It was announced today that the annual Nico Nico Chokaigi event is the most recent event victim to fall to the ever-spreading Coronavirus. But don’t let that discourage you as Nico Nico has announced that they will be holding an 8-day event starting called Nico Nico Net Chokaigi starting on April 12th, running until April 19th in its place.
Previous instances of the Nico Nico Chokaigi have been a massive success as it is a mecca where the world of Nico Nico comes to life with various events spanning two days take over the Makuhari Messe in Makuhari, Chiba. It is a melting pot of Japanese pop and subculture where fans can join together and share face-to-face communication about the things they love.
The event spans the entirety of the Nico Nico universe with events ranging from gaming, anime, Vocaloid, dances, cosplay, kabuki, trains, politics, technology, sports, and more. It really is something to marvel at.
The Nico Nico team has announced the following:
“With the cancellations of Nico Nico Chokaigi and Tokaigi, we have placed an insurmountable amount of inconvenience to our fans and partners alike. To date, we have been working with our users and partners to make the largest convention even more successful. We have made the decision to place the safety of everyone first and cancel the event, but it was a bittersweet decision. However, in such times, we turn negatives into positives and turn to the power of the internet. “Nico Nico Net Chokaigi 2020” will be held as Japan’s largest internet festival. NTT is a major sponsor for the event and we are extremely pleased that they are committed to working on this with us. We want to make a place on the net where fans’ smiles can be shared together. We are excited about Nico Nico Net Chokaigi 2020, so please share the excitement with us!”
They have also shared the following cancelation notice on their official Twitter
The announcement that this year’s Nico Nico Chokaigi event being canceled doesn’t really come as surprising news as pretty much every event has been getting either canceled or postponed. Where this is just another event being canceled, it really makes you wonder how long this is really going to continue on for.