Bangladesh Week celebrates Bangladeshi heritage at Japan’s APU

Bangladesh Week 2026 was held at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) in Beppu, Japan, from July 6 to 10. The event gave the university’s international community an immersive introduction to Bangladeshi culture through food, clothing, cinema, music and theatre.

The festival was organised by a 27-member student body led by Akib Aditya Khan. APU is home to 324 Bangladeshi students, and the week gave them a platform to share their culture with a community drawn from more than 100 countries.

The opening ceremony took place near the APU Fountain on July 6. Performers appeared in traditional dress and danced to Bengali music as light rain fell, which suited the festival’s monsoon-inspired theme. A large rickshaw replica and a traditional bioscope became popular attractions, drawing curious students who wanted to learn their history.


Food was a major draw throughout the week. Stalls served dishes such as chicken khichuri, shingara, fuchka and semai barfi to students, staff and visiting families. A henna booth also proved extremely popular, with queues forming from morning until afternoon.


On July 7, a musical evening called “Chhayachhobi” celebrated Bengali cinema and songs from the 1990s. A Japanese student’s performance of a Bangla song in particular was warmly received by the audience.


On July 9, organisers held their first-ever film screening as part of the festival, showing Nuhash Humayun’s horror anthology “Pett Kata Shaw” to introduce viewers to Bengali supernatural folklore.


The festival closed on July 10 with a Grand Show at the Millennium Hall. The programme opened with a choir performance of a Tagore composition, followed by a fashion presentation featuring characters from Bengali folklore. The evening ended with a theatrical adaptation of a story from the magazine Kishor Alo, blending Bengali and Japanese folk traditions.


Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Japan, Md Daud Ali, attended the closing show as a guest. He met APU President Hiroshi Yoneyama to discuss making the university more accessible to Bangladeshi students, and separately met the Governor of Oita to discuss educational cooperation between Bangladesh and the prefecture.


 

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