The Brazilian city of Sao Paulo kicked off its annual Japan Festival on Friday. The event showcases traditional Japanese culture and cuisine.
Brazil is home to the largest community of people of Japanese descent outside Japan. The festival is said to be one of the world's largest of its kind.
The festival boasts about 300 stalls set up by Japanese firms operating in Brazil as well as by groups of people representing different prefectures.
Local Japanese delicacies available include seared bonito from Kochi Prefecture, western Japan. Another is "Miso-katsu," a rice bowl from Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, that's made up of a miso sauce-covered fried pork cutlet on a bed of rice.
Japanese dishes have become increasingly popular in Brazil in recent years.
This time the organizers have for the first time provided spaces where business people can directly display local specialties and traditional cuisines to importers and those in the Brazilian restaurant industry.
The chair of an association to promote the local specialties of Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan, said he hopes to deliver good things from his prefecture and Japan to the people of Sao Paulo.
The Japan Festival runs through Sunday and is expected to draw about 190,000 visitors.