Photo/Illutration An illustration of the venue for the 2025 Osaka Kansai Expo to be held on Yumeshima, an artificial island in Osaka Bay (Provided by the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition)

Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura is calling for more flexibility in thinking about how to pay for and build national pavilions that have yet to start construction for the 2025 Osaka Kansai Expo.

He also is rejecting suggestions that the start of the expo be pushed back or that participating nations be asked to withdraw.

Fifty-six nations and regions have indicated they intend to construct their own pavilions, but they still require prior approval from the Osaka municipal government before work can begin. However, not a single application has been submitted as of July 26.

“We should stop insisting that all those nations proceed with their plans when it is clear they cannot implement them,” said Yoshimura, who also serves as one of the vice chairmen of the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition, at a news conference that day.

The type A pavilions the 56 nations want to build are considered a key attraction of the expo because they allow the foreign governments to portray their countries, cultures and customs through eye-popping concepts.

But Yoshimura said at the news conference that if the 56 nations were made to stick to their type A plans, some pavilions might not be completed in time for the April 2025 start of the expo.

The proposal has been raised of having the association serve as an agent to facilitate discussions between the foreign governments and Japanese construction companies.

Yoshimura said other alternatives should be presented to foreign governments that have been asked to decide by the end of August how they want to go about constructing the pavilions.

Yoichi Miyamoto, chairman of the Japan Federation of Construction Contractors, said in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun on July 26 that he was concerned about confusion arising as pavilion construction becomes concentrated in the months before April 2025 as construction periods would have to be shortened due to the delay in the start of the work.

At the same time, Miyamoto said something had to be done to keep as many type A pavilions as possible because without such showcase buildings foreign visitors would not want to visit the expo and it would greatly lessen the significance of the world fair.

(This article was written by Juntaro Oka, Shinji Hakotani, Daisuke Matsuoka and Akifumi Nagahashi.)

Related News