 Tomoyuki Honda
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| A resident of Calgary, Canada for 21 years. Graduated in Business from Mount Royal University and works as a financial planner at Sun Life, a Canadian financial company. As a director of the Calgary Japanese community hall, he is mainly in charge of events, handling everything from cultural exhibits at events across Calgary to the planning and running of events for the Nikkei community. In 2017 he founded YOSOCA, Calgary’s first Japanese Yosakoi team, and takes part energetically in events in and outside the city, including the Calgary Stampede Parade, the city’s largest fireworks festival, and the Japanese Festival. His hobby is creating something from nothing: when the team began, there were no Yosakoi goods or floats for the parade, so he cut naruko from a single board and designed and built the float himself. Though his years in Yosakoi are few, engaging with it from many angles — team logo, costume design, recording original songs, and writing lyrics — drew him to its appeal and led him to propose this festival. |
| Thoughts on hosting the festival |
| Rather than leaving culture to someone else, I’ll do it myself. Living in Canada, I feel especially keenly that in Japan, neighbourhood festivals, fireworks, and seasonal events happen as a matter of course — but this rests on the predecessors who gave their own time to make their towns better. The Japanese population of Canada is just 0.3%; in my city of Calgary there are only about 9,000 people including Nikkei. Even as the population grows, Nikkei festivals do not. So now it’s our turn to create more exciting events. My Yosakoi team — Japanese and Canadians, children and parents, whole families — practises and performs together for fun. I want to share this wonderful Yosakoi culture, which anyone can enjoy regardless of age, gender, or nationality, and spread it further across Canada and the world. Those two wishes led me to plan this festival. I’ll give everything I have in the time before it opens, to make it a festival brimming with excitement — one that becomes a spark for Yosakoi to spread across North America and the world. |
 Emiko Tanaka
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| A resident of Toronto, Canada, originally from Nagoya, Aichi. She began Yosakoi in earnest in 2008 and has since founded Yosakoi teams in Canada, Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria. In 2016 she was certified as a Kochi Yosakoi Ambassador and founded the world’s first international Yosakoi team, the “Kochi Yosakoi Ambassador Kizuna International Team.” Dancers from more than 20 countries have taken part, spreading the wonder of Yosakoi, Kochi, and Japan at festivals around the world. Appointed a Kochi Tourism Ambassador in 2019 and an Ino Town Tourism Ambassador in 2020, she shares Kochi’s appeal with the world. In 2020 she formed “Yosakoi 8” with seven choreographers connected to Kochi; their work reached a world worn down by the pandemic, and “Yosakoi 8” songs are still danced worldwide. Alongside her work spreading Yosakoi, she runs a language school as a Japanese and English teacher; the practice group she hosts has grown into a meetup of over 3,000 members. She devotes herself to supporting Japanese residents in Canada to build a bridge between the two countries. Her hobby is rock climbing; on days off she loves facing the wall. |
| Thoughts on hosting the festival |
| My life changed greatly when I met Yosakoi. Born in Nagoya, I moved to Canada at 29 — somehow 17 years ago now. In a foreign land, it was Yosakoi that supported me. Its magic is that, with a naruko in hand, everyone can connect heart to heart and become one, beyond differences of background, language, and culture. Thanks to Yosakoi I gained irreplaceable friends in Canada and around the world, and my life became richer in colour. Through those connections and friends, Canada became my second home. I believe there is something in common between the wonder of Canada — which embraces people from all over the world and respects diversity — and the appeal of Yosakoi, born in Kochi and loved in many forms across Japan and the world. Ever since founding the international team as a Yosakoi Ambassador, I had a dream: to hold a “Yosakoi festival in my beloved Canada.” That dream is about to come true here in Lethbridge. Through the North American International Yosakoi Festival, my wish is to spread the wonder of Yosakoi to Lethbridge, North America, and the world, and for this festival to become a bridge to Japan. I’ll give everything to make it a festival full of smiles, where the people of Lethbridge and people from North America, Japan, and around the world come together to the sound of the naruko. |
 Noboru Inoue
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| A resident of Shibuya, Tokyo. Completed graduate studies at Kochi University. He is involved in many facets of the “Yosakoi festival,” which originated in Kochi and spread nationwide: supporting the people who sustain local festivals, producing teams, planning and running festivals, supporting young teams, overseas expansion, judging, hosting, lecturing, and serving as a program commentator. Always focused on Yosakoi’s appeal and cultural value, he continually creates projects to elevate them. The team “Tenku Shinatoya Shin,” which he led for 13 years, has won many awards across Japan, including Kochi and Tokyo. He is now Vice-Representative and Producer of “Izuru,” a new team born under the concept of “changing the world through Yosakoi,” representative of the Harajuku Super Yosakoi official staff group “Piricoco,” advisor to the Indonesia Yosakoi All-Star, advisor to the Vietnam Yosakoi Festival, and an advisor to the Yosakoi festival in Toyama. |
| Thoughts on hosting the festival |
| Thanks to my great predecessors, I have witnessed many moments: how the Yosakoi festival born in Kochi gave rise to Sapporo’s YOSAKOI Soran Festival, and how Yosakoi festivals were then born across Japan. I feel Yosakoi spread throughout Japan because so many people brought together the “things they cherish” — love for their hometown, their own creativity, empathy for others — and met, recognized one another, and pushed each other to grow. The North American continent is about 50 times the area of Japan. Over the past 20 years, I’m told many Yosakoi teams have been born across the continent and danced in their own places. And now, with the North American International Yosakoi Festival, the chance has come for everyone to gather in one place — in Lethbridge, surrounded by wonderful nature and people. I hope this festival becomes an opportunity for North American dancers, and for the locals and guests who take part, to rediscover and notice the appeal of Yosakoi, and I look forward to walking that path together. |