The summit brochure is a joint product of the CIE and executive committee. However, since at least 2007, each brochure follows a similar format by offering participants a full preview of the summit. In essence, the brochure acts as a pre-narrative of the summit by both enticing participants by assuaging any concerns regarding the unpredictable while also emphasizing a unique, though prefabricated, experience. The summit brochure begins with messages from summit organizers followed by an explanation of grassroots exchange. Accompanying this description is an outline of the four phases of the summit: The opening ceremony, local sessions, closing ceremony, and post option programs. A brief explanation of the historical encounter between John Manjiro and Captain Whitfield is also provided. The brochure also includes information about the prefecture where the summit is held, wherein the prefecture’s current tourist campaign language is interwoven. Besides boasting about the density of natural hot springs in the prefecture, the 2015 brochure made generic references to the area’s local food, natural beauty, and climate while also prompting that Ōita can offer insight into learning about
Japan. Previous summit brochures utilized similar tropes. The Kōchi summit brochure in 2011 stated: “Kochi is a region of lush green forests and deep blue seas...” While the Shimane summit in 2013 contained the phrase: “Today, this land of untouched beauty remains hidden…” Each brochure provides statistics and trivia regarding the prefecture such as its population, capital city, average temperature, and sister city (there are 400 sister city relationships between Japan and the U.S).
The brochure then provides an itinerary of the summit including descriptions of the hotels for the opening and closing ceremonies (these are often different locations) as well as the
addresses and phone numbers for these locations. Most of the summit brochure is dominated by descriptions for the local sessions and post summit optional programs. There are an average of five post-summit programs that participants can attend after the official summit is over. These programs take place in other parts of Japan, including an extended hotel stay in Tokyo. The pricing for the post summit programs are displayed along with what the CIE terms program coordinators. The post summit program page includes the line: “After the Grassroots Summit, you can extend your stay in Japan to discover more [sic] and make friends in other regions!” Many of these post summit programs also have host stays, thus promoting grassroots exchange beyond the summit. On the back page of each summit brochure are the projected costs of the summit based on the airport where participants will depart from the United States. The application deadline is also marked along with contact information for the CIE and travel agency. Included in the brochure is the application. Once participants pay for their trip, the CIE mails a summit guide and further promotional materials from the prefectural tourism office.
The summit guide is, on average, a 40-page booklet that provides detailed itineraries of the summit, local sessions, and post summit programs. The guide also provides airline
information, airport and hotel maps, meal-times, clothing suggestions, tips on Japanese bathing and toilet customs, as well as some basic Japanese phrases. The final page of the summit guide includes a comments section for the CIE. Included with the summit guide is a brochure from the official prefectural tourist department (e.g Kōchi Prefecture Culture and International Affairs Divison, Shimane Prefectural Government Tourism Promotion Division). These materials often have glossy paper with high resolution photographs, detailed area maps, important historical events, important festivals and pictures of local products, and pictures of locals performing rituals or wearing traditional clothing. Unlike previous summits, the 2015 brochure for Ōita was not a multi-page booklet. Rather, Tourism Ōita provided a large folded pamphlet that contained a detailed map of the prefecture on one-side, including geographic data, and the other side
information on the various regions of the prefecture. Each region was introduced with a sub-title such as Beppu Bay Area: Ōita’s Onsen and Amusement Spot, thus providing a thematic
introduction to the area. Local attractions, delicacies and souvenirs, and an explanation of the significance of the region to the prefecture’s uniqueness were included. Along with traditional or historical attractions, the brochure also stressed Ōita’s more modern facilities such as the
Autopolis racecourse and Harmony Land amusement park.
The brochures for the summit portray the prefectures in Japan where the summits are held as distinct but also as contributing to the national-cultural whole. Ōita, for example, is exalted for its wonderful and abundant nature that is both regionally distinct but exemplary of Japan’s unique and sublime nature. Consider the language used in the 2015 Ōita summit brochure published by the CIE: “Ōita has a rich history and cultural heritage that is unmissable [sic] for those who wish to learn about Japan…” The Shimane summit in 2013 is another good case in point in which Shimane prefecture was construed as the birthplace of Japanese mythology and,
thus, particularly unique to other areas in Japan. In this regard, the CIE appropriated specific advertising language as used by the prefectural government to entice participants to attend the summit as both a unique experience and significant to Japanese history. Such advertising obfuscates the means by which particular sites within contemporary geopolitical borders are appropriated for the purposes of constructing national identities and, subsequently, serve to orient the origins of the nation state (Anderson, 2006; Hobsbawm and Ranger, 2012; Fujitani, 1996, 2004).