Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, left, and other officials participate in a groundbreaking ceremony on April 13 at the site of the 2025 Osaka Kansai Expo. (Masaru Komiyaji)

OSAKA--With the clock ticking, a groundbreaking ceremony was held April 13 at the site of the 2025 Osaka Kansai Expo despite no company selected to construct the flagship pavilion.

The expo is scheduled to begin on April 13, 2025, but spiraling material costs have forced construction companies to submit bids for pavilion construction that have exceeded the maximum levels organizers have set.

The overall cost of constructing the expo venue has ballooned to 185 billion yen ($1.4 billion) from the initial projection of 125 billion yen.

Plans had called for construction of the flagship pavilion to begin in early June, but a third bidding process will have to be conducted after the first two failed to produce a contractor.

Materials and construction methods were tweaked for the pavilion to allow companies to submit bids below the estimated cost.

No decision has been made on what will actually be on display in the pavilion when it is constructed.

Central government officials had wanted to decide on a theme this spring, but discussions are continuing with the relevant organizations.

Such delays could affect interest in the expo.

The government had set a target of about 1.2 million students visiting the expo as part of their school trips.

However, with no decision yet on what will be on display and no idea of the admission price, expo secretariat officials said they were receiving few inquiries from schools about attending the expo.

About the only items on which agreement has been reached is a mascot named Myaku-Myaku, the use of flying cars to transport visitors around the expo site and making the entire event cashless.

(This article was written by Kazuhito Suwa and Nen Satomi.)

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