Is there another place to exhibit in Switzerland?
Japan Impact in Lausanne grew from 2,000 to 12,500 over sixteen years

“We understand Polymanga in Switzerland. But starting with a large paid event feels heavy. Is there somewhere in the same country that is easier to try?”

There is. Japan Impact in Lausanne. It is held on the campus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, known as EPFL, and the official site states a scale of more than 12,000 visitors and more than 150 stands. What makes it remarkable, however, is that the organisers publish the visitor figures for every edition from the first in 2009 to the most recent. In 2009 there were 2,000 visitors. In 2025 there were more than 12,500. You can read, as it stands, the record of a sixfold increase over sixteen years.

Below we list only the facts we were able to confirm on the official site.

1. The stated scale is more than 12,000 visitors and more than 150 stands

Six figures appear on the front page of the official site.

1. More than 12,000 visitors
2. More than 150 exhibitor stands
3. More than 300 volunteers
4. More than 50 workshops and activities
5. More than 30 talks and performances
6. Two days of programme

The figure of 150 stands has a practical meaning for anyone considering exhibiting. Unlike a large trade fair with thousands of booths, it is a size a visitor can walk through completely in two days. The Japan Tours Festival in Tours, which we covered earlier, had 407 exhibitors, and Made in Asia in Brussels had 397. This is one size smaller than those. It is a scale where you are less likely to be buried.

2. Sixteen years of visitor records are published as they are

The value of this event as a source lies less in its scale than in the fact that every past edition is published with its figure. From the official “past editions” page, here are the visitor numbers year by year. All are as the organisers state them.

1. 2009: 2,000 (14 to 15 March)
2. 2010: 2,000
3. 2011: 3,000
4. 2012: 4,500
5. 2013: more than 4,000
6. 2014: more than 5,000
7. 2015: more than 6,500
8. 2016: more than 6,500
9. 2017: more than 8,000
10. 2018: more than 7,500
11. 2019: more than 7,800
12. 2020: more than 9,000
13. 2021: more than 3,000 (held online)
14. 2022: more than 12,000 (held in August)
15. 2023: more than 11,000
16. 2024: more than 12,000
17. 2025: more than 12,500

Here we will not read only the convenient parts. These seventeen editions are not a clean upward line. Against more than 8,000 in 2017, 2018 recorded more than 7,500, below the previous year. 2015 and 2016 both stand at more than 6,500, a plateau. 2021 moved online, and 2022 was held in August rather than February.

With years that fell, and years when the event itself moved, it has grown sixfold over sixteen years. That is the accurate way to read this record.

3. The organiser is a university student association

The event is run by an association called PolyJapan, on the EPFL campus. The venue address is the north sector of the EPFL campus, postcode 1015 Lausanne. The official site describes it as the largest Japanese culture festival in French-speaking Switzerland, and states that it has grown every year since its founding in 2009.

That the organiser is a student body has both a good side and a side to watch, for anyone considering exhibiting.

1. Good. With more than 300 volunteers running it, the distance to visitors is short. It is less likely to become the routine exchange common at corporate trade fairs
2. Good. Because the venue is a university campus, students and younger visitors walk it densely. You reach a future customer base
3. To watch. The people running it change with the academic year. A relationship built one year does not necessarily connect to the same person the next
4. To watch. It is not a purpose-built exhibition hall, so loading and power cannot be assumed on the same terms as a Japanese trade fair venue

The third point in fact happens on the exhibitor side too. Among the reasons Japanese companies fail to continue at overseas events is that the enthusiasm is not handed on when the person in charge changes. The France chapter of the Digital Content White Paper, written by our representative, records the same observation in its section on a local authority exhibiting in consecutive years. If people change on both the organising and the exhibiting side, then what keeps a thing going has to be placed in the form, not in the person.

4. The way in is an enquiry through the official site

For anyone considering exhibiting, here is what we could confirm on the official site.

1. Exhibitor applications are announced as opening from June
2. The method is to write to the contact point on the official site
3. The exhibitor fee is not published on the official site
4. At the time of writing, the event announced on the front page is the 17th edition, 14 to 15 February 2026. We could not find a published date for the following edition

A note on the fourth point. The February 2026 edition has already taken place. If you wait for the next dates to be published officially before you move, you may miss the applications that open in June. Rather than waiting for the announcement, the safer order is to write to them first.

5. Switzerland has two events of different character

Switzerland also has Polymanga, which we have already covered on this blog. Same country, same French-speaking region, and clearly different in character.

1. Polymanga separates the way in itself, with one route for artists and another for businesses
2. Japan Impact is held on a university campus, at a scale of 150 stands
3. The timing differs too. Polymanga is in spring, Japan Impact is normally in February

Neither is superior. The practical reading is that you can show your face twice in one year, in the same country and the same language area. The single largest reason overseas events produce nothing is exhibiting once and stopping before you have a feel for it. If the same market offers two occasions a year, what you observed the first time can be applied the second.

We have exhibited eleven times in total at Japan Expo and other manga-related events in France. What repetition taught us is that accuracy of translation is not what works on site. Whether someone who cannot read your language can still follow the story from the pictures alone. That is the only thing that stops people in the aisle.

Frequently asked questions

Q1. How much does a stand cost?

It was not published on the official site. You would need to write to the official contact point. European events often do not publish a list, because the price changes with the exhibitor category and the position of the stand. The absence of a published figure is not unusual in itself.

Q2. Is the figure of 12,000 visitors audited?

It is published by the organisers themselves. It is not a third-party audited figure. If you want to compare audited numbers, place it beside events that publish them, such as Art to Play in Nantes. That said, this event publishes sixteen years of figures year by year, and the counting method does not appear to have changed along the way. That is a point in its favour when you judge.

Q3. Why French, if it is in Switzerland?

Lausanne is in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. The official site is written in French and English. Consider it a market where the materials you prepared for France can be used as they are. Entering through this smaller event as a rehearsal for the French events themselves is a sequence that works.

Q4. Can a company outside manga and anime exhibit?

It is a festival of Japanese culture, covering manga, anime, games and traditional Japanese culture broadly. The dividing line is whether you can place your product back into the context of Japanese culture. If you are unsure, the fastest route is to write to them stating what you handle.

Q5. What about exhibiting once and seeing how it goes?

We would not recommend it. The sixteen-year record above is itself the answer. This event began at 2,000 and, with years that fell along the way, has reached more than 12,500. Where the organisers have kept going for sixteen years, an exhibitor judging on one appearance is not a fair balance. Please decide the budget and the staffing for at least two editions before you apply.

You can see our actual work on manga for overseas audiences. See our international manga work

It began with 2,000 people. A small beginning is not a reason to stop.