2025 Expo Osaka: Popular Dishes from 1970 Osaka Expo Revived at 2025 Expo; Recreated Recipes Giving Attendees a Taste of the Past

By Keisuke Kadoma / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

11:30 JST, June 22, 2025

OSAKA — The ORA Gaishoku Pavilion “Utage” at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo is drawing in crowds with dishes to help visitors enjoy a taste of nostalgia. The meals are made based on recipes from the 1970 Osaka Expo and other places at that time, with an emphasis on ingredients and flavors.

Nissei Co., headquartered in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, sells a soft-serve ice cream flavor called “Vanilla 1970” (¥700), based on what the company sold at the 1970 Expo. They sell an average of about 200 servings of the soft serve per day.

According to the company, walking around the venue with the soft serve in hand was popular at the 1970 Expo, eventually helping to spread the product nationwide.

For the current Expo, the company aimed to recreate the taste from the past, hoping to please people of all generations regardless of whether they experienced the 1970 Expo. However, the exact recipe was lost in the relocation of the development office and factory, so the company selected ingredients based on the opinions of employees who were familiar with the original ice cream. The company also was able to simulate the old recipe’s vanilla aroma.

Yasuo Kase, a development department manager, said: “Around the time of the 1970 Expo, a rich vanilla flavor using condensed milk was the mainstream. For this Expo, we aimed for a similar vanilla taste with strong condensed milk flavor again.”

Following the mainstream design of the past, the cone was also designed to be somewhat smaller than modern ones and with a flat bottom.

Miyako Ueguchi, a 67-year-old from Nagoya who ate the soft serve on May 14, said with a smile: “It wasn’t too sweet and had a nostalgic taste of the past. I was reminded of a happy time at the 1970 Expo with my family.”

Curry and rice

Another popular dish is the curry and rice called “55-nen Mae no Osaka Banpaku no Curry” (Curry and rice from the Osaka Expo 55 years ago) at ¥1,500, which is jointly offered by Cafe Eikokuya and MCC Food Products Co., a Kobe-based food company. Many people who ate the dish said it evoked nostalgia, as it tasted very similar to the curry and rice they ate for lunch at school.

The dish was recreated based on the recipe and photos of curry and rice MCC served at the 1970 Expo. It has a mild flavor and features common ingredients such as potatoes, carrots, onions and beef. Inspired by the classic practice of serving curry and rice with a splash of sauce, it comes with Worcestershire sauce.

When it was sold over a two-week period from April to May, it received a positive response from visitors, with many saying, “It tasted just like the curry and rice I ate at the 1970 Expo,” and about 3,200 servings were sold.

The curry and rice is scheduled to be sold again at the pavilion from Aug. 11 to 17. Additionally, the possibility of offering the food at some Cafe Eikokuya locations is under consideration.

Makoto Nakao, administration department manager of Sanwa Jitsugyo, an Osaka-based company that operates Cafe Eikokuya, said: “We were unsure if we could recreate the original taste. After repeated trials, we finally succeeded.”

Sandwich specialty store

In July, Osaka-based restaurant chains operator Gourmet Kineya Co. will also begin selling a sandwich specialty store’s products at the ORA Gaishoku Pavilion. The shop, known as “Sandwich House Gourmet,” is a brand that has been operating for about 60 years.

According to the company, the first sandwich store opened in 1964 at the Osaka Fukoku Seimei Building in Osaka’s Umeda district. At its peak, there were about 100 locations, mainly at airports and terminal stations. Due to the rise of convenience stores and other factors, the number of stores has decreased, leaving only the Naha Airport store.

The company will now sell their sandwiches again in Osaka. The plans is to assign veteran employees, who have worked at Sandwich House Gourmet stores, to the Expo project.

Yoshikazu Shimazaki, 64, a Gourmet Kineya employee who had been in charge of cooking at the Osaka Itami Airport location, said: “I delivered sandwiches when an Imperial family member visited the airport. It’s a fond memory. I hope people can enjoy the same taste as before at the Osaka-Kansai Expo.”

Two types of sandwiches — one with fried shrimp and another with beef cutlet — will be sold from July 21 to Aug. 10 and Sept. 8 to 28.