TOKYO: The Osaka-Kansai Expo 2025 will go ahead as planned, the organizers stated firmly in a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on Tuesday.

There had been concerns that preparations were well behind schedule, with participating countries slow to make the necessary arrangements to construct their pavilions, but the organizers have stepped in to ensure that everything will be ready by April 13 next year.

“At the moment, 161 countries and territories have applied and are going to be participating,” said TAKESHINA Jun, Deputy Secretary General of the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition. “The 161 countries and territories will be there for six months to prepare the pavilions and to construct the pavilions.”

The main exhibition pavilions will be contained within a circular building 2,000 meters in circumference and Takeshina said this will be completed in September. Construction for the 100 smaller B and C pavilions has been undertaken with help from the organizers and should be completed by the autumn, while the larger A pavilions are the responsibility of the various countries, some of whom have already started construction.

There will be other pavilion complexes outside the main ring, hosting exhibitions and events by companies and some with dedicated themes. 

Takeshina said the organizers had learned from the previous Expo in Dubai: “Dubai enjoyed a huge turnout and we were able to attend the Dubai Expo towards the end of the time frame. What we gleaned from that Expo was the idea of thematic weeks. The Dubai Expo featured themed weeks, for example, a week or two dedicated to a certain theme, to try and get everyone to think about that theme and engage with it.” 

“This involved pavilions in the venue and stakeholders outside the venue and the organization of forums and involvement from business. So, there was a certain breadth to that project not seen in previous Expos and Osaka is eager to organize similar themed weeks. That was our indelible impression from the Dubai Expo.” Takeshina said the overall theme of the Expo will be “Life.”

“The topic or the theme of this Expo is designing future society for our lives,” he explained. “The theme was decided before the pandemic and then we experienced COVID and other international happenings. We’ve seen a lot of division and conflicts throughout the world, so the theme is going to be about life. It has become very timely that the theme of this Expo will be on life itself.”

The Expo has a massive schedule of events featuring both local, traditional and international culture, as well as “National Days” celebrating the cultures of the different countries and participants. The Expo will run from April 13, 2025, to October 13.