Given that the Powell Street Festival is devoted to celebrating Japanese and Japanese-Canadian culture, you might expect that diversity ranks low on the list of the long-running annual event’s priorities—but you’d be wrong.

Sure, there are many culturally specific presentations on the roster this weekend: it does not get much more Japanese than a shakuhachi recital. But for proof of Japanese music’s global reach, consider what shakuhachi virtuoso Alcvin Ryuzen Ramos is doing in conjunction with his partner in the duo Bushido, multi-instrumentalist Nori Akagi. The shakuhachi, an end-blown flute made from a gnarly piece of bamboo, is indigenous to the Japanese archipelago—but Ramos is a Canadian of Filipino heritage, and brings an array of outside influences to his music. And then there are taiko performances by Vancouver’s own Chibi Taiko, Katari Taiko, Sansho Daiko, Sawagi Taiko, Vancouver Okinawa Taiko, and Onibana Taiko, alongside California’s all-female troupe Jodaiko. The drum-heavy idiom originated to accompany rural harvest ceremonies, but in its modern form it’s played worldwide and often features new works written by composers of many different ethnicities.

In terms of less traditionally rooted musical forms, one standout booking is Emma Lee Toyoda, whose punk-influenced singer-songwriter approach is less about their status as the child of Japanese and Korean parents, and more about how the vagaries of love affect a nonbinary 20-something in polyglot Seattle.

Artistic diversity is further served by an array of readings, film screenings, visual-arts exhibitions, and dance performances, including an appearance by the always stunning avant-butoh troupe Kokoro Dance.