BPI to promote international ties with week August trip to Far East.

Week-long Tokyo jaunt to showcase UK creativity and promote collaboration planned for August, culminating in a strong UK contingent at Summer Sonic festival

A BPI mission to Tokyo this summer is to play a prominent role in the year-long celebrations marking 150 years of trading between the UK and Japan.

The fifth such Japanese visit is to be the biggest and most high- profile yet, with the British Embassy in Japan planning to capitalise on the music delegation as part of an anniversary programme to showcase British contemporary creativity and promote UK-Japanese collaboration.

"The British Embassy have a huge programme of events over the course of the year, and we'll benefit from that," says BPI independent members services director Julian Wall, whose organisation's mission to Japan is being run in conjunction with UK Trade & Investment (UKTI).

"We're going to do a lot of the presentations at the Embassy, using their resources and facilities. They've been very helpful to us."

The BPI and UKTI have, in particular, been working closely with former HMV Japan executive Pete Chapman - who is now creative and media commercial officer in the British Embassy's trade and investment department - in putting together the mission, which will give UK indie labels the chance to converse directly with key players from the Japanese music industry.

It is one of a series of international events being undertaken by the BPI this year, with British Music Week Germany returning in November, the same month a sync trade mission will travel to Los Angeles.