Explore the World Expo: Significance of the Event / High Expectations for 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo to Help Boost Region, Leave Positive Legacy for Next Generation

By Akiko Minami / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

7:00 JST, December 27, 2024

This is the sixth and last installment of a series on the significance of the World Expo.

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At the foot of Mt. Bizan that overlooks the central part of Tokushima, there is a structure called the Awa Odori Kaikan, where about 10 male and female dancers demonstrate daily how the 400-year-old Awa Odori dance has changed over the years.

Visitors to the facility dedicated to the famous dance can see the transition of the dance: During the Meiji era (1868-1912), it had a mellow atmosphere like the Bon Odori dances. A little after the end of World War II, dancers were allowed to dance rhythmically as they wanted. More recently, the style has drastically changed. A well-organized formation of dancers in rows neatly spread out and come together while dancing, emphasizing the beauty of the group dance rather than the beauty of the individual dancers.

The change came with the 1970 Osaka Expo. During the world expo, performing arts from all over Japan were performed in the Omatsuri Hiroba festival square on the expo grounds.

The Awa Odori dance evolved into a show dance through trial and error to entertain Japanese and foreign visitors.

Minoru Yamada, 71, a former leader of the Tensuiren dance group, performed at the expo at the age of 16 and was applauded with “Wonderful” and “Bravo” by foreign visitors.

“Although I was young, I realized that the Awa Odori was so amazing that I had to spread it all over Japan,” Yamada said.

For the next generation

Expos held in Japan have left a variety of tangible and intangible legacies.

The Tower of the Sun, created by artist Taro Okamoto for the 1970 Osaka Expo, still stands at Expo ’70 Commemorative Park, which is located on the former expo grounds in Suita, Osaka Prefecture. Tours of the tower attracted 270,000 visitors to see its inside in fiscal 2023.

The 2005 Aichi Expo garnered attention to its various natural, environmentally friendly approaches, such as an initiative to bring eco-bags and make natural, green walls, which helped raise public awareness of ecology and recycling.

Unlike the Olympics, where the Olympic Charter requires the host cities to promote and leave positive legacies, the host cities of world expos are not required to do so by the rules of the Bureau International des Expositions, a Paris-based organization that oversees and regulates world expos.

However, Harutoshi Imamura, 38, director of the expo promotion office at Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc., said, “The public won’t allow an event that requires such large-scale investment to be a one-time event.”

At least ¥300 billion of public money will be spent mainly on construction work at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo grounds.

It is critical that the Expo leaves something of value for the next generation.

Use of Yumeshima

Of particular importance is the effective use of Yumeshima, an artificial island in Konohana Ward, Osaka, that will be the Expo site but has long been considered a “negative legacy.”

Development of the island was started in 1977 by the Osaka city government as a 390-hectare area to be used for the disposal of construction waste, including surplus soil.

The island was named as a candidate site for the athletes’ village if Osaka was going to host the 2008 Olympics. But after Osaka lost the bid to Beijing in 2001, most of the island has remained vacant.

About ¥320 billion in public funds has been spent on the island’s development.

An integrated resort with a casino is expected to open in 2030 on a 49-hectare northern section. By contrast, at present, a southern section, which is the site of the Expo, does not even have a blueprint for its post-expo use.

The Osaka prefectural and city governments are planning to present a plan for the use of about 50 hectares in the center of the about-150-hectare expo site by the end of this fiscal year and select a developer by the end of next fiscal year.

There are high expectations for the expo to transform the area into a vibrant place and help boost Osaka and the Kansai region.