World Cosplay Summit

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The World Cosplay Summit (世界コスプレサミット, Sekai Kosupure Samitto  WCS) is an annual international cosplay event, which promotes global interaction through Japanese pop culture.^[1][2] It developed from a cosplay exhibition held at the Aichi Expo in 2005.^[3]

The WCS incorporated in 2012, by which time it had grown to include two weeks of activities, chief of which are a parade and championship held in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, on Saturday and Sunday of the first weekend of August.^{[not verified in body]} Other related events are held in the Kanto, Kansai, and Tokai regions.^{[not verified in body]} Competitors are drawn from partnering anime/manga events held in the respective countries and regions.^{[not verified in body]}

The summit was organized by broadcaster TV Aichi until 2012. It is supported by several city organizations, businesses, the WCS student volunteer organization Omotenashi, and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT), and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). Japanese embassy representatives often attend preliminaries of events in foreign countries.^{[not verified in body]} The WCS relies heavily on corporate sponsorship rather than ticket sales to fund its activities.^{[not verified in body]}