World Expo 2025 began Sunday in the Japanese city of Osaka, with 160 countries and regions displaying their technological, cultural and culinary achievements. Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he hoped the event would restore "a sense of unity in the world once again".
World Expo opened on Sunday with 160 countries and regions showcasing their technology,cultureandfood, with hostJapanhoping to provide the world with some much-needed hope.
Highlights at the show in Osaka until mid-October include aMarsmeteorite, a beating artificial heart grown from stem cells and Hello Kitty figures in algae form.
Surrounding most of the pavilions a chance for architects' fancies to run wild is the world's largest wooden structure, the "Grand Ring".
Its creator Sou Fujimoto told AFP that Expo is a "precious opportunity where so many different cultures... and countries come together in one place to creatediversityand unity".
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba also said the eventwould help bring a sense of unityin a "divided society".
"Through Expo, we would like to restore a sense of unity in the world once again," Ishiba told reporters.
But with conflicts raging and US PresidentDonald Trump'stariffscausing economic turmoil, that may be optimistic.
"Not for sale" states a yellow and blue sign overUkraine's booth echoing defiant comments from leaderVolodymyr Zelenskyabout thewarwithRussia, which is absent at Expo 2025.
"We want the world to know more about our resilience. We are the ones who create, not the ones who destroy," Tatiana Berezhna, deputy minister of economy of Ukraine, told AFP.
Yahel Vilan, head ofIsrael's equally compact pavilion there is also a Palestinian one featuring a stone fromJerusalem's Western Wall, told AFP that "we came with a message ofpeace".
The US building has the theme "America the Beautiful", but with no mention of Trump'stradepolicies.
Instead it focuses on the country's landscapes, AI tech andspace, including a simulated rocket launch where dry-ice blasters appear to ignite above visitors' heads.
The nearby Chinese pavilion, evoking a calligraphy scroll, focuses on green technology and lunar samples brought by the Chang'e-5 and Chang'e-6 probes.
Human washing machine
After enjoying the view and sea breeze atop the Grand Ring's "skywalk", hungry visitors can stop by the world's longest sushi conveyor belt or meet many-eyed Expo 2025 mascot Myaku-Myaku.
Among the more bizarre displays are 32 sculptures of Hello Kitty dressed as different types of algae to symbolise the plant's many uses and a "human washing machine" that shows imagery based on the bather's heart rate.
Elsewhere are demonstrations of drone-like flying vehicles, and the tiny artificial heart made from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) shown in public for the first time.
"It has an actual pulse," Byron Russel of Pasona Group, which runs the exhibit, told AFP.
Themes of sustainability run through the Expo, including at the bauble-like Swiss pavilion, which aims to have the smallest ecological footprint.
But Expos have been criticised for their temporary nature, and after October Osaka's man-made island will be cleared to make way for a casino resort.
According to Japanese media, only 12.5 percent of the Grand Ring will be reused.
Slow ticket sales
Expo is also known as a World's Fair, and the phenomenon, which brought theEiffel TowertoParis, began withLondon's 1851 Crystal Palace exhibition and is held every five years.
The2020 edition in Dubaiwas postponed by the Covid-19 pandemic, so Osaka Expo organisers say it will "restore much-needed connections" and "provide the opportunity to create a better tomorrow".
Osaka last hosted the Expo in 1970 when Japan was booming and its technology the envy of the world. It attracted 64 million people, a record until Shanghai in 2010.
But 55 years on, Japan is less of a trendsetter and opinion polls show low levels of enthusiasm among the public for the Expo, particularly after it went 27 percent over budget.
So far 8.7 million advance tickets have been shifted, below the pre-sales target of 14 million.
Japan is also experiencing a record tourism boom, meaning accommodation in Osaka near hotspot Kyoto is often fully booked with prices sky-high.
But early visitors at the venue voiced their excitement. Local resident Emiko Sakamoto, who also visited the region's last Expo more than five decades ago, was determined to return to the site repeatedly to see all the pavilions.
"I think the Expo is meaningful" in this chaotic time, she said. "People will think about peace after visiting the venue."
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Originally published on France24
