5th OKINAWA INTERNATIONAL MOVIE FESTIVAL

On the 6^th of November 2012, Tuesday, we held a conference for the inauguration of the “Ginowan cheering squad for the Okinawa International Movie Festival” at the Ginowan City Hall in Okinawa prefecture.

At the conference, the officers of the cheering party included Mr. Takaesu, who has assumed the head of the party, the Mayor of Ginowan City Mr. Atsushi Sakima as the adviser, Mr. Kiyotaka Fukuzato, the Chairman of The Ginowan City Society of Commerce and Industry as the sub-head of the group, and from the Okinawa International Movie Festival, the Chairman of the Executive Committee and President of Yoshimoto Kogyo, Mr. Hiroshi Osaki. Ms. Tamako Miyagawa, who is representing the comedians for promoting the festival, also attended.

The Ginowan Cheering Squad has been formed by the members of the corporate juridical members from The Ginowan City Tourism Promotion Association, Ginowan City Society of Commerce and Industry and other authorities of Ginowan City.  

The leader Mr. Takaesu said “I’d like to ask that not only residents of Ginowan City, but people from Okinawa prefecture and from home and abroad become the members of the squad. The activities of the squad are in 3 sections: a publicists section to promote by placards and hand out posters and flyers, a volunteers section to help in various way for the management of the event, and a merchandise development section to create, produce and sell collaboration goods of Yoshimoto comedian’s characters.”

Besides this explanation of the basic directions of the squad, he has expressed the aspiration: “From now on, with the squad at the central, the partnership from the authorities, organizations and people in the cities, we’d like to make preparations to let citizens cheer on the movie festival more actively, and encourage it together as the home place, Ginowan City, of the Okinawa International Movie Festival.”

The Mayor Mr. Atsushi Sakima, who is the adviser, said “the administration will entirely support the Okinawa International Movie Festival held in the west coast area of Ginowan City, and not only during the festival term, we’d like to organize various projects in collaboration with Yoshimoto and Ginowan City throughout the year.”

And the mayor added “therefore, not only for OIMF, for the aim to let Ginowan to be active and the whole Okinawa to be active from Ginowan, we’d like to look for the opportunity to realize the project such as ‘the Framework of Yoshimoto Town’ (*1) with the consultation of Yoshimoto Kogyo.”

In his speech, Mr.Osaki spoke with a big smile as he announced, “we’ve started the movie festival in Okinawa with the hope that the festival will be loved from locals in Okinawa. The residents in Ginowan city have accepted it with pleasure and in the 5^th festival as a turning point, they have formed the cheering squad and made our dream come true. We’d like to make it the best dream in the world.”

He also explained his further dream after receiving the words from Mayor Mr. Sakima. “Yoshimoto Kogyo also has the idea for ‘the framework of Okinawa Entertainment Village’(*2), we are eager to realize it together with people in Okinawa prefecture.”

*1 “The Framework of Yoshimoto Town” is a project that Ginowan City and Yoshimoto are developing the whole year, not only for the OIMF, but with the aim to create entertainment continuously in the downtown of Ginowan, and let the city be active, the citizen’s life substantial, and activate the whole of Okinawa from Ginowan City as the goal.  

*2 “The Framework of Okinawa Entertainment Village” is a new idea that Yoshimoto Kogyo is designing in Okinawa prefecture. It aims to build elements such as “the place where creators and human resources involved the entertainment industry get together, live and create with communication between them”, “the place where young people who intend to be active in the entertainment industry in the future learn from established teachers”, “the place where people present accomplishments created at the site at its theater facility, and introduce high-quality entertainment from national and international acts”, all realized with specific business plans for an “open school”, “the development and presentations of new contents and human resources in the prefecture” and more.

In the future planning, to create an “Entertainment Village” as the tourism strategy scheme in cooperation with the tourism and cultural industries in the region, we’d like to send out a new visions of Okinawa to residents and people from outside, and also to establish a sustainable “Okinawa tourism brand” based on Okinawa’s nature and traditional culture.