Visitors Confusing Osaka’s Expo ’70 Commemorative Park with 2025 Expo Venue; Park Officials Try to Keep Visitors Informed

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:04 JST, May 2, 2025

OSAKA — There have been cases in which tourists trying to visit the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo venue have mistakenly gone to the Expo ’70 Commemorative Park in Suita, Osaka Prefecture.

To help prevent confusion, the operator of the park is calling for caution through its website, so visitors understand the Expo is being held on Yumeshima Island in Konohana Ward, Osaka.

The mistake likely stems from the park having the word “expo” in its name, since it is the site of the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka.

Since the Expo kicked off April 13, there have been several cases a day of visitors mistakenly coming to the park instead of Yumeshima, according to the park operator. Most of the visitors have been foreign tourists or Japanese nationals from outside the Kansai region.

The park has also received at least 15 calls a day, some days as many as 60, asking for information on how to purchase Expo tickets.

The distance between the Expo venue and the park is about 20 kilometers. A Chinese woman in her 70s who visited Yumeshima in late April said it took her an hour and half to get there from the park as she first went to the latter, adding there were people who made a similar mistake.

A 29-year-old Serbian man from Kyoto City who visited the park Thursday said it is easy to confuse them as online search results for the word “expo” show the park.

On Wednesday, the park posted a notice on its website saying that the park is “not the venue of the Expo.” The same notice was posted at the park’s entrance the following day.