Handmade in Japan Festival 2025 is Japan’s largest creator event, taking place on July 19th and 20th at Tokyo Big Sight. Over 3,000 artists from across the nation will gather to showcase diverse handmade works including accessories, traditional crafts, art, and food.
This article provides a comprehensive overview of the event schedule, exhibitor information, tickets, and the latest trends to watch. It’s the perfect event for anyone wanting to experience the magic of craftsmanship.
Table of Contents
What is Handmade in Japan Festival 2025? Complete Overview of This Year’s Highlights
*Promotional video from last year (2024)
Handmade in Japan Festival (HandMade In Japan Fes) is Japan’s largest handmade event operated by Creema. Taking place on July 19th (Saturday) and 20th (Sunday), 2025 at Tokyo Big Sight West Halls 1 & 2, approximately 3,000 creators from across Japan will exhibit their works.
Featuring accessories, fashion goods, traditional crafts, art, handmade food, plus workshops and live painting sessions, the festival offers diverse content where visitors can expect to “experience creativity with all five senses.”
The 2025 edition features a completely renewed venue layout and logo design, evolving into a more sophisticated festival under the theme of “experiences where sensibilities intersect.”
Why the Largest Ever 1,500 Creative Groups Are Gathering
Handmade in Japan Festival 2025 will feature the largest scale ever with approximately 3,000 creators (total over two days) scheduled to exhibit. Carefully selected creators from across the nation through applications will gather to showcase and sell their original works.
The market area has been reorganized into “Accessories & Fashion” and “Interior & Lifestyle” sections, creating a genre-free environment where visitors can discover creative works. Additionally, the festival offers enriched experiential content including workshops, live painting, and music & comedy stages, going beyond simple exhibition and sales to provide “dialogue and experiences with creators” – the secret to its popularity. As a place to genuinely feel creativity, the event maintains extremely high satisfaction rates among both creators and visitors.
“MeetNewCraft” – 2025’s Concept and Theme Colors
This year’s Handmade in Japan Festival adopts “MeetNewCraft” as its main concept. This represents a space for encountering new crafts beyond conventional boundaries, conveying diversity and innovation.
While the annual theme color isn’t officially specified, the logo and venue design are unified with “sophisticated accent colors” that highlight creator individuality, creating a refined atmosphere. Continuous visual updates on the official Instagram and press releases reflect a design approach focused on “sensory stimulation spaces,” intentionally creating a trendy aesthetic.
SDGs × Handmade: Focus on Recycled Materials & Upcycled Works
Handmade in Japan Festival has increasingly featured SDGs-conscious exhibitors and projects in recent years, with this trend accelerating in 2025. Last winter saw attention-grabbing upcycled works using discarded carpets, fishing nets, and fabric scraps as materials, and the “recycled materials × craft” theme continues strong in summer 2025.
Notable creators including “RELOW,” “YUTAmade,” and “ALLIANCE FOR THE BLUE” will display bags and accessories made from repurposed used denim, fishing nets, and paper scraps. Participatory workshops offer “learning from material sources” themed experiences, allowing visitors to create works from waste materials.
These initiatives position the festival not merely as a sales venue, but as an educational space where consumers and creators together become conscious of “ethical craftsmanship,” earning recognition for this approach.
Event Overview and Schedule
Handmade in Japan Festival 2025 focuses not only on exhibitions and sales but also on overall venue composition, daily event programs, and digital support for visitors. This year particularly features renewed area maps and improved visitor flow design, with innovations throughout to enhance the visitor experience quality. Here we organize practical information from basic venue details to daily stage programs and convenient official app features to help you smoothly enjoy the event.
Different Stage & Workshop Configurations for Day 1 and Day 2
A highlight of Handmade in Japan Festival is the different program configurations between days 1 and 2. While creator exhibitions and market displays continue both days, stage performances and workshop content change daily, allowing for new discoveries even when visiting both days.
Particularly in the West Hall’s “Music & Play Area,” artist stages differ each day, with day 1 featuring music and day 2 potentially switching to comedy and talk events. Traditional craft to ethical craft workshops also change content daily, efficiently utilizing reservation-based and same-day registration options.
Real-time Crowd Information and Live Streaming via Official App
This year, the official smartphone app enables real-time visitor crowd status checking, allowing dynamic routing adjustments to avoid lines at popular booths. Additionally, some talk sessions and live painting at special venue stages (such as the atrium) will be live-streamed through the app.
Visitors can enjoy from any location via smartphone from a participant’s perspective, sharing information with remote fans joining online. This digital integration represents a new initiative considering current circumstances, enhancing overall festival experience value by combining on-site and online participation.
Must-See! 2025 Trending Exhibition Areas
Handmade in Japan Festival 2025 features multiple areas showcasing “new currents worth watching” that reflect contemporary values and technological innovations, alongside traditional popular categories. Updated works in materials, techniques, and concepts attract visitor attention while providing exhibitors with a valuable platform to demonstrate next-generation craft possibilities.
Here we introduce notable areas embodying “next-generation technology,” “traditional reinterpretation,” and “gentle living” that are particularly newsworthy at the 2025 festival.
Next-Generation Craft Area
The Next-Generation Craft Area brings together creators exhibiting works using bioplastics and 3D printing technology. This field particularly sees increasing attempts to balance environmental impact reduction with creative expression.
For example, 3D printer molding using bio-derived materials enables lightweight, precision accessories and goods, with creators able to handle everything from sample production to commercialization themselves.
Latest 3D technology enables complex structures at low cost, and combined with bioplastics, offers potential solutions to plastic waste problems. This fusion of technology and materials represents an important trend elevating craft to the next stage.
Traditional Craft Update Area
The Traditional Craft Update Area features numerous creators applying Japanese traditional techniques like lacquer, indigo dyeing, and Japanese paper to modern products. For example, past festivals saw the Amami Indigo Research Association using “Amami indigo” to conduct on-site workshops dyeing sneakers and bags, gaining popularity as new expressions incorporating traditional techniques into daily life.
Works utilizing Japanese paper for lighting and accessories, fusing traditional materials with contemporary lifestyles, are also abundant, earning high support from domestic and international visitors as designs that incorporate artisan skills while blending into everyday life.
Kids & Baby “Gentle Materials” Corner
Debuting this year, the Kids & Baby area features items made from skin-friendly, high-safety natural materials.
Examples include baby wear using organic cotton and bamboo fiber, teething toys with silicone and wooden parts, and craft-style fabric toys optimized for child-rearing families. Beyond handmade warmth and security, these products also incorporate allergy considerations and environmental perspectives. The venue also offers parent-child craft experience sessions, providing creative shared time while contributing to children’s sensory development, making this a notable area.
These three areas feature exhibitions with “experiential, co-creative, future-oriented” perspectives advancing beyond the traditional “see and buy” model, bringing fresh wind to Handmade in Japan Festival 2025.
Handmade in Japan Festival Ticket Information & Money-Saving Purchase Guide
Ticket purchases offer diverse options including not only day-of tickets but also advance tickets, student discounts, and family passes. Understanding price differences and benefits of each plan enables more cost-effective event enjoyment.
We’ll also detail methods for obtaining coupons and novelties through official app integration, plus timing for purchasing popular workshop-included tickets.
Advance Tickets, Day-of Tickets, Student Discounts & Family Pass Details
Handmade in Japan Festival 2025 offers multiple admission ticket types, with elementary school students and younger admitted free.
Main categories and prices are as follows:
- Advance ticket (1-day): ¥1,300 (tax included)
- Day-of ticket (1-day): ¥1,500 (tax included)
- Advance both-days ticket: ¥2,000 (tax included)
- Day-of both-days ticket: ¥2,500 (tax included)
Official ticket information
https://hmj-fes.jp/en
Advance tickets have decreasing sales periods, so early purchase is recommended. Student discount tickets may also be available, offering discounts upon student ID presentation.
For family passes, family-unit admission fee discounts may be available, so please check the official website or ticket sales page for latest information.
Get Limited Coupons & Novelties Through Official App Integration
Installing the official app provides various benefits from pre-visit after ticket purchase. Limited-time coupons distributed through the app can be used for venue dining and merchandise purchases, reducing expenses beyond admission fees.
Additionally, completing entrance registration via app often provides original novelties through campaigns, with early visitor perks sometimes including original stickers or badges.
The app also handles lottery campaign entry, exhibitor profile browsing, MAP functions for route planning, and workshop advance checking, making pre-preparation and day-of navigation remarkably smooth.
App download (official page bottom link)
https://hmj-fes.jp/en
Sure to Sell Out! How to Secure Workshop-Included Tickets
Handmade in Japan Festival features many popular creator-led workshops requiring advance reservations. Typically, reservation slots fill immediately after opening, with 2025 likely offering “first-come-first-served” and “specific time slot” reservations.
For example, leather goods crafting, kintsugi experiences, and aromatherapy candle making have limited capacity, so early entry via official app and web is standard practice.
For multi-day visitors, concentrating popular workshop reservations on the first day and relaxed planning for the second day is effective. Payment methods typically require advance settlement, so early preparation is best to avoid wasted waiting time.
Summary
Handmade in Japan Festival 2025 has evolved beyond a simple exhibition and sales event into a comprehensive cultural festival where Japanese regional craftsmanship intersects with next-generation making. Venue expansion, renewed stage and workshop configurations, and strengthened digital support through the official app continuously improve the visitor experience.
Additionally, trending exhibition areas fusing sustainability, traditional technique updates, and technological innovations like bio-materials and 3D printing provide new inspiration for domestic and international visitors and businesses. The enhanced exhibitions and experiences themed around safety and security for kids and babies make it enjoyable for families as well.
Handmade in Japan Festival 2025 not only allows visitors to feel the future of craft but also provides opportunities to bridge the gap between “makers and users” while deepening understanding of sustainable lifestyles and regional culture. Conduct thorough advance research and preparation to enjoy your own unique “encounters.”
