Expo Venue Crowded for Final Weekend, Taking Last Chance to Soak up Pavilions, Activities

The Yomiuri Shimbun

6:00 JST, October 13, 2025

OSAKA — The last day of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo is arriving on Monday, and the venue was crowded over the event’s final weekend with visitors enjoying the pavilions and activities.

Immediately after the venue opened on Saturday, a long line of visitors formed outside the France Pavilion, one of the Expo’s most popular pavilions. Around 11 a.m., a security guard held up a signboard informing the crowd that the wait time would be “over two hours.”

“Last time I came here, the line [for the France Pavilion] was so long that I gave up waiting,” said a 40-year-old part-time worker from Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, who was visiting the Expo for the second time. “I’m glad I finally got to see such precious exhibits, like the sculptures.”

According to the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition, the number of daily visitors has exceeded 200,000 since Sept. 12. Meanwhile, the cumulative number of general visitors through Friday exceeded 24.86 million, according to preliminary figures.

On Saturday, many visitors went to the top of the Grand Ring, a giant wooden structure. Underneath the structure, visitors can find shelter from the sun and rain, while on top they can take a stroll along a pedestrian deck. With a circumference of two kilometers, it is recognized by the Guinness World Records as the “largest wooden architectural structure.”

As the cost of preserving the Grand Ring would be enormous, a decision was made to dismantle it after the Expo — except for a 200-meter section in the northeast.

At the Inochi (life) Park in the middle of the Expo venue on Saturday, strips of paper hung from the “Moving Wish Tree” art installation. Visitors had written wishes and expressions of gratitude for the Expo.

The Moving Wish Tree, which was moved throughout the venue, made its appearance at the end of September and has since collected the thoughts of over 20,000 people. The messages include “Thank you 2025 Expo” and “I will be with [Expo mascot] Myaku Myaku, forever!”

A 57-year-old office worker from Sakai hung a strip of paper that said “For a peaceful world without war” when they visited the Expo for the 19th time on Saturday. “I truly felt like I was able talk to many people in Japan and from abroad at the Expo and expand my circle of friends,” the worker said. “‘Thank you for the six months of the Expo,’ that’s how I feel.”