Political Pulse

Can Expo Show Bright Future and Recognize Dark Present? Event May Offer Chances for Dialogue Amid Intl Conflict

The Yomiuri Shimbun
An aerial view of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo venue in Osaka on Feb. 19

By Kenji Nakanishi

8:00 JST, March 15, 2025

On April 13, the Osaka-Kansai Expo will begin a six-month run on Yumeshima, an artificial island in Osaka City. As the host nation, Japan has set the Expo’s theme as “Designing Future Society for Our Lives.” But is it enough to simply focus on a shining future when the present is marked by ongoing wars and conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar, Congo and elsewhere? With the Expo persistently criticized as “outdated,” this question pertains to its very reason for being.

About 160 countries and regions will participate. The pavilions of the Japanese government and Japanese companies generally focus on exhibits that make use of digital technology. Those pavilions will offer visitors the opportunity to experience cutting-edge science and technology, as well as Japanese traditions and hospitality in a spectacular setting.

While catchphrases such as “a laboratory for a future society” flutter about, not much has been heard from the Japanese side to indicate that their exhibitions will deal head-on with the problems of life in areas of conflict.

One of the Japanese producers working on a pavilion stated at a public symposium last fall, “It was explained to me that the term ‘war’ would not be used at the Expo.” While the Olympic Games, known as the “Festival of Peace,” uphold political neutrality in the Olympic Charter, there is no provision for political neutrality in the Convention Relating International Exhibitions, which defines the format of World Expos. In fact, one of the three subthemes of this year’s Expo is “Saving Lives,” which focuses on protecting and saving the lives of individuals. It would be going too far if participants were to slander rival nations at an Expo, whose purpose is “education of the public,” but if there is a mindset among exhibitors that war-related exhibits and events are taboo, that would also be misguided.

Prof. Mayuko Sano of the Graduate School of Kyoto University, who has been researching the history of Expos, said: “The Osaka-Kansai Expo will be remembered as the Expo that took place amid Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East. There should be no problem in explicitly dealing with the issue of war, and we should not avoid that at this Expo.”

In fact, past Expos have served as a stage for reflecting on international affairs. At the Paris Expo in 1937, when the shadow of world war was once again looming, Pablo Picasso’s painting “Guernica” was exhibited. This masterpiece depicted the tragedy of the indiscriminate bombing of a Spanish village by Nazi Germany and later became a symbol of anti-war sentiment. During the Vietnam War, the U.S.-backed government of South Vietnam had an exhibit at the 1970 Osaka Expo. According to that Expo’s official commemorative photo album, “Despite the intense warfare, they announced their participation and appealed for the importance of peace with an entire pavilion.”

What are stances of the parties involved in conflicts? Tetyana Berezhna, deputy minister of Ukraine’s Economy Ministry, who became the country’s commissioner general for the Expo after it hastily decided to participate four months ago, said in January that the contents of the exhibition are still under consideration and that “it’s our biggest task to save our state.” Showcasing how businesses work and farmers grow grain under barrages of rockets and missiles, she said, “In this pavilion, we’d like to be very creative to show how we carry on even in times of war.”

The U.N. will organize an event where visitors can experience a virtual reality simulation of the battle-affected sites in Ukraine, which is under Russian aggression, and in Gaza, which has been subjected to Israeli assaults, and discuss the prevention of conflicts. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is also planning events in August that could discuss peace and security.

Ordinary international conferences last only a few days, but the Expo will run for approximately 180 days. It is expected that many heads of state and cabinet-level officials will visit Japan during the Expo. Belgium’s commissioner general for the Expo, former Defense Minister Pieter De Crem, described the Expo as a special stage for diplomacy, saying: “It brings giant opportunities to meet in an environment which I always call the second desk. You’re not at a negotiating table but you have the opportunity to see what can be done. I cannot say [it means] restarting negotiations but [it does give] incentives.”

The first Expo was held in London in 1851, and in recent years the event has been held every five years; its more than 170-year history is longer than that of the modern Olympics, which began in 1896. The last Expo, in Dubai, saw 24.1 million visitors, almost double the 12.1 million tickets sold for the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics. The Expo, like the Olympics, is a huge international event.

Still, there are strong critics who say that smartphones are sufficient for learning about foreign countries and that presenting visions of the future will not attract people anymore. Estonia’s economic affairs minister reportedly said that his country would not participate in the Expo because the expected €3 million to €4 million price tag was too high and also because this kind of international gathering is outdated.

The success or failure of the Expo will be judged on whether the target of 28.2 million visitors can be met, as well as the event’s ability to provide forums for dialogue to address the global crisis of war and conflict. If it does fail, arguments that an Expo is a worthless pursuit will intensify.

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