With one month to go until the host of the 2025 World Expo is selected, Osaka officials are casting a nervous eye toward Baku, the city they increasingly see as their toughest rival.

Osaka and the Azerbaijani capital, along with Yekaterinburg, Russia, are vying for the right to hold the event. The Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions will decide the winner on Nov. 23.

After Paris withdrew from the competition earlier this year, Yekaterinburg, which had barely lost to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in bidding for the 2020 World Expo, had been seen by Osaka's political and business leaders as the city to beat. Few took Baku seriously.