2025 Expo Osaka: Show at Osaka Expo Streams in Performers Live from Taiwan with Aids of NTT’s Next-Gen Network

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:32 JST, May 25, 2025

Performers from a venue at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo and an another venue in Taiwan act together by means of Innovative Optical and Wireless Network, a next-generation communications infrastructure, on Saturday and Sunday.

IOWN is characterized by its ability to transmit large volumes of data at high speed with low latency. It was provided by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. to link the two venues, which are approximately 3,000 kilometers apart.

At the Expo site in Yumesima, Osaka Prefecture, Kabuki actor Shido Nakamura and virtual singer Hatsune Miku performed, while at the Taiwanese site, a traditional performing arts group took to the stage. Lighting effects were integrated, with each screen projecting performers dancing and fighting together despite being far apart, creating a sense of unity in the performance.

This was the first time that an initiative utilizing IOWN was established between Japan and Taiwan. During a rehearsal similar to the real stage, which was open to the press on Saturday, the round-trip communication time was 0.04 seconds.

“The performance, in which the lighting, sound and movements of the performers were perfectly synchronized, is a fruits of technology that only IOWN can deliver.,” Akira Shimada, president of NTT said.