For the first time in nearly two decades, Star Wars Celebration was held in Japan at Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba Prefecture. That event in 2008 really ignited my fandom but I honestly thought the language barrier would mean it stays predominantly in the USA with the occasional UK-based ones. “Star Wars is for everyone” is a well-used phrase but it certainly does favour the English-speaking audience so it would be interesting to see how things would work in the modern day compared to 17 years ago.

Very few tourists ever really came to Japan in 2008 and that Celebration event was very much a Japanese one for local fans of the franchise. Since re-opening its doors to international visitors a few years ago the country has seen a massive influx of international visitors. Being far more open to people from overseas and the growth in popularity of both Star Wars and the Celebration events since the Disney takeover meant the demographic of attendees would be hugely different on this occasion.

The scale of this 16th Celebration event was two or three times the size of the previous Japan incarnation in terms of venue space being used. It’s been reported that 105,000 visitors attended this time which is significantly higher than the 17,000 figure of 2008. Hoping to avoid inevitable long queues, save a bit of energy, reduce frustration and do my housework duties beforehand I decided to arrive at the nearest station about an hour after the 9:00 am opening.

Ticket gates at Kaihinmakuhari station

I collected my 3-day badge (basically an entry pass) to get in fairly smoothly but I still spent about half an hour in line till I finally hit the floor.

As expected I was instantly overwhelmed by it all. It’s so hard to know what to focus on when you arrive as, unlike ComicCon events, this was purely Star Wars and pretty much all of interest. The Nebuta (large, brightly coloured lantern-like floats) display was a nice touch near the entrance and a sign that, despite the dominance of non-Japanese attendees, it was actually taking place in Japan.

There’ll be no chronological order of events here as that would be incredibly messy so lets start with what turned out to be my one and only time at the main Celebration Stage which was located a little distance away from the seven halls of the conference center being used. I didn’t enter the lottery to see the four big feature presentations (The Mandalorian & Grogu, Andor, Ahsoka and Visions Volume 3) but was keen to attend Lucasfilm Animation’s 20th anniversary panel as I’ve been a big fan of all those shows (even Star Wars Resistance!) which I would never have guessed happening back in the day as I just didn’t watch animation!

When this event was announced two years ago I was worried about the flow of the interviews with constant interpretation being needed for the Japanese. However, that wasn’t the case this time where the whole thing was aimed at an international audience with many panels in English only and A.I. providing translations-of-sort on the big screens.

At the original Celebration Japan event I had no idea who director Dave Filoni was when he appeared on stage to talk about the upcoming ‘Clone Wars‘ (2008) movie. How times change! Along with Lucasfilm Vice President Athena Portillo, he was interviewed by lead sound designer David W. Collins with the highlight being the announcement of the next animation. ‘Maul Shadow Lord‘ was totally unexpected and we got to see the trailer twice!

For the last ten years this event has been streamed live on YouTube and attendees can have a pretty amazing time just hanging out at the Star Wars Live stage where plenty of big name guests can be seen up close. Knowing that I can watch it all later, I didn’t want to spend a huge amount of time there but often couldn’t resist it as I enjoy seeing the behind the scenes stuff you don’t see on the live feed.

Within moments of taking my place next to the Live stage a huge guest was introduced. None other than Ryan Gosling appeared as he will be in a new film called Star Wars: Starfighter which is coming in 2027. Those who had been at the Celebration stage earlier that morning would’ve already known about this but it’s hard to keep up with all the news when you’re actually there. I am a fan of his so it was amazing to be so close to such a fine actor.

A little later there was the surprise appearance of the legendary Sigourney Weaver who will be in ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu‘ movie next year.

The next guest I saw later in the afternoon was the wonderful Vanessa Marshall; the voice of Hera in ‘Star Wars Rebels‘. She is always a good listen as is the ever-excitable main host Anthony Carboni whose presenting style is very engaging. I’m not sure the A.I. could truly translate his musings accurately though!

At the aforementioned animation panel Sam Witwer (the voice of Darth Maul) appeared on stage at the end as the new Maul series was announced and he was the one who said character to play the trailer again. It was a great moment and he later appeared on the Live stage to be interviewed.

My original idea for the opening day was to attend a few panels but these things rarely plan out as desired and so the only other one I went to was ‘Star Wars in the 1990s‘ on the Fan Stage. Sadly I missed the first half of that 60 minute presentation and was actually quite surprised to be allowed in once it had started but people do come and go from such panels. It would’ve been nice to hear about the first half of that decade as it was a lean time for fans before picking up towards the end of the 90s.

The reason I missed most of that panel was that I was waiting in line a lot longer than expected for my photo opportunity with Ashley Eckstein who is the voice of fan favourite Ahsoka Tano. She is quite an inspirational lady who is a great ambassador for Star Wars and a great advocate for mental health so I really wanted to meet her even though I knew it’d only be for a few seconds before our picture was taken.

In the past I’ve walked into such situations confidently but this time I became rather shy and couldn’t say what I wanted to say instead just delivering some generic greetings. She really puts her heart and soul into each and every one of her hundreds of meet-ups and really was so nice to me and the people ahead of me in line. She complimented me on my great t-shirt which I basically bought for this photo!

In terms of props there were a few right next to the Live stage with the most impressive for me being the X-Wing starfighter.

There was also a large tie-fighter, a bantha and a dewback you could even sit on (there was always a long line!) which I don’t seem to have taken a photo of!

My days of cosplaying at such conventions may be long over but I do love seeing the hundreds and hundreds of attendees who go to great lengths to dress up as their favourite characters. Here is a selection of some of the best ones I managed to capture on camera on the opening day!

Passing the specialist kids area I noticed there was a chance to meet Nubs from the Star Wars kids TV show ‘Young Jedi Adventures‘. Admittedly I’ve never seen that show but pounced on the opportunity as it was about to end. I was indeed the very last person on that day to meet him so wasn’t depriving some poor kid of the opportunity! What a moment it was!

When it comes to cuteness in Star Wars though, Grogu has to be number one. Since his introduction in the first season of ‘The Mandalorian‘ in 2019 he has won the hearts of so many whether they like the sci-fi saga or not.

There was even a specialist store devoted to Grogu but I never bothered joining the queue for that particular space.

I guess the original adorable characters were the Ewoks from ‘Return of the Jedi‘ (1983)  and there was a giant cuddy Ewok outside one of the shops.

Even Jabba the Hutt can make for a fairly cute figure these days!

Lego Star Wars is a different type of cute and collecting the various sets, spaceships and characters is big business for many …. especially Lego themselves who make a fortune from it no doubt! I managed to catch a live panel hosted by James Burns who I’m aware of from previous conventions and podcasts.

There were a couple of Lego props for photo opportunites such as Vader with a lego helmet and a speeder-bike.

The previous two seasons of ‘Star Wars Visions‘ have had a very big Japanese influence, and there were many exhibits relating to that show.

So that was how my first day of Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025 unfolded but that was to be just one third of my overall experience. What I did on day 2 can be seen here.

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