About Hal-Con
Hal-Con is an annual convention, run by some of the staff and committee of the Nippon 2007 Worldcon, the first worldcon in Japan. While Nippon 2007 was generally a success, there were two things which we felt could be improved: bringing new Japanese fans into fandom in Japan; interactions between Japanese and non-Japanese fans. Rather than waiting for another Japanese worldcon, we decided to run an annual bilingual convention with an international Guest and the aim of bringing in new Japanese fans, foreigners living in Japan, and some overseas fans. We decided to run the convention in the Spring to avoid any impact on the Japanese national convention, which typically runs in summer, and also because it is a beautiful time to visit Japan with the cherry trees blossoming and the weather being fine and warm but not hot.
Our goals for the convention are:
- to spread knowledge of Japanese-language SF in all its forms: written, manga, anime, art, costuming, films, etc.;
- to spread knowledge of English-language SF in all its forms: written, graphic novels, art, animation, films, etc.;
- to encourage interaction between Japanese and overseas fans, not only at the convention, but online between conventions and at other conventions in Japan and overseas.
The name, Hal-Con derives from the Japanese word for Spring, usually written in Latin letters as "haru". However, "hal" becomes "haru" when translated into Japanese. Launched the convention in 2010, Hal-Con seemed an auspicious name.
Staff Wanted
The HAL-CON committee needs your help and we invite everyone to work with us. No experience required, you do not need to have worked or even attended an SF convention before.
Even if your experience or understanding prevents you from becoming a member of the staff just yet, we would be happy to have you join us as a volunteer to do text input or as an information clerk. If you spare a little time for HAL-CON, please contact us.