Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, center, reacts to the newly announced nickname of the official mascot for the 2025 Osaka Kansai Expo during an event in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward on July 18. (Taishi Sasayama)

The organizer of the 2025 Osaka Kansai Expo has selected "Myaku-Myaku," which means something passed down from generation to generation, as the nickname of the event’s official mascot.

The Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition announced the nickname at events held in Osaka and Tokyo on July 18 to mark 1,000 days until the opening of the expo.

A screening committee set up by the association chose Myaku-Myaku out of 33,197 nicknames submitted from across Japan.

Committee members, including copywriters, decided on the nickname because it can be used globally and evokes a sense of affinity, according to the association.

The association also unveiled a clock counting down the days until April 13, 2025, the opening of the expo, at Universal Studios Japan, the venue for the July 18 event in Osaka.

Kobukuro, a popular singing duo, performed “Kono Hoshi no Tsuzuki wo” (The future of this planet), the official theme song of the expo, for the first time at the event.

The other event was held at Tokyo Skytree in the capital’s Sumida Ward. Shingo Murakami, a member of idol group Kanjani Eight, served as the host.

Other attendees included Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Masakazu Tokura, chair of Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), who also heads the association.

“I hope this event will help not only people in Osaka and other parts of the Kansai region, but also those in Tokyo and the rest of the country become more interested in the expo,” Kishida said in his address.

Tokyo Skytree was also lit up in blue and red, the expo’s signature colors.

Organizers tightened security at the July 18 events in response to the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Nara on July 8 while he was giving a campaign speech for a candidate in the Upper House election.

More security guards were dispatched to the venues than initially planned, and all media representatives were asked to undergo baggage checks and pass through a metal detector.

(This article was written by Itsuki Soeda and Taishi Sasayama.)

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