We are pleased to announce the appointment of 7 special supporters who have ties to Fukuoka and are leaders in their respective fields.They will be joining us for talk sessions and other activities to bring the fair together.
We introduce them to you with the comments we have received from them in advance of the fair!

(honorifics omitted, in alphabetical order)

I got hooked on Fukuoka five years ago. I now visit Fukuoka more than 10 times a year, which of course is more than the number of times I go back to my parents' house. Why am I so attracted to Fukuoka? Practical attractions such as good food, cheap rent, and proximity to the airport, which are often mentioned, are not enough to make me fall in love with Fukuoka so much.

I love Fukuoka because it has something unique. Fukuoka is full of great challengers in the fields of art, music, fashion, food, and culture. Some of them have even gone beyond Fukuoka and are catching fire on a global scale. Fukuoka is more central to Asia than anywhere else in Japan.

Fukuoka, a city that demands one-and-only value with high standards, is famous as a city where chain stores are out of fashion. Art is the embodiment of one and only value. That is why Fukuoka's art scene is so interesting. I am confident that this art fair will stir the world with the undiscovered sensibility of Fukuoka.

In the past, artists from the Kyushu-ha, and more recently from street culture, have gained international recognition, and a different art scene has emerged in Fukuoka than in Tokyo and other cities." We hope that ART FAIR ASIA FUKUOKA will become the leading art fair in Kyushu and Asia, a meaningful event only possible in Fukuoka.

Modern society is an age without answers. Because there are no answers, people feel and think for themselves, and ask their own questions. In response to these questions, we express ourselves and create businesses, not as "the right answer," but as "a response to the world. What is important at that time is the sensitivity of how one perceives the world and the attitude of how one confronts the world.

Art and entrepreneurship. Although the fields are different, the sensibility to perceive the world and the attitude to confront the world are deeply connected. Art and entrepreneurship should be able to easily transcend small categories and inspire each other. They should be able to melt into each other. With nature and beauty as common denominators.

The island of Kyushu needs more art and entrepreneurship. Through art and entrepreneurship, I would like to translate the nature and beauty nurtured on this island and deliver it to the people living today and to future generations. I myself would like to be physically exposed to this translation.

That's what I think about when Art Fair Asia Fukuoka is held.

This was back when there was neither the Fukuoka City Museum of Art nor the Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art.
On my days off, I rided the Nishitetsu train. My destination was Kurume.
I loved the rural scenery from the train window from Futsukaichi. I especially liked the scenery in early spring.
In Kurume, the purpose was to visit the Ishibashi Museum of Art, where I enjoyed the works of Sakamoto Kimijiro and Aoki Shigeru.
I remember that I was particularly moved by Shigeru Aoki's 《A Gift of the Sea》 and stood there for a long time.
I liked this museum because it was the only very good museum in Fukuoka and not many people visited it.
Even now, I am aware that Shigeru Aoki's 《A Gift of the Sea》 is my favorite painting.
It is fun to come across a work of art that is my own personal guess as to what I would like to see when I come into contact with art.
I would like to cherish my encounter with art at this year's Art Fair Asia Fukuoka.
You may surely find your own fascinating art.

A message squeezed from the depths of the soul by the only one being in the world. The joy of receiving with one's whole body the words and breath that resonate even in silence. Whenever I come into contact with art, I realize that this is what it means to have one's heart tremble.

Art also breathes a completely different atmosphere into the architectural space that I have worked on.
While the mission of architecture is to create a certain finished form, art can also reflect the charm of incompleteness, with its fluctuations and changes, and lead us to a "place with movement.

ART FAIR ASIA FUKUOKA is where galleries from around the world send their art to Fukuoka.
It is an opportunity to dive in and lose yourself in the sea of messages and absorb the energy of the artists through your skin. Let's go on a journey together, imagining the space you want to breathe life into.

I have lived and practiced locally in Southeast Asia for more than a decade, including Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand. Southeast Asia is undergoing remarkable economic development, and the cityscapes and the people who live there are changing dramatically. It seems to me that many things have been lost in the flow of modernization and urbanization. I am interested in contemporary art because I feel that it is often contemporary artists in the Asian region who resist such a situation to the last through artistic expression. What can we do to maintain and develop "the value that is unique to that place and that place only" in Asia? And do we ourselves recognize the "unique value of each place" on a daily basis? Through this project, we hope to create a new place where we can think about these issues.

What does it mean to go global in a world permeated by the Internet? While the world continues to be connected, I feel that the uneven distribution of the individual as an existential entity is rather progressing.
I believe that Art Fair Asia Fukuoka, while placing Fukuoka within the framework of Asia, will be an opportunity to look back at this very place where we exist today, and to demonstrate the power of the individual, which is not collected by the world. As a person involved in urban development through entrepreneurship and finance, I have high expectations and support for Fukuoka to become a city where many people talk to each other through art and confront the world.