2025 Expo Osaka: 80% of Visitors Want to Go 2nd Time, Says Survey; Foreign Tourists Make Up 13% of Visitors

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The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:05 JST, May 13, 2025

About 80% of those who have visited the Osaka-Kansai Expo want to visit the event again, according to a survey by the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition, the event’s organizer.

About 1.5 million people visited the event between April 13, when the event started, and April 30. The association surveyed via email those who visited during the period and had registered Expo IDs, which are required to make reservations to enter pavilions. Of those, 102,720 responded.

Asked whether they want to come to the Expo again, 62.4% said yes and 21.6% said they somewhat did, meaning that 84% had some desire to return.

As to whether they were generally satisfied, 44% said yes and 35.7% said they were somewhat satisfied.

Asked what they wanted improved, some respondents noted that it was difficult to find restrooms and other facilities at the venue.

“[The survey results] seem to indicate that visitors found the event far more interesting than how it was [previously] being talked about, and such impressions may be spreading through word of mouth,” said Hiroyuki Ishige, secretary general of the association.

According to the association, there was a roughly even split between many of the age groups for visitors.

The survey also showed that about 13% of visitors were foreign tourists. The association projects that there will be 28.2 million visitors during the Expo. Of those, 3.5 million, or 12.4%, are expected to be foreign visitors, about the same as the figure shown in the survey. The largest group of foreign visitors came from Asia, which accounted for 40.5% of people from overseas.

From the event’s opening through Saturday, there were 2.41 million visitors. The number of tickets sold had topped 11.37 million as of Friday. About 120,000 season passes, or multiple-entry passes usable at any time during the Expo, were sold after the Expo opened. That is more than double the number of season passes sold in advance.

Chile holds festival

Chile’s National Day event was held on Monday at the Expo in Konohana Ward, Osaka. About 25 performers, including dancers and musicians, paraded under the Grand Ring.

Reproducing a Christian festival in honor of the Virgin Mary, dancers performed as devils wearing horned masks. Officials at the Chile Pavilion said the performance was meant to drive out evil spirits.

“They were dancing in costumes I’ve never seen in Japan. It was really fun,” said Yoko Nagai, 91, from Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, who visited the event with her husband.