What is there to experience at Expo? A simple guide to Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan

Hi again! This is Osaka Bob.
We are less than 100 days away from the opening of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan! The Expo has recently been getting a lot of attention on local TV and other media.
But I hear people asking, “So what can I do at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan?” I didn’t know why people were asking this. But after some research, I found that some people still don’t even know what an Expo is.
Oh dear! I, Bob, shall explain and help us all become experts in Expo.

Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan
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The Expo is a place of answers to an important question

I recommend viewing the Expo as a place of answers to an important question.
The central theme of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan is designing a future society for our lives. But how do we go about designing this society?
The Expo is a place where people gather from all over the world to present their answers to this important question, and to consider those answers together.

Let’s see how some countries will answer this question.

France’s answer is “A Hymn to Love”

© Coldefy & CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati

There is a legend that refers to an invisible, magic red thread that joins two beings via their little fingers. With its own red thread, the France Pavilion offers a new vision of the future guided by various forms of Love.
France says we need Love to design a future society for our lives. What could be more French? Trust France to say Love is the answer!

Germany’s answer is “Circular Economy”

© German Pavilion / MIR LAVA facts+fiction

Trust Germany to focus on the economy.
The German Pavilion will showcase paths to a recycling-oriented future via a unique experience that integrates architecture, landscape, and exhibition.

China’s answer is “Building a Community of Life For Man And Nature — Future Society of Green Development”

© Courtesy of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT)

Next is China.
China says that building a community where man can live alongside nature will lead to a future society for our lives.
The China Pavilion greets visitors with the Chinese philosophy of deriving from nature, adapting to nature, and living in harmony with nature. The exterior of the pavilion is shaped like an unfolded traditional Chinese calligraphy scroll.

Austria’s answer is “Composing the Future”

© BWM Designers & Architects

Austria, famous for Vienna, the City of Music, uses music to express its design for a future society for our lives. A spiral sculpture rises spectacularly into the sky like a gigantic musical score in a pavilion where visitors can explore Austria’s diversity and creativity.

Each country answers the question “How would you go about designing a future society for our lives?” with exhibits that showcase a unique vision for the future, grounded in their unique culture and heritage.
I hope this gives you some idea of what the Expo is about.

Experience future society through a variety of unique answers

As well as countries, individuals will also present their answers to the question at the Expo. Let’s learn more about who they are.

Signature Pavilions

©FUTURE OF LIFE / EXPO2025

The Signature Pavilions are directed by eight producers with different backgrounds.
These eight producers contemplate the concept of Life and give it tangible form.

For example, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Professor at Osaka University and Honorary Director at ATR Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories, is planning an exhibit where visitors can experience a state-of-the-art living space and future society where humans work together with androids and robots. Kundo Koyama, a radio and television script writer and Vice President of Kyoto University of the Arts, is planning a pavilion that offers a renewed appreciation for nature by showing how we live through the sacrifices of others.
The other six producers are also currently organizing pavilions with experiences that are only available at the Expo. All kinds of experiences that combine the real and virtual worlds await!

Osaka Healthcare Pavilion

Courtesy of EXPO 2025 Osaka Pavilion Association

With the theme “REBORN,” this exhibition answers how a future society for our lives can be designed from the perspectives of “life” and “health.” The exhibition will have experiences enjoyable for both children and adults, including meeting your future self and trying healthcare foods of the future!

Women’s Pavilion in collaboration with Cartier

© Cartier

This pavilion introduces the achievements of women in Japan and throughout the world.
The pavilion envisions a future society for our lives—a future where all people can live in true equality, respect one another, and work together while expressing their own potential. I feel the same way!
Why not take a moment to consider the gender gap (gender-based inequality) and other related issues?

There are many other pavilions at the Expo site, such as the Japan Pavilion that presents the host country’s design for a future society for our lives, and the Junior SDGs Camp that features SDG-related exhibits and hands-on experiences for elementary to high school-aged students.

The idea of “life” may seem daunting, but at the Expo, you will see first-hand what kinds of technology and ideas are important for creating a society where people can live in happiness. And when what you have seen at the Expo later becomes a reality, you can say to yourself “Hey! I saw that at the Expo!”
Opportunities to visit an Expo in your own country are rare, so I recommend that you take advantage of this special occasion.

Experience the latest technologies and enjoy unique events

Technologies exhibited at previous Expos have often become real products years or even decades later.
Many Japanese people know about the prototype of what later became the mobile phone exhibited at the 1970 Osaka Expo.
Let me guide you through the technologies that await you at the Expo.

A Flying Car

© SkyDrive

A flying car able to carry people and goods and created with technology adapted from drones will be at the Expo.
The flying car will be at the “Mobility Experience” located in the northwest part of the Expo site.
Unfortunately, visitors will not be able to ride the flying car, but there will be demonstration flights where you can witness first-hand this next-generation mode of air transportation. See a real flying car in action!

Self-Driving Buses

There will be about 100 state-of-the-art electric buses operating throughout the day in the Expo site.
The buses are equipped with Level 4 self-driving technology, which means they can operate fully autonomously under specific conditions. The buses will operate entirely without a driver, albeit limited by specific conditions such as location, weather, and speed.

I’ve never ridden an autonomous vehicle and I’m really looking forward to it.

Automatic Language Translation

Many people will visit the Expo from outside Japan. At Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, you can experience communication of the future with translation tools that remove all language barriers.
One of these tools is an app called EXPO Translation. Once installed on your smartphone, you can choose the language of your conversation partner and the app will automatically translate their words and display them on-screen. The app can even talk for you. Use it to communicate with people in 13 languages, including Japanese! Also, the app is free!
Another app is EXPO Translation Remote, which can be used to translate and listen to tour guides in your mother tongue or the language of your choice. Use real-time translation to communicate with people from all over the world!

Virtual Expo

© NTT CORPORATION

There is even a way to enjoy the Expo without being there in person!
Visitors can immerse themselves in a virtual Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan as avatars, from anywhere in the world, day or night. You can enjoy pavilions and events in a virtual world that recreates buildings and facilities of the real-world Expo.
Scheduled for release in April 2025, compatible platforms will be smartphones (iOS/Android), PCs (Windows/Mac), and VR goggles (MetaQuest2,3).

Other state-of-the-art technologies revealed at the Expo will include a Carbon Recycling Factory that synthesizes methane from CO2 recovered from the atmosphere and exhaust gases from city gas facilities, a hydrogen fuel cell boat offering passenger services, AI robots, a beating heart made of iPS cells, and much more!

2025 is the year of the Expo!
Don’t miss this amazing opportunity!

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