NAGASAKI (Kyodo) Toshiyuki Hayashi, a second-generation Chinese immigrant in Nagasaki, has a lot of "tourism charisma."
Hayashi is the originator of the Nagasaki Lantern Festival, an annual Chinese New Year's festival that drew 920,000 tourists in 2007.
Hayashi's idea of hanging up 200 to 300 Chinese red lanterns over the local Chinatown has eventually developed into a major event with dragon dances and 15,000 shiny lanterns, a popular tourist attraction now widely known across the country.
The old city of Nagasaki saw a sharp decline in visitors in the 1990s, which prompted officials to ask Chinese residents to expand the lantern festival started by Hayashi in 1987.
A bigger version was launched in 1994, which attracted 150,000 tourists to the city.
Given the impressive success of the lantern festival, the central government has selected Hayashi as one of its "Tourism Charismas" to help promote local tourism.
"I didn't think of anything ambitious, like attracting tourists," he said.
Hayashi is one of three brothers who run a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown.
Lamenting the loss of Chinese ambience in Chinatown in recent years, one of Hayashi's brothers started a fundraising campaign to build four Chinese gates, which were completed in 1986.
"That was my starting point" of starting the Chinese New Year's festival, Hayashi said.
The Lantern Festival this year also featured a Chinese lion dance, circus, parades and a night market. The 2010 festival will be held from Jan. 26 through Feb. 9.
