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 is held at Yumeshima, which means “dream island,” a reclaimed industrial waste burial site in the Osaka Bay, where participants from more than 160 countries, regions and organizations showcase their futuristic exhibits inside about 80 pavillons of unique architecture.
“Creating a future society for our lives” is the main theme. It is Osaka’s second Expo after the hugely successful 1970 event that attracted 64 million visitors, a record until Shanghai in 2010.
Organisers expect 28 million visitors through mid-October, though ticket sales have been slow, with about nine million sold in advance, short of an initial target of 14 million.
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 U.S. 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 vehicles, would be a blow to all industries and Japan’s economy.
“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.”
