The government is preparing to launch a cyberspace exposition on the last day of 2000.

But unlike past expos, you won't need a suitcase, ticket or a hotel room. What's more, there'll be no elbowing your way through crowds and no long lines in front of a popular pavilion.

To attend this free expo, all you'll need is a personal computer and access to the Internet. It will be staged on a powerful server run by the government for a year starting Dec. 31.

The Internet Exposition, a virtual first-of-its-kind, is the brainchild of Economic Planning Agency chief Taichi Sakaiya, who doubles as minister in charge of millennium memorial events.

Sakaiya, who helped organize the Osaka Expo in 1970 as a Ministry of International Trade and Industry bureaucrat, hit upon the idea one night chatting with his good friend Tsutomu Murai, a Keio University professor.

"We wanted people to learn more about information technology while enjoying this Internet Expo," Sakaiya recalled. "We would like to see the expo develop into one of the major international events of the new century."

Bunshichi Fujioka, head of the New Millennium Memorial Events Office, said the online expo has two main aims -- boosting Japan's population of Internet users and promoting regional culture across the nation.

Fujioka's staff reckon that the Internet Expo will have an average of 100 million access hits a week, or 5 billion during its one-year run, with each visitor spending an average of 10 minutes surfing over three to five pavilions.

They hope that the expo, coupled with other government-sponsored IT projects, will succeed in nearly doubling Japan's population of Internet users to 50 million from just over 27 million now.

Fujioka said his office plans to have the expo content stored on DVD media, providing updates even after the event is over.

"They will form a vast digital archive for reference in the future," he said. "You may eventually have one of those DVDs on your bookshelf."

More than 200 entities, including all but one of the nation's 47 prefectural governments as well as 103 businesses, have so far applied to set up pavilions at the virtual expo.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, under outspoken Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, has distanced itself from the event.

The expo is also open to nongovernmental organizations and individuals, Fujioka said.

Participants have already decided on the themes defining their pavilions. They are now busy putting the finishing touches on the contents of their Web site exhibitions, which are to be linked to the state-run server.

Themes made public so far include "Outdoor Life" chosen by Hokkaido, the medieval love story "The Tale of Genji" by Kyoto Prefecture, "World Heritage" by Tochigi Prefecture, which is home to two temples and a shrine on the World Heritage List, and "Dinosaurs" by Fukui Prefecture, which this year opened one of the world's largest dinosaur museums.

Among the corporate participants, Toyota Motor Corp. will be featuring a project in which a new prototype car will be developed and manufactured on the basis of ideas, styles and designs proposed by visitors to its pavilion. The Toyota site will also provide a virtual exhibition of the world's 3,000 celebrated cars.

The government of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, which has announced an initiative to create the world's most advanced online network and IT infrastructure in Japan, has assessed the economic impact of the Internet Expo at 1 trillion yen.

While Sakaiya admits the impact is not large enough to spur economic growth, much more important is its possible effect of making the Internet more popular, he said.