A Fireworks Festival Reborn, 60 Local Characters Gather, and the Marine Expo is Set—Understanding How the City of Kure is Transitioning from a “Naval City” to a “Marine City”

One fireworks festival ends, and another begins—this alone is a common story. However, when we look at what is currently happening in Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture, a slightly different picture emerges. In the same city where the traditional “Kure Maritime Fireworks Festival” was canceled due to rising costs and labor expenses, a new fireworks festival is set to take place in the fall, the “Kure Marine Culture Expo” is scheduled for May 2026, and an event featuring over 60 local characters is being organized, coinciding with the port call of British naval vessels. When these individual news items are lined up on the same timeline, one question arises: “Whose convenience does this system serve?”

—

The Fireworks Festival Has Not “Ended” but Has “Reborn”

The Kure Maritime Fireworks Festival was a summer tradition known for its large shells reflecting on the surface of Kure Port. At its peak, around 200,000 people would gather around the port, with an estimated economic ripple effect in the hundreds of millions of yen, including food and lodging. However, in recent years, rising security and setup costs have put pressure on the organizers, making it impossible to balance the budget with sponsorship alone. External factors such as rising prices have exposed the structural limits of this long-standing “one-night summer event.”

What is noteworthy here is that Kure City is not simply reviving the fireworks festival; instead, they are redesigning it by shifting the timing from summer to fall, with the premise of linking it to surrounding events. Summer fireworks compete with those held nationwide, but by moving to the fall, they can generate tourism demand during a relatively low occupancy period for accommodations. Furthermore, by scheduling it close to the Marine Expo and the local character festival, the design anticipates “guests who stay for multiple experiences” rather than just “one-night visitors who come only to see the fireworks.”

This means that instead of focusing solely on the financials of the fireworks festival, profitability is derived from the overall circulation and length of stay in the city—indicating that it is not just one event that has ended, but rather the “unit” of events has been rewritten.

—

What the 60 Local Characters Make Visible

The “8th Kure Local Character Festival” will see over 60 local characters from across the country gather. While the number alone seems glamorous, imagining the behind-the-scenes arrangements changes the significance of this figure.

The participation of local characters requires coordination with various municipalities and companies, transportation arrangements for the costumes, securing staff to assist, designing the stage schedule, and most importantly, providing a “reason for them to come.” The gathering of 60 characters signifies that 60 regions or organizations have determined that “there is value in going to Kure,” which reflects the accumulation of networks and trust on the part of Kure City. The continuity of the event for the eighth time serves as the foundation for this.

The local character festival does not only function as a device to attract children and families. By showcasing the local specialties and cultures represented by each character, Kure City itself becomes a “hub.” Just as its history as a naval port had the function of being a “gathering place,” now it creates a junction where people and regions intersect through the soft medium of characters.

Though understated, this is where the beauty of the system lies. Rather than relying on the popularity of individual characters, the structure values “the act of gathering itself.”

—

The Port Call of British Naval Vessels—Rewriting the Context of the “Naval Port”

In May 2026, British naval vessels will dock at the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Kure Base. While it is not uncommon for foreign vessels to enter Kure Port, the timing is crucial. Coinciding with the Marine Expo, the port call is positioned not merely as a military ceremony but within the new context of “marine cultural city.”

For Kure City, the “naval port” is an indelible part of its history, and there is no need to erase it. The Yamato Museum (Kure Maritime History Science Museum) attracts around one million visitors annually, and naval port tours are a popular content that fills up with reservations. The question lies in the context in which this history is narrated. Relying solely on the axis of “naval city” limits both the demographics of visitors and the stories that can be told.

By presenting the British naval port call as part of the Marine Expo, the “naval port” is reinterpreted as a “hub for international maritime exchange.” This approach does not deny past legacies but envelops them within a broader context—marine culture. This is a method of nesting the city’s identity rather than overwriting it. New layers are added on top of the old, preserving both.

—

Designing the Framework of the “Kure Marine Culture Expo”

The “Kure Marine Culture Expo,” scheduled for May 2026, will serve as a framework that binds these individual events together. The fireworks festival, local character festival, naval vessel port call, and yet-to-be-announced projects—each of these is an independent event, but by aligning them under the common banner of the Marine Expo, a unit of experience for visitors, termed “a few days spent in Kure,” is created.

This design primarily benefits the organizers. Instead of each individual event independently attracting visitors, promoting, and fundraising, they can mutually send visitors under the common brand of the Marine Expo. Announcements for the fireworks festival become announcements for the Marine Expo, and vice versa. This leads to a distribution of publicity costs and a synergistic effect in attracting visitors—making it a rational system.

Moreover, it also eases the experience for visitors. The state of “something is happening in Kure” serves as a strong motivation for travel. A trip with only one purpose is vulnerable to changes in weather or schedules, but if multiple experiences overlap, even in the rain or with schedule shifts, alternative enjoyment remains.

—

The Questions Behind the System

However, there are points to be cautious about. The collaboration of events, conversely, means an increase in coordination costs. The work of aligning schedules, traffic flows, and safety management among multiple organizers is tedious and extensive. If the security plans for the fireworks festival and the safety measures for the naval vessel port call coincide, coordination with the police and the Japan Coast Guard becomes even more complicated.

Additionally, it is uncertain how much the banner of “marine cultural city” will resonate with the citizens’ actual experiences. Kure City’s population is about 200,000, with an aging rate exceeding the national average. If the benefits of large-scale events are concentrated in commercial facilities in the city center and do not reach surrounding areas or daily life, the question arises: “For whom is the Marine Expo?” The system must be designed to ensure that it reaches its intended audience, or else it risks leaving some behind.

Separating fact from expectation, what can be confirmed at this point is merely that “the framework for the events has been decided.” The specifics regarding budget scale, ticket design, transportation access plans, and most importantly, how to facilitate citizen participation must await future announcements.

—

Who Writes the City’s Identity?

Transitioning from a “naval city” to a “marine city”—this rewriting cannot be completed simply by a declaration from the administration. The experiences of those gazing at the fireworks, children taking photos with characters, local elderly people watching the docking vessels, and businesses selling local specialties at the Marine Expo—all of these individual experiences must accumulate for the city’s narrative to be updated.

What Kure City is currently designing is the mechanism for creating those experiences. By shifting the timing of the fireworks festival, connecting with the character festival nationwide, adding an international context with the naval vessel port call, and bundling them under the framework of the Marine Expo, they are creating a structure that, while not flashy in its individual initiatives, reveals a cohesive design when viewed together.

The system itself does not possess warmth. However, when the system operates smoothly, the expressions of the people standing there change—on the night when autumn fireworks light up the port of Kure, that warmth will be confirmed.