J-POP SUMMIT was held in Japantown as a free outdoor event from 2009 until 2014, and it moved to Fort Mason Center in 2015. When it was in Japantown, the streets were turned into a pedestrian precinct. The number of attendees kept increasing year by year and finally in 2014, it went over the crowd capacity of Japantown. Thus J-POP SUMMIT made its big move to an indoor festival venue to pursue the next level of exhibition and staging, and became a ticketed event in 2015. In 2017, J-POP SUMMIT will be held again at the Fort Mason Center For Arts & Culture (Festival Pavilion, Firehouse and outside Parking area)  This is the first Japanese Film Festival in Northern California held along with J-POP SUMMIT for about 2 weeks. At this festival, selected Japanese films are screened; and prominent guests are typically invited from Japan to make appearance on stage for US premieres. Originally, “film” was just one of the contents at J-POP SUMMIT, but for the popularity it gained, it became an independent festival in 2013. Tadanobu Asada, a Japanese actor, received the first Japan Film Festival of San Francisco Honorary Award at the opening night event that was held at Castro Theatre in 2015. Sake Summit is a sake tasting event at J-POP SUMMIT. Major sake manufacturers, distributors, and retailers gather at one place to promote Japanese sake culture. The number of sake labels available at this event is increasing every year and it reached 52 different bottles in 2015. Ramen Summit* is where the top ramen restaurants gather to show off their best broth and noodles. People can enjoy ‘slurping’ a variety of ramen, including Tonkotsu (pork bone broth), Miso, Shoyu (soy broth), Tsuke-men and more. The list of ramen shops that have participated are: Orenchi Beyond, Hinodeya Ramen & Bar, Marufuku Ramen, YOROSHIKU, nojo ramen tavern, Naruto Ramen, Ramen TAKA, and Iza Ramen.