WA! CHEESE FES – a two-day showcase of cheese made in Japan
Producers from Hokkaido to Okinawa, a free-entry zone, and timed tasting sessions you need a ticket for.
200Japanese cheeses available to taste with a paid ticketIf you live in Japan and have only ever met domestic cheese as a single wedge in a department store fridge, this is the weekend that fixes that. On 10 and 11 October 2026, around 200 kinds of Japanese natural cheese are gathered in one open-air venue in central Tokyo, with the people who actually made them standing behind the tables.
The event is called WA! CHEESE FES, and it is run by the NPO Cheese Professional Association (NPO法人チーズプロフェッショナル協会). Entry to part of the site is free; the tasting area is ticketed and runs on timed sessions, so the one decision worth making before you go is which ticket – if any – you need.
The event in one minute
WA! CHEESE FES brings together cheese producers from across Japan for two days of tasting, retail sales, exhibits, hands-on activities and stage programmes. The organiser expects roughly 5,000 visitors over the weekend.
Inside the paid zone, the core attraction is an exhibition-and-tasting session billed as the 10th Selection of Japan’s Finest Cheeses (第10回 日本の銘チーズ百選), where the roughly 200 cheeses are lined up to be compared side by side. Because producers travel to the venue themselves, you can ask directly about the region, the milk and the ageing – which is the part you cannot replicate by buying a single piece online.
Running alongside it is the Japan Cheese Awards 2026, the domestic natural-cheese competition, with its results announced on the Sunday.
Dates, venue and opening hours
The venue is Roppongi Hills Arena (六本木ヒルズアリーナ), at 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo. The two days do not run on identical hours, so check the row for the day you plan to attend.
| Day | Free area | Paid tasting area (timed sessions) |
|---|---|---|
| Sat 10 Oct 2026 | 11:30-19:00 | Part 1 11:30-13:30 Part 2 14:30-16:00 Part 3 17:00-19:00 |
| Sun 11 Oct 2026 | 11:00-18:00 | Part 1 11:00-12:30 Part 2 13:30-15:30 Part 3 16:30-18:00 |
The paid area operates on a changeover system between sessions, so your tasting time is bounded by the part you hold a ticket for. On Sunday, the Japan Cheese Awards 2026 ceremony is scheduled inside Part 2, from 14:30 to 15:30.
Access details and any last-minute changes are posted on the official WA! CHEESE FES page; confirm there before you travel.
Free area vs paid tasting area
This is the distinction that trips people up, so it is worth being blunt about it.
Free area
No ticket needed. Open 11:30-19:00 on Saturday and 11:00-18:00 on Sunday. This is where you soak up the atmosphere of the arena, browse and look around.
Paid tasting area
A paid ticket is required to enter. Timed sessions with swap-overs between parts. This is the only way into the roughly 200-cheese tasting line-up.
In other words: if you want to taste the 200 cheeses, you need a ticket. If you just want to drop by, see the stage area and get a feel for the scene, you can walk in for nothing. Buying tickets and browsing the sales stalls and exhibits are two separate decisions.
The two tickets, and how to choose
Two ticket types are sold, and both include the tasting of around 200 Japanese cheeses. What differs is the length of your session and how much guided content comes with it.
| Ticket | Price (tax incl.) | Length | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| WA! Taiken (WA!っと体験チケット) | 2,500 yen | 90 minutes | A first look. Graze widely, find a favourite, no cheese background needed. |
| WA! Tankyu (WA!っと探求チケット) | 3,500 yen | 120 minutes | Going deeper. Adds seminars and pairings on top of the tasting. |
Sales opened at 11:00 on 26 August 2026 and run until 23:59 on 9 October 2026, but supply is limited and sales end once tickets are gone. Tickets cannot be reissued, returned or refunded, so treat the session time you pick as final.
Children of pre-school age enter the paid area free. From elementary school age upward, a paid ticket is required.
What wa-cheese actually means
You will see the term wa-cheese (和チーズ) everywhere at this event. It is not a legal category or a style of cheese – it is a name the organiser started using in 2026 as a friendlier way of saying domestic Japanese natural cheese.
The idea behind it is that cheese made in Japan reflects local conditions: the climate of each region, the water, the raw milk, and a food culture with a long history of fermenting and ageing. Two cheeses of the same type can taste noticeably different depending on where the milk came from and how the maker chose to work with it. That is precisely why a side-by-side tasting of 200 of them is more interesting than it sounds on paper.
The WA! in the event name has a double meaning the organiser has explained publicly: the sound of surprise when a cheese catches you off guard, and the word for a circle – the connection they want to build between producers and the table.
The event itself has a longer history than the current name suggests. It began in 2009 as a tasting exhibition called the Selection of Japan’s Finest Cheeses, with 41 workshops and 110 products. It ran as Cheese Fun! Fan! Fun! from 2022, and has been renamed WA! CHEESE FES for 2026.
Japan Cheese Awards 2026 and the ceremony
The Japan Cheese Awards is a domestic natural-cheese competition that started in 2014 and is held every two years; 2026 marks the seventh edition. This year 131 workshops entered a total of 402 products, 19 of those workshops entering for the first time, and the entries are judged across 27 categories by certified cheese professionals.
A new addition this year is the Process Cheese Contest 2026, covering domestically made processed cheese – the first time it has been held. All judging results, for both competitions, are announced on Sunday 11 October.
Two details matter if you are planning around the awards:
- The judging itself is held at Bellesalle Roppongi and is not open to the public.
- The ceremony is at Roppongi Hills Arena, with category results and winning cheeses announced from 14:30 to 15:30 on Sunday. The stage programme is also set to show how the cheese professionals carry out judging, which is normally a closed process.
For a sense of the level involved: at the Japan Cheese Awards 2024, the grand prix went to Takara no Takara from Cheese Kobo Takara (チーズ工房タカラ) in Hokkaido, a long-aged hard cheese made from nothing but raw milk and salt, using milk from pasture-raised cows and natural lactic acid bacteria for fermentation and ageing. The same workshop has a run of results at the World Cheese Awards: Gold in 2019 for Takara no Takara and Takara no Tokeru, Bronze in 2021 for Takara no Tokeru, Bronze and Silver in 2023 for Takara no Maruta and Takara no Fume, and Gold again in 2025 for Takara no Takara.
The awards have their own dedicated page, and the association behind it all publishes its wider activities, including its cheese certification exams, on the Cheese Professional Association site.
Practical notes before you go
- Buy before 9 October. Ticket sales close at 23:59 that day, and can end earlier if stock runs out.
- Ninety minutes goes fast. With roughly 200 cheeses on the floor, nobody tastes everything. Decide in advance whether you are chasing a region, a milk type or a style, and work through that group properly rather than grazing at random.
- Talk to the makers. Producers travelling to the venue is the part you cannot get from a shop shelf, and the language barrier is usually smaller than you expect when there is a cheese on the table to point at.
- The Sunday 13:30-15:30 session overlaps the ceremony. If watching the results announced matters to you, that is the part to pick; if you would rather taste undisturbed, pick a different one.
- Selling is part of the event too. Retail sales are listed in the programme alongside tasting, so bring capacity to carry cheese home and keep it cool on the way.
Coming into Tokyo for the weekend? It is worth lining the trip up with whatever discounts are running – long-distance rail offers such as the JR East Tokudane half-price Shinkansen fares or the autumn three-day local train pass can cover a good share of the travel cost, and a running Marriott Bonvoy points promotion is useful if you need a night in the city. Already in Tokyo and just looking for a cheap add-on to the day, the 300-yen sento coupon is an easy way to end it.
FAQ
- Q. Do I need a ticket to enter WA! CHEESE FES?
- No ticket is needed for the free area, which is open 11:30-19:00 on 10 October and 11:00-18:00 on 11 October. A paid ticket is required to enter the tasting area with the roughly 200 Japanese cheeses.
- Q. How much are the tickets?
- The WA! Taiken ticket is 2,500 yen including tax for a 90-minute session, and the WA! Tankyu ticket is 3,500 yen including tax for a 120-minute session. Both include tasting of around 200 Japanese cheeses.
- Q. What is the difference between the two tickets?
- Both cover the same tasting line-up. The 3,500 yen ticket gives you 30 more minutes and adds seminars and pairings, so it suits visitors who want to go deeper rather than just graze.
- Q. Until when are tickets sold?
- Sales run from 11:00 on 26 August 2026 to 23:59 on 9 October 2026, and end earlier once tickets sell out. Tickets cannot be reissued, returned or refunded.
- Q. Can I bring children?
- Pre-school children enter the paid area free of charge. From elementary school age upward, a paid ticket is required.
- Q. Where and when is the Japan Cheese Awards 2026 ceremony?
- The ceremony is held at Roppongi Hills Arena from 14:30 to 15:30 on Sunday 11 October, inside the second paid session. The judging itself takes place at Bellesalle Roppongi and is not open to the public.
- Q. How many cheeses are entered in the competition?
- A total of 402 products from 131 workshops were entered in the Japan Cheese Awards 2026, including 19 first-time workshops, judged across 27 categories.
- Q. Is the venue the same on both days?
- Yes. Both days take place at Roppongi Hills Arena, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, but the opening hours and the session times differ between Saturday and Sunday.
Details above follow the organiser’s announcement. Schedules, ticket availability and programme content can change, so confirm on the official event page or the Cheese Fun! portal before you buy or travel.