Since 1999, there have been 15 Star Wars Celebration events. The majority of them have been in the USA with four in Europe and just a solitary one in Asia. That latter was held in Japan at Makuhari-Messe (Chiba) between the 19th and 21st of July in 2008 and I was lucky to be attendance, not that I knew what a Star Wars Celebration event was as this was a time before my fandom had really taken off. Things were never the same again for me after this event.

Since 2015, the Star Wars Celebration events (mostly in the USA) have all been streamed live on YouTube, and have grown and grown each year with it being the ideal opportunity to promote a load of new material to fans. However, 15 years ago there was no sign of a Disney takeover and the third and final prequel movie had been released three years earlier.

On the horizon though was an animation film called ‘The Clone Wars‘ which was being promoted fairly heavily at this convention. Director Dave Filoni may be quite well-known now for his work on this show as well as ‘Rebels‘, ‘The Mandalorian‘, ‘The Book of Boba Fett‘ and so on but back then very few of us knew who he was when he was being interviewed on one of the Main Stage panels about what was a ground-breaking animation that spawned fan favourite Ahsoka Tano.

The Main stage and the Japan fan & Collectors Stage both had about half a dozen panels  each day and the first one on the former when I was in attendance featured David Prowse (Darth Vader) and Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) but my friend in the force Gideon and I were pretty shocked when we rocked up just before the start and couldn’t get in! Lesson learned! We didn’t make any mistakes for the aforementioned ‘Clone Wars‘ panel or ‘Skywalking with Mark Hamill’.

Mark Hamill may have done many Celebrations since this one but back then he was new to it all and seeing him interviewed on stage was far from the entertaining and polished experience it became in later years. Firstly, Hamill does not really need an interviewer which did eventually become the case in latter years. Also, he took a while to get going and give the audience what they wanted but when he did say something funny or interesting it was mostly met by silence and the flow of his interesting stories and anecdotes was inevitably ruined by the need for interpretation every 30 seconds or so. Of course I know that that can’t be helped though!

Photo opportunities didn’t exist at such conventions in 2008 as smartphones and selfies were just not a thing. There were 15 actors and actresses signing autographs with a range of different prices for each one depending on their star power. Getting Mark Hamill to sign something of yours cost a whopping 20,000 yen but in the modern day you can expect to pay more than double that for either an autograph or a photo opportunity.

It was almost a late afterthought to get a signed picture, and the cheapest options were 3,500 yen. Jake Lloyd has sadly had some personal problems since but 15 years ago the line to meet him was one of the longest. Gideon and I basically chose him because we both liked the iconic photograph of him and his Vader shadow on the Lars Homestead exterior in Tatooine. I was more of a fan of his role as Jamie in the Christmas classic ‘Jingle All The Way‘ (1996), and it was good to be able to chat to him for a bit and also get a photo with our own cameras. Such a thing could certainly not happen now!

Looking back now I do kind of wish I had been a bit more frivolous and paid to meet two or three more stars such as the actors behind Shaak Ti and Admiral Ackbar (below) as you really could spend a bit of time with them which is unlikely to happen in the present day where things are more regulated.

For the record, Gideon and I only bought VIP passes a week before the event for 7,500 yen which you’d certainly not be able to do now as all the tickets sell out quickly. We didn’t really know what benefits the VIP pass would give us but it turned out we didn’t have to wait in line for merchandise (there were many exclusive Celebration collectibles on sale) which wasn’t of such benefit to us. The only thing we bought were Celebration Japan towels, and they were purchased towards the end of the day when there were no queues!

Other exhibits included ‘The Vader Project’ featuring “edgy variations on the iconic Darth Vader helmet” which was an interesting and novel idea.

There was also a Family Fan Area and a Jedi Training Stage for aspiring young Jedi’s to learn the ways of the force and take on the challenge of Vader in a series of choreographed moves. A shame I wasn’t much, much younger!!

Specially built photo sets included the Millennium Falcon, Snowspeeder, Speederbike, Jabba’s Palace and the Dewback from ‘A New Hope‘ (1977) which came with a Japanese Slave Leia.

I should add that I originally began compiling this post before it was announced that Celebration Japan II would be happening in April 2025. “Star Wars is for everyone” is a well-used phrase but it certainly does favour the English-speaking audience so it was quite a shock as I really did think the language barrier would mean it stays predominantly in the USA with the occasional UK-based ones.

Things have changed a lot in the 15 years since the last one where the vast majority of those in attendance were Japanese. With the majority of cast and crew being English-speaking it does all sound like a bit of a logistical nightmare but we do have to remember that this is likely to be a Japanese celebration of Star Wars and an event for the local fans.

I have since met a few people who were at this event but I didn’t know at the time such as Oki who has featured a few times on the Live YouTube coverage with usual hosts Anthony Carboni and Andi Gutierrez. It’s really hard to imagine Celebration Japan II having such  coverage in English as constant translation would really ruin the former’s onstage act as you’ve just gotta let him do his thing and go off-script.

Very few tourists ever really came to Japan in 2008 but these days the country is flooded by international visitors. It’s far more open to people from overseas and both Star Wars and the Celebration events have grown and grown since the Disney takeover. It’ll be interesting to see what it’s all like as there are sure to be far more foreign guests than before, and double the time will be needed on the stages which really doesn’t lend itself to a smooth or efficient production.

Those who cannot understand Japanese (and I guess those who don’t speak English!) will really need to be patient during the panels when the interpreting is taking place. Or maybe it’ll just be best to avoid such a thing and use the time to explore the floor and meet and chat to the various exhibitors and cosplayers. Doing that was indeed great fun at Celebration Japan in 2008.

As I said in the opening paragraph, this was an event which changed my fandom from being someone who just watched the films to a guy that travelled around the world to find filming locations plus collecting figures, cosplaying and attending other exhibitions and conventions.

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