Tsuchiura All Japan Fireworks Competition Celebrates 100 Years; 650,000 Gather in Ibaraki as Teams Chase Prime Minister’s Award

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:04 JST, November 2, 2025

TSUCHIURA, Ibaraki — This year’s Tsuchiura All Japan Fireworks Competition, at which pyrotechnicians from across the country vie for the nation’s top honors, was held Saturday along the banks of the Sakura River in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture.

As 2025 marked the event’s centennial, about 650,000 spectators, according to organizers, enjoyed the thunder and glow of roughly 20,000 carefully crafted fireworks.

Last year’s edition was canceled because of severe weather on the intended day and an inability to secure sufficient security staff for the backup date. This year, 57 companies from 19 prefectures took part, launching big shells, which measures 30 centimeters in diameter, rapid-firing star mines and more as they competed for the top prize, the Prime Minister’s Award. Each time a firework rose into the night and lit up the sky with a burst of color, cheers and applause swept through the viewing area set up on the riverbank.

“It was canceled last year, so I was really looking forward to this,” said a 57-year-old man from Tsukuba in the prefecture. “The rapid-fire star mine barrages were spectacular.”