With less than a year to go before the opening of the Osaka Kansai Expo, construction vehicles ply the field and building work is in progress on the man-made Yumeshima island in Osaka Bay, which will host the world's fair.
The plan for the event, however, has only drawn attention for its negative aspects, such as a delay in the construction of foreign pavilions and successive increases in the cost estimate.
In the meantime, the significance of holding the event, the first of the sort in 55 years for the western megalopolis, at the cost of huge public funding has yet to take clear shape.
International expositions, which came into being as industrial trade fairs in the 19th century, have been used as venues for increasing national prestige. The previous Osaka Expo, held in 1970 toward the end of Japan’s high-growth period, was no exception.
As that approach came to an impasse, the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the body overseeing world fairs, redefined the expos in 1994 as venues for resolving global issues.
The upcoming Osaka event is supposed to be in line with that trend.
But “Designing Future Society for Our Lives,” the theme of the 2025 expo, is so vague that few have said they can ever envision what that means.
Many have also questioned the wisdom of organizing this event in the form of an expo for a limited term of only six months in this age when goods and information are easily available from overseas through the internet.
It is all too natural that the public funds being pumped into the event are coming under public scrutiny.
Not only has it come under fire that the expenses for building the venue have nearly doubled from the initial estimate to 235 billion yen ($1.53 billion).
Also called into question has been the wisdom of, for example, laying out 34.4 billion yen to construct the Grand Roof, a wooden structure that measures 2 kilometers in circumference, and spending a maximum of nearly 200 million yen to build a single restroom complex.
The matter should be taken seriously by the central government, which is responsible for holding the event; the prefectural and city authorities of Osaka, which called for the expo bid; and the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition, which is in charge of preparing for, and operating, the world's fair.
Concerned officials, however, have made remarks that indicate they want to silence any criticism.
Hirofumi Yoshimura, governor of Osaka Prefecture, said in late March that a TV personality who has been critical of the expo, whom he named, should be banned from the expo venue.
The governor initially said he believed there was no problem with his remark, but he was later pressured into apologizing for and retracting what he said.
That is only reasonable, given Yoshimura’s status as a deputy chairman of the expo association.
Hideyuki Yokoyama, mayor of Osaka, also showed displeasure at a question, asked in the city assembly, about the per-capita financial burden of the expo on Osaka’s citizens. Yokoyama criticized the interpellation for “fanning the misgivings of citizens.”
It is, however, the duty of the head of a local government to think about why those citizens are feeling misgivings.
Yumeshima, where development work did not proceed, once earned the moniker of a “negative legacy.”
The expo was one of the measures that Osaka Ishin no Kai, a regional political party that holds sway in the area, worked out to bring the artificial island back to life.
The central government and the prefectural and municipal governments of Osaka have emphasized the significance of the expo as a catalyst for increasing the number of tourists from abroad and the development of related infrastructure.
We could only say that shows those authorities have yet to outgrow the 1970 way of thinking.
The expo organizers have heavy responsibilities to fulfill as they face the test of whether they will manage to send out, and share with the public, clear messages that befit this new age.
--The Asahi Shimbun, April 14
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