Japan attracts travelers from all over the world. Among inbound Japan travelers, however, no European countries rank among the top 40. In fact, the number of European travelers to Japan are less than half those of China or even Thailand. Reasons include high travel costs, language barriers and the physical distance of over 10,000 kilometers (10 hours by plane). However, about 90% of Europeans who have visited Japan (spending about 2 weeks on average traveling throughout the country) are very satisfied and hope to return.

To increase the number of Europeans visiting Japan, we decided to give Europeans more opportunities to encounter Japanese culture.

Based on the concept "JAPAN – Where tradition meets the future", we held interactive events in which distant Japan came to five European countries: Spain, Germany, France, U.K. and Italy.

Visitors who stood in front of a huge LED screen would see themselves instantly appear life-sized wearing a traditional Japanese kabuki, maiko or samurai costume, which they could switch by pressing a button on the screen. We developed this AR system, which accurately reproduces authentic costumes in 3D and synchronizes their movement in real-time with the movement of participants using KINECT.

We held AR interactive vision events in 5 European countries – Spain (Madrid), Germany (Frankfurt and Munich), France (Paris), the U.K. (London) and Italy (Milan).

Each of the events in these 6 cities lasted for about 5 days and was located in a popular venue, such as Frankfurt Central Station, Milan's Central Station, La Défense in Paris (the city’s most attractive commercial facility), and FITUR in Madrid (Europe’s largest travel event, which attracted over 100,000 people).

Visitors to our AR interactive vision events could also experience a virtual trip to Japan at our VR experience booth.