The contests of the Festival del Cante de las Minas for Japanese flamenco artists will be held for the first time in Tokyo August 22nd, 23rd and 24th.

The Las Minas Flamenco Tour has already scheduled its next international destination, and it will be none other than Tokyo, the capital of Japan, a country which, for the first time outside the borders of Spain, will host the celebration of contests in dance, guitar and singing of the Festival del Cante de las Minas de La Unión.

The event, which will be held at the Nakano Zero Hall Theater of the Japanese capital August 22nd, 23rd and 24th, will be carried out jointly by the Foundation Cante de las Minas under the auspices of its international extension, Las Minas Flamenco Tour, and the Nippon Association of Flamenco (ANIF), founded in 1990 andtodayconsolidatedasthe main institutionof thenation devoted to the study, teaching and disseminationof flamenco.

The expectationsraised bythe celebration of the event have already led to the registration of over a hundredJapanese artists.The main attractionfor them lies in their automatically receivingpassesto the finalseriesofthe nextedition of theFestivaldel Cantede las Minasin our country,to be held inAugust, 2015inthetown of LaUnión,Murcia, in addition to obtainingthe correspondingtrophiesthatthe winners ofthis Japanese editionwill also receive.

A mixedjury ofleadingJapanese expertsprovided byANIF,and importantSpanishflamenco expertssent by theCantede las Minas Foundation,will be responsible for selectingthe best interpretersin each category.

In addition, for theclosing of the contest, there will be adance exhibitionbyLucía Álvarez»La Piñona» winner of the DesplanteTrophyinthe 2011 editionof theCantede las Minas Festival, who will offera varied repertoire ofthe bestSpanishflamencodance with herflamenco group.

This was announced this morning in Madrid at a press conference held at the legendary tablao «Corral de la Morería», home of the Festival of La Unión in the capital of Spain, by the Ambassador from Japan in Spain, Satoru Satoh, Special Ambassador for the Dual Spain-Japan Year, Eduardo Aznar, Institutional General Director of Marca España, Ignacio García-Valdecasas, and the Mayor of La Unión and Executive Chairman of the Cante de las Minas Foundation, Francisco Bernabé.

The top representative of Marca España highlighted the extraordinary character of flamenco as a vehicle for the dissemination of Spanish culture throughout the world, recalling in this regard that the Festival of La Unión is the only event of this genre that has the status of being the official image of our country abroad.

Satoru Satoh, who promised a return visit to La Unión this summer to enjoy the festival, underlined the huge appeal of flamenco art for his countrymen, as evidenced by the fact that there are over three-thousand schools in Japan devoted to its teaching, and that there are more than one hundred thousand Japanese citizens taking classes at these centers.

In this regard, the ambassador also dropped the news that his country is already finalizing the next edition of Las Minas Flamenco Tour in Japan, in this case thanks to the Maruwa Foundation, and focused exclusively on the dance competitions. The event will take place on March 15, 2015 and will be coordinated by the great teacher and choreographer, Yoko Komatsubara, who gave the opening speech at the Festival de las Minas in 2002.

Lastly, Francisco Bernabé, stressed the fact that with this initiative, one of the major goals born from this project, namely that of internationalization, has been fulfilled, taking the mining competition to Japan, third largest economy in the world and without a doubt the country where our music is most appreciated for its excellence, second only to Spain.

The chief executive of the Foundation Cante de las Minas also explicitly thanked all the sponsors for their support, both in Japan and in our nation, making it possible for this event to take place, especially emphasizing the role of Turespaña and Las Minas Flamenco Tour in this regard, the real architects of this initiative.

Themayor of La Unión emphasized the important attraction for tourists this project represents for his city, for the Region of Murcia and for Spain, as well as for the development of this Festival, as evidenced by the many international media which have already applied for press credentials, including the most important Japanese communications media who are truly interested in the fact that the Cante de las Minas Festival will select their most important flamenco talents next year to compete against the best in La Unión.