Editorial: 1 year before 2025 Osaka Expo, lack of public enthusiasm evident

The World Exposition in Osaka is just one year away, yet the public apparently remains unenthusiastic about the event, unable to grasp the point of holding it.

According to a survey by Osaka Prefecture and the city of Osaka, the percentage of people wanting to visit the expo dropped from 41.2% nationwide in fiscal 2022 to 33.8% in fiscal 2023.

The Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition aims to sell 14 million advance tickets for admission, but only 1.55 million tickets had been sold as of April 19.

An appeal of the expo is the experience people can have there, but the figures leave us wondering if organizers have managed to get this across.

When Osaka last hosted the world expo in 1970, traveling abroad was beyond the reach of most ordinary citizens. Exhibits introducing state-of-the-art science and technology and foreign culture piqued people's interest, giving them a glimpse of a bright future beyond high economic growth.

Half a century later, things have changed a great deal. The negative aspects of economic growth, such as climate change, are becoming ever more serious. While the world is connected via the internet, many people are anxious about the advancement of technology, such as the advent of artificial intelligence and progress in the life sciences.

As declining populations and low economic growth become the norm, people are growing increasingly skeptical about gimmicky attempts to revitalize the economy by using large-scale events as a catalyst.

Osaka's bid to host the expo was made with an old mindset. The Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin), based in Osaka, devised the plan in the hope that the expo would have a synergetic effect with the development of a casino-centered integrated resort in the region.

With officials already having decided to go ahead with the expo from the outset, its concept was apparently invented afterward. The theme "Designing Future Society for Our Lives" is abstract and the message is difficult to grasp.

The cost for the expo is also snowballing. Construction costs have shot up from the initial 125 billion yen (approx. $808 million) and could surge as high as 235 billion yen (roughly $1.52 billion) -- 1.9 times the original amount. Operating expenses have also swelled by 1.4 times to 116 billion yen (about $750 million).

Two-thirds of the construction cost will be covered by the Japanese government, Osaka Prefecture and the city of Osaka using taxpayers' money. The bulk of the operating expenses will be funded by admission revenues, but if there's a deficit, someone has to make up for it. Amid ongoing price hikes, it is unacceptable to impose an additional burden on the public.

The expo needs to play the role of a compass in an era with an uncertain outlook for the future. If the event is to be held, it should be a forum for people to encounter new values without being constrained by conventional stereotypes.