TO mark the 50th anniversary of Japan and Jamaica relations, the Japanese embassy is hosting an exhibition at the National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ), 12 Ocean Boulevard in Kingston.

The exhibition, entitled Japan: Kingdom of Characters, started on Sunday and ends this evening.

“The National Gallery of Jamaica is pleased to have been made a part of the golden jubilee celebrations that mark the 50th anniversary of Japan/Jamaica relations,” Dr Veerle Poupeye, executive director at the National Gallery of Jamaica told the Jamaica Observer.

Yasou Takase, Japanese ambassador to Jamaica, was on hand to welcome the traveling exhibition, funded by the Japan Foundation.

“This serves to extend Japanese pop-culture in Jamaica where there seems to be a large following and also allows us to reflect on the relationship between both our nations,” Takase said.

The exhibition is focused on introducing the intimate relationship between characters pulled from television and print, and the Japanese people. The multi-discipline displays run through a timeline from the ’50s to present showing their influence both in Japan and worldwide. Installations run from simple prints, to near life-sized models of various characters to present-day animation.

Also on hand were the JACozplayaz, a group of locals dressed as various cartoon animation characters. Local band The Sky Is Broken provided musical selections from various Japanese animation series.