HYPER JAPAN 2012 Spring is a UK's biggest J-culture event is back for its third celebration of Japanese food, drink, multimedia content, technology and more. The event will be held on Friday 24, Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 February 2012 in Brompton Hall, Earls Court, London. Food and drink highlights include the Eat-Japan Sushi Awards 2012: UK Sushi Roll Championship and the brand new Eat-Japan Sake Awards 2012: Top Brewery Taste-Off. HYPER JAPAN is a consumer event with a difference; it represents an unmatched B2C2B opportunity to experience the Japanese food and drink market in real time with real customers. Registration has now opened for trade professionals, and passes will be issued to representatives from businesses, distributors, suppliers, and travel agencies, to restaurant chefs and managers, and to food buyers and other food and drink industry professionals. To register online, click here and enter your details. Separate tasting vouchers are required for the Sushi Awards and Sake Awards　in addition to your free General Entry ticket.

The previous event, HYPER JAPAN 2011, was held on Friday 22 July through Sunday 24 July at Olympia Two in London and was supported by the Embassy of Japan in the UK amongst other Japanese governmental organizations. Although the aftermath of the March 2011 Tohoku Pacific Earthquake had made it difficult for some Japan-based businesses to participate in the event, the number of exhibitors at HYPER JAPAN 2011 still rose to double that in 2010. Visitor numbers doubled, too, from 13,000 to over 25,000, including long queues for on-the-day tickets. Many visitors were young British residents in their 20s, 30s and 40s, arriving with family and friends to enjoy an event widely showcased in British media as offering a multi-faceted peek into contemporary Japan. The 2012 event is expanding again, to incorporate a larger dedicated food and drink zone and some brand new food and drink related content and shows.

Eat-Japan @ HYPER JAPAN 2012: a must-visit for trend watchers

Eat-Japan Sushi Awards 2012: UK Sushi Roll Championship

HYPER JAPAN 2012 will feature three great food and drink events, as well as the Eat-Japan Food Courts. The Sushi Awards 2012: UK Sushi Roll Championship will see five Japanese restaurants battling it out in pursuit of sushi's ultimate accolade. 1800 ticket holders will taste each sushi roll over the three days, and the sushi winning the most votes will be crowned Sushi of the Year on the final day. The five nominated restaurants for 2012 are:

*Traders can register for free event entry and purchase tickets at a special price of £10

Eat-Japan Sake Awards: Top Brewery Taste-Off

The Eat-Japan Sake Awards: Top Brewery Taste-Off is an exciting new event that gives the general public the chance to taste some of the best sake coming out of Japan. This event is designed for anyone who loves sake or just wants to find out that bit more, and it will be the biggest Japanese sake tasting event ever held for the general public in the UK. Carefully selected samples from outstanding breweries will be served to 1500 ticket holders, who will then evaluate each based on a set of unique perspectives, from general categories such as aroma, palate and food pairing, to more unusual ones: label & bottle design, naming sense, each sake's ‘narrative', and which sake you'd most like to give as a gift to a loved one. Information will also be provided on each brewery, their sake production process, region, climate and food pairings. The feedback provided by ticket holders will not only decide the winners in each category, but also provide valuable insight in the modern British sake drinker and the kind of sake he or she likes. With sake increasingly featuring on drink menus in Japanese restaurants and beyond, there's definitely heightening interest in rice wine: this event will break down remaining barriers and make it an accessible drink for all. The seven participating breweries are:

*Traders can register for free event entry and purchase tickets at a special price of £10

Taste Discovery Zone: Hands-on Tastings, Samplings and Demonstrations

The Eat-Japan area will also be a place where visitors can eat, drink and discover new flavours and dishes through interactive demonstrations. Each demonstration will be around 30 minutes long, led by a Japanese food expert, and finish with a chance for participants to try out the finished dish. Food demonstrations will be led by Japanese chef Atsuko Ikeda, who will showcase classic Japanese dishes and the techniques you need to know to recreate them in the home. Sake seminars will be taken by the Head Sommelier at Roka, Natsuki Kikuya, who is also curating the Sake Awards. An exciting opportunity to meet with inspiring and charismatic food and drink experts. The full programme of demonstrations and seminars will be published nearer to the event.

Eat-Japan @ HYPER JAPAN will also be collecting feedback from event guests. Questionnaires will be distributed at the Sushi Awards, Sake Awards and after tasting and demonstrations. By encouraging visitors to tell us what they really think about Japanese food and drink, what they're interested in, and how often they purchase Japanese meals and ingredients, we hope to gather valuable data on consumers and trends in the UK. Incentives will be provided in the form of prizes, awarded at random to names picked from completed questionnaires.

Check out the biggest gathering of Japan-friendly consumers in the UK. An unmissable opportunity to discover trends and identify targets for Japanese food & drink business.

Click here to register for your free trade entry.