TOKOY/OSAKA: The official character of the 2025 World Exposition, to be held in the city of Osaka, western Japan, has been given the nickname of “Myaku-Myaku.”

The moniker, announced at events held in Tokyo and Osaka on the night of Monday, 1,000 days ahead of the opening of the exposition, derives from the Japanese word “myakumyaku,” which describes the situation in which something is passed down continuously.

It was picked to show hopes that wisdom, technology, history and culture of Japan will be passed on to future generations uninterruptedly, according to the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition.

As part of the events in Tokyo, the Tokyo Skytree broadcasting and observation tower in the Japanese capital’s Sumida Ward was lit up in the World Expo’s three theme colors of blue, white and red. At Universal Studios Japan, a movie theme park in Osaka, Japanese pop group Kobukuro staged a live performance featuring the expo’s theme song.

“I hope that the interest in the 2025 Expo will increase further in not only Osaka and the Kansai (western Japan) region but also around the country,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in an event in Tokyo. Osaka is part of Kansai.

The design of the official character, which wears the expo’s red logo on its head, was unveiled by the expo association in March. The association received more than 30,000 ideas about the official character’s nickname from the public.

The World Expo is scheduled to take place for six months from April 13, 2025, on Yumeshima, an artificial island in the city of Osaka, on the theme of “Designing Future Society for Our Lives.”

The event is estimated to have about 28.2 million visitors and an economic impact of some 2 trillion yen.

JIJI Press