Faculty members and students of the Japanese Program in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures recently participated in Japan Festival Boston for the first time.

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The first Japan Festival Boston was hosted in 2012, celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the gift of cherry blossom trees from Tokyo to Washington D.C., and has since grown to become the largest Japanese festival on the East Coast. This year’s edition of the festival, held April 25 and 26 on Boston Common, featured 80 booths and 24 food vendors and drew a record-breaking number of attendees.

Senior lecturers Reiko Sono and Yasuko Shiomi staffed the program’s booth on Saturday with one student volunteer. Sono returned on Sunday with three student volunteers. The booth displayed program brochures and offered a short cultural quiz, with buttons printed with “UMass” in Japanese awarded to participants. All 100 buttons were distributed on the first day and a total of 107 brochures were taken by visitors over the two days of the event.

The team spoke with prospective students at various stages of the college search process, including high school juniors beginning to explore options and seniors already admitted to UMass. Several were interested to learn that majoring in Japanese at UMass is a viable path, both academically and career-wise. One prospective student who had been considering environmental science and was deciding between UMass and Amherst College expressed interest in both attending UMass and studying Japanese.

The booth also received inquiries from adults interested in Japanese language courses and UMass alumni of both Amherst and other system campuses also visited the booth.

Student volunteers gained professional experience through the event. One student, enrolled in Prof. Sono's course, had the opportunity to discuss course material with visitors. Another made connections with UMass alumni.

Following this year’s success, the program’s leadership now plan to participate in Japan Fair Boston in future years.