The Expo 2025 opened in Osaka on Sunday with more than 10,000 people singing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to celebrate the start of the six-month event that Japan hopes will unite the world divided by tensions and wars.
The Osaka Expo will be held at Yumeshima – which means ‘dream island – which is a reclaimed industrial waste burial site in the Osaka Bay. Participants from more than 160 countries, regions and organisations showcase their futuristic exhibits inside about 80 pavilions of unique architecture.
The main theme of the second Osaka Expo is to “create a future society for our lives”. The city held the Expo once before in the year 1970, which set record numbers for the event, attracting 64 million visitors. The record was only beat decades later in 2010 in Shanghai.
Organisers expect about 28 million visitors to trickle through by mid-October. Though ticket sales have been slow, with the event having only sold about nine million tickets in advance, short of the initial target of 14 million.
“It’s been 55 years since the last Expo in Osaka. I’ve been looking forward to it,” said Daiki Chiba, who travelled from Sendai, about 900 kilometres northeast of Osaka.
Many visitors carried Myaku-Myaku mascots – the official symbol and logo of the event – or wore clothes matching its colours — red, blue and white — to get in the mood.
The mascot is an imaginary creature featuring a blue face encircled by red balls, some of them eyeballs. Organisers say it was born from the fusion of cells and water in a small spring in the Kansai region.
The Expo comes only four years after Japan struggled to host the no-audience Tokyo Olympics during the coronavirus pandemic.
It opens in the wake of trade wars and fears of a global economic downturn sparked by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the three-year Russian invasion of Ukraine and Middle East conflicts.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba compared the global tensions to a “national crisis” and said that Trump’s tariffs, especially the 25% duty on automobiles, would be a blow to all industries and Japan’s economy.
But, Japan is still committed despite all the global uncertainty to turn the pinch into an opportunity.
“I think the timing is actually quite fitting,” said Sachiko Yoshimura, head of Expo 2025 global communications.
“Holding the Expo now could eventually help to address the divisions in the world. … I believe this Expo in Japan might actually lead to stronger international relationships and improvements,” he added.
Exhibits of cutting-edge technology, such as robots and flying cars, as well as pop culture like Hello Kitty and Gundam, are among the highlights of the Expo.
The US pavilion focuses on space travel. Its lunar stone from the Apollo 12 mission, a sensation at the 1970 expo, was back on display.
China, also highlighting space technology, exhibits soil samples from its lunar missions.
Carrying a “Not for sale” sign and decorated with its blue-and-yellow national flags, Ukraine attracted many visitors with a globe and other items carrying barcodes. By scanning them, visitors can see videos showing people’s lives at war and their reconstruction effort.
Dmytro Liuyi, Ukrainian creative director, said his country’s participation was undecided until December due to the ongoing full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Kyiv’s pavilion aims to highlight the hardships of war and promote global peace and stability over conflict and misery.
