Continuing a 76-Year Local Bon Odori Festival into the Future: "Midorimachi Bon Odori 2026" to be Held Through Collaboration of Neighborhood Associations, Companies, NPOs, and More

Key visual for Midorimachi Bon Odori 2026. (Design: Daisuke Sato)

On July 25 (Sat.) and 26 (Sun.), 2026, "Midorimachi Bon Odori 2026" (co-hosted by Midorimachi 1-chome Neighborhood Association and Midorimachi Park Management Committee) will be held in Midorimachi, Inage Ward, Chiba City.

"Midorimachi Bon Odori" is a summer festival that connects the region's traditional bon odori, now in its 76th year, to the next generation. It is nurtured through the collaboration of diverse entities, including the Midorimachi 1-chome Neighborhood Association, Mikey Inc. (specializing in social design and community development), ZOZO Inc., NPOs engaged in community activities, local businesses, and volunteers.

While addressing challenges faced by community festivals nationwide, such as declining birthrates, aging populations, and a shortage of organizers, the festival has incorporated new elements like DJ live performances, a local market, and four venues to explore while walking through the town, all while cherishing and passing down the culture of bon odori. Since expanding the scale of the event, visitor numbers have increased approximately fivefold compared to previous years, attracting a diverse range of people, including younger generations, families with children, and international students who may not have been familiar with bon odori before.

Amidst the growing difficulty in sustaining community festivals across the country, "Midorimachi Bon Odori" is challenging itself to create a new model for regional festivals, where neighborhood associations, companies, NPOs, local businesses, and citizens share roles and foster local culture together.

Key Points of This Release:

▶ Passing Down a 76-Year Local Bon Odori Festival to the Next Generation Through Collaboration of Neighborhood Associations, Companies, NPOs, etc. We are working to establish a system for sustainably passing down local traditions to the next generation while addressing issues such as declining birthrates and a shortage of organizers.

▶ A Summer Festival with a "Touring" Format Across Four Areas, Using the Town Itself as the Venue The event utilizes four areas – Midorimachi Park, ZOZO Plaza, HELLO GARDEN, and Gakuen-dori – as an integrated venue, allowing visitors to discover diverse ways to enjoy themselves while walking through the town.

▶ Visitor Numbers Approximately 5 Times Higher Than Before. Towards a Local Culture That Creates Diverse Opportunities for Engagement We are expanding participation opportunities beyond simply enjoying the festival as a visitor, to include co-creating the festival through activities such as setting up stalls, sponsorships, performances, venue production, and volunteering.

Dancing bon odori in a circle together A venue where adults and children alike sway to the DJ's music, creating a sense of unity

1. Connecting a 70+ Year Local Bon Odori Festival to the Future

The "Midorimachi 1-chome Bon Odori Festival," held for over 70 years in Midorimachi, Inage Ward, Chiba City, is a summer scene in Midorimachi cherished and passed down by local residents. However, due to challenges such as declining birthrates and a shortage of organizers accompanying the aging of neighborhood associations, its continuation was once in jeopardy.

In response, the local organization "Midorimachi Park Management Committee" (Representative: Mikey Inc.) joined the operation, transitioning to a collaborative structure involving the neighborhood association, local organizations, and companies. The goal was not merely to preserve tradition but to update it into a sustainable system for passing it down to the next generation. Thus, in 2023, it embarked on a new start as "Midorimachi Bon Odori."

Currently, it is held as the collective name for Midorimachi's summer festival, simultaneously hosting the traditional bon odori festival organized by the Midorimachi 1-chome Neighborhood Association and the summer festival organized by the Midorimachi Park Management Committee.

A 76-year tradition of bon odori. A festival venue visited by many generations.

2. Respecting Tradition and Transforming to "Pass It On" to the Future

Midorimachi Bon Odori aims not just to preserve tradition as it is. While deeply respecting the bon odori culture that local people have cherished and nurtured for many years, we seek to update its essence to align with contemporary life and values, and pass it on in a new form.

Bon odori was originally a place for people of all generations and backgrounds to gather through music and dance, fostering community connections. To carry on this original role into the present day, Midorimachi Bon Odori incorporates new content such as live performances by DJs with local ties and a market featuring local businesses.

The DJ music is not merely a production to attract younger generations. The experience of naturally swaying to the music, sharing the same space, and creating a sense of unity is an attempt to re-edit the original value of bon odori as a "place for fostering community" into a modern cultural form.

Instead of viewing traditional culture and contemporary culture as opposing forces, we are nurturing them as new local culture by allowing them to intersect while respecting each other. Midorimachi Bon Odori is gradually evolving into a new form as a place for passing on local culture to the next generation through repeated experimentation.

Children happily dancing to music played by a DJ.

3. The Town Itself as the Venue: A "Touring" Summer Festival Across Four Areas

A major characteristic of Midorimachi Bon Odori is that it is a "touring" festival where visitors can enjoy the town itself as the venue.

The venue is centered around "Midorimachi Park," where the bon odori tower with its 76-year history stands. It also includes "ZOZO Plaza," which hosts DJ live performances and a market by local businesses; "HELLO GARDEN," offering children's games and workshops; and "Gakuen-dori," a pedestrian paradise for enjoying food and drinks while relaxing. These four areas form the festival.

Each location offers different ways to spend time and different scenery, allowing visitors to find their own enjoyable experiences while walking through the town. People who came for the bon odori might stop by the market, enjoy a meal on the street while watching children play at the festival games, and so on. Such natural circulation creates a festive atmosphere throughout the town.

These four hubs are all places that symbolize the community development of Nishi-Chiba, where local people regularly gather, relax, and engage in activities. On festival days, places that have different roles in daily life connect as a single venue, and through the overlapping of diverse activities such as "relaxing," "playing," "trading," and "expressing," the town itself becomes a festive space.

Midorimachi Bon Odori aims to be a summer festival that uses the town itself as the venue, not just a park-based event, but one that loosely reconnects the everyday scenery scattered throughout the community, generating human flow and new encounters.

Roads between each venue are also closed to traffic.

4. Towards a Festival "Created" by the Entire Community: A Place for Diverse "Engagement Opportunities"

At Midorimachi Bon Odori, we place importance not only on visitors enjoying themselves but also on increasing the number of people who "create the festival together." To pass on local festivals to the next generation, we believe it is necessary to create a system where everyone can participate in a way that suits them, rather than relying solely on a few people in charge of operations.

To this end, we have established diverse "engagement opportunities," such as stalls by local shops, sponsorships from companies and organizations, volunteer staff to support preparations and on-the-day operations, and performances/venue production by DJs and creators with local ties. Through various forms of participation such as "setting up a stall," "performing," "helping out," and "supporting," local people nurture the festival together.

Sponsorships are not just for advertising; they are expanding as a mechanism to support the festival for stores and companies that "cannot set up a stall but want to support the local festival" or "want to preserve this scenery for the future." This year, we are also recruiting volunteer staff to handle preparations and on-site operations. By creating opportunities that allow people of all ages and backgrounds to participate in festival creation, including those who can participate for short periods, we are making it accessible to everyone.

What is born from the accumulation of such diverse participation is not just the two-day festival. The connections fostered in the process of creating the festival together lead to subsequent community activities and daily interactions, gradually enriching the town's community.

Midorimachi Bon Odori aims to be a local culture that is not just "watched" or "operated," but one that is continuously created by residents, workers, and students of the community, each participating from their own standpoint.

A DJ with local ties plays music. A local organization prepares children's content for the festival.

5. Diverse Content Where Tradition and Culture Intersect

Midorimachi Bon Odori features a variety of local content centered around the bon odori that has been passed down for over 70 years. While valuing tradition, we aim for a summer festival where everyone can find their own way to enjoy it through programs that naturally allow new generations and visitors from outside the community to participate.

Bon Odori and Drum Performances Inheriting 76 Years of History

At the bon odori, the centerpiece of the festival, participants can dance to a wide range of songs, from local Chiba and Inage Ward tunes to popular classics from across the country. Even first-time participants can easily join the circle, and we also hold bon odori practice sessions beforehand to pass on the "culture of dancing" to the community.

The drum performances by the children of "Midoriko-domokai," who practice all year for this day, also color the festival scene that has been passed down for many years.

Live Stage by Local DJs

At ZOZO Plaza, live performances by DJs with local ties will be held. This time, where adults and children alike naturally enjoy the same space by moving their bodies to the music, is an initiative to re-edit the original "place where people connect through music" of bon odori into a modern cultural form.

Market and Food Stalls Unique to Nishi-Chiba

A market featuring restaurants and businesses with stores or activity bases in the area will also be held. In addition to each shop's specialty foods and drinks and festival-limited menus, there will be traditional festival games and activities for children.

One of the great attractions of this initiative is that it increases the number of people who learn about local shops through the festival and visit them regularly.

Summer Festival Enjoyed in Yukata

On the festival day, a yukata dressing service by a local kimono dressing school will be available near the venue. Rentals are also available, and by walking through the town in yukata and visiting the bon odori and market, visitors can further enjoy the unique scenery of a summer festival.

None of the content is designed solely for "viewing"; rather, it is designed as an opportunity for people to naturally connect with each other and with the community.

6. Organizer's Comment: Mei Nishiyama, Director, Midorimachi Park Management Committee / Mikey Inc.

Community festivals do not continue simply by being preserved. We believe it is necessary to nurture them into something that many people can engage with in their own way, while gradually changing their form to suit the times.

At Midorimachi Bon Odori, while respecting the bon odori scene that has been carefully preserved by the community for many years, we have gradually incorporated new ways of engagement, such as DJs, markets, volunteers, and sponsorships.

We would be delighted if this festival could serve as an opportunity for connection with this town, not only for those who live here but also for first-time visitors. We want to continue nurturing it little by little with everyone in the community to pass on tradition to the future.

7. Seeking Volunteer Staff to Create the Festival Together

This year again, we are recruiting volunteer staff to support venue setup, reception, on-site operations, and visitor guidance. As participation is possible even for short periods, not only residents of the community but also those who "want to get involved in the community" or "want to experience supporting a festival" can easily participate.

We aim for the experience of creating the festival together, not just enjoying it as a visitor, to become a catalyst for new community connections. Participants will receive a "Midorimachi Bon Odori" original tenugui (hand towel).

[Midorimachi Bon Odori 2026 Event Outline]

Dates: July 25 (Sat.) & 26 (Sun.), 2026 *In case of rain on both days, only the bon odori will be postponed to July 27 (Mon.) ■ Time: 16:00 - 21:00 *Bon odori at Midorimachi Park: 18:00 - 21:00 ■ Venue: Midorimachi Park, ZOZO Plaza, HELLO GARDEN, Gakuen-dori (Around 1-17 Midorimachi, Inage Ward, Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture) ■ Admission: Free ■ Co-hosts: Midorimachi 1-chome Neighborhood Association Midorimachi Park Management Committee [Mikey Inc. (Representative) / Midorimachi 1-chome Neighborhood Association / Midoriko-domokai / ZOZO Inc.] ■ Sponsors: Smart Housing Inc., Nishichiba Toyama Animal Hospital, etc.

Cooperators: NPO Kodomo Hoiku no Kai - Konoyubi Tomare (Fukunoko Schuwach), NPO Drops, UNLIT Inc.

Event details and information on participating stalls will be announced sequentially on the Midorimachi Bon Odori 2026 webpage.

Please check for future updates.

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Midorimachi Park Management Committee Instagram

[Contact for This Announcement] Mikey Inc. Public Relations [MAIL] info@mikey-inc.jp