A Mascot with Many Eyes, Numerous Robots, and Sushi: EXPO 2025 Begins in Osaka
The World EXPO is held every five years in different locations around the globe. This year, the global event is hosted by Osaka, Japan, where it will open its gates to visitors on April 13, 2025, and welcome them until mid-October. So, what can people look forward to this year?
Dozens of national pavilions are surrounded by the Grand Ring, which the Guinness World Records has recognised as the largest wooden architectural structure in the world. Architect Sou Fujimoto told AFP that his impressive construction, which cost the equivalent of over five billion Czech crowns and spans a diameter of two kilometres, symbolises unity. Lattice beams support a sloping roof that reaches 20 meters at its highest point and serves as a 'sky walkway.' Fujimoto also noted that he chose wood as a sustainable material.
The mascot of EXPO 2025 is MYAKU-MYAKU — a playful blue-and-red creature with five bulging eyes arranged around a smiling mouth and a sixth eye on its red tail. According to organisers, this mysterious being was born from the union of cells and water.' When it was first introduced, reactions were somewhat confused, but since then, MYAKU-MYAKU has been gaining popularity on Japanese social media and has even inspired fan art.
EXPO returns to Osaka for the second time. The city first hosted the World Expo in 1970, where visitors witnessed the world premiere of an IMAX film and admired rocks brought back from the Moon.
This year, the Japanese pavilion builds on the legacy of the 1970 Moon rocks by exhibiting, for the first time ever, a Martian meteorite discovered by Japanese scientists in Antarctica. Other attractions include Japan’s longest sushi conveyor belt, cutting-edge robots, drone shows, and a beating 'heart' grown from stem cells.
In the American pavilion, themed 'The Beautiful America,' visitors can experience a NASA rocket launch simulator on a large LED screen. Meanwhile, the Jamaican pavilion features life-size statues of Bob Marley and Usain Bolt, along with a bobsled track.
In 2023, a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, it announced that it would not participate in EXPO 2025. On the other hand, Ukraine has a pavilion in Osaka, where it plans to exhibit 18 items, including helmets used during the restoration of energy infrastructure damaged by the Russian invasion.
Czechia has constructed its national pavilion based on a spiral-shaped design by Apropos Architects. During a trial opening last weekend, the pavilion was visited by Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Throughout the exhibition, performances from the Czech Philharmonic, Cirk La Putyka, and the Alfa Theatre from Plzeň are scheduled. One of the highlights of Czechia’s program will be the National Day, set for July 24, commemorating the birth of the beloved painter Alfons Mucha in 1860.
Source: Czech News Agency, author’s adaptations