Osaka 2025 Expo: Organisers hope to attract more European visitors

With just under five months to go, preparations are well underway for the Osaka World Expo 2025.

Delegates from around the world met in Paris on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments and to find solutions to the challenges encountered by the organisers.

The World Expo is one of the oldest and largest international events held every five years since 1851.

Next year, more than 160 countries will present their latest innovations and technologies in Osaka.

Osaka’s upcoming challenge: attracting more European visitors

The theme for the upcoming World Expo is “Designing Future Society for Our Lives.”

An important topic that could inspire other countries to tackle future problems such as ageing population and large urbanisation, according to Dimitri Kerkentzes, the Secretary General of the International Bureau of Expositions (BIE).

“We need to start dealing with these issues as a global community. One country is not enough to act, we need to act in unison. I’m hoping to see some new thought processes and new innovations in Osaka. I hope we’re going to see where the world will go in the next ten to 15 years,” he told Euronews.

But with only 7,3 million tickets sold as of November, Japanese authorities hope to bolster their communication strategy to attract more European visitors.

“There are many exhibits from Europe on various issues such as green energy, climate change, etc. We would love to show these to Europeans. The communication aspect will be one of the main challenges we will be facing,” said Hirofumi Yoshimura, Governor of Osaka.

However, Dimitri Kerkentzes insisted ticket sales will sharply increase closer to the date of the opening of the Osaka Expo.

Ukraine will participate in Osaka 2025

The governor of Osaka also announced Ukraine will be participating in next year’s expo despite Russia’s full-scale invasion. Moscow withdrew from the event in 2023.

The organisers hope the World Expo will bring unity at a time of global instability and conflict;

“Expos are an apolitical gathering of countries, it’s also a non-confrontational gathering of countries. It’s a possibility for the world to come together and talk together and to have a dialogue… We need somewhere where the world can come together and for once, perhaps we don’t let our differences separate us but we let our differences bring us together,” said the BIE’s Secretary General.

The Osaka World Expo will take place from April to October 2025 and aims to welcome an estimated 28 million visitors, according to Japanese authorities.