand total of 40 cosplayers.
MCs for the event were the popular TV talent Tomoe Shinohara and Toru Furuya, voice actor for Amuro Ray in the Mobile Suit Gundam series. The judges included Reiji Matsumoto and Hironobu Kageyama who is the creator of the theme song for Dragon Ball Z. The 3000 seat Expo Dome was full for the event and over 40 national and international media crews covered the event.
The winner of the individual event was the Italian representative, Giorgia Vecchini. The French group won the group event and the grand champion winner was the Italian team.