NIPPON-JIN (meaning “Japanese”), on view at the gallery of the Consulate General of Japan (299 Park Avenue, 18th floor, New York, NY 10171) February 1 – February 15, 2013, will show more than 300 unique portrait photographs taken by Junichi Takahashi. This exhibition, presented by J-COLLABO, a unique social network that promotes the Japanese art scene with various collaborating artists, reveals what Takahashi sees as “Japanese people,” opposed to the prototype of stereotypical “Japanese” that others expect and portray. To capture the essence of what makes Japanese “Japanese”, Takahashi decided to approach this project by taking hundreds of samples over a four-year period of Japanese being themselves, letting the accumulation of the subject matter form the answer. Takahashi has also been working hard as a founder of Backup Center Japan, a non-profitable organization started by him one month after the earthquake and tsunami disaster on March 11th, 2011. Since then, he has repeatedly visited affected areas, such as Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, coordinating various art related events for victims. NIPPON-JIN was made into a photo book (published by A-Works, Inc. 1,800 yen, excluding tax) and has been widely distributed to bookstores throughout Japan (also, available on www.amazon.co.jp). Thirty-three percent of the sales of his books will benefit Backup Center Japan so he and his friends can keep up their supportive activities. (For more information on BCJ, please refer to their HP@ www.backup-japan.org). Through this voluntary activity, he has also exhibited photos in affected areas for their briefing session. Along with it, his NIPPON-JIN series traveled to Taiwan, Singapore, and Sidney so far. This time, only NIPPON-JIN series will appear in New York City. After the exhibition in New York City, the exhibition will go to the gallery of Narita International Airport in Japan in this up-coming June. In New York City, his hometown of 20 years, Takahashi is honored to release his latest photography NIPPON-JIN series.