Held across the country in the years before and after the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, Junko Kawamura, president of Japan Arts Council, is confident that the Japan Cultural Expo will offer a great opportunity for people from Japan and abroad to appreciate and learn about the blessing of nature found in traditional food, clothing, housing and arts that have endured since ancient times.

The expo, co-organized by the Japan Arts Council and the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan, is themed "Humanity and Nature in Japan" and consists of hundreds of programs, broadly covering history, life and culture from the prehistoric Jomon Period (circa 10,000 B.C. to circa 300 B.C.) to the present.

"I hope Japan's view of nature and the attitude of respecting all living things will be shared globally," Kawamura said in an interview at her office located inside the National Theatre's complex.