After 184 days, the Osaka Expo came to an end Monday, with organizers and local and national lawmakers sending a message of unity and togetherness in the face of global challenges and conflicts, while also vowing to pass along the lessons learned from the event to future generations.
“By valuing solidarity over division and tolerance over confrontation, we have succeeded in uniting minds, together creating an expo that was a source of joy for many,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said during the closing ceremony, which was also attended by Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, as well as Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura.
The expo ended with a final-day program that also included an array of cultural performances, a parade of the more than 150 nations and regions that participated in the six-month event and a drone show, fireworks and a water show.
It was a bittersweet conclusion for an expo that started on shaky ground amid concerns over the pace of construction and a lack of public interest but proved to be enormously popular, with the event turning a profit and welcoming in excess of 25 million visitors.
That total was buoyed by the public's last-gasp rush through the gates, with the expo welcoming a daily average of well over 200,000 people in the final weeks as it drew to a close.
“There’s sadness, but I also feel quite satisfied,” said Fumika Miyamoto, who was making her fifth visit to the expo on the final day of the event.
“I wish it could go on longer. Six months is too short,” added her sister, Naomi Yamai, who was visiting for the 13th time.
The siblings were only toddlers when the 1970 Expo was held in Suita, Osaka Prefecture.
“After 55 years, we could host the expo again,” Yamai said. “It was really fantastic.”
Organizers had stressed there were three essential criteria to a successful expo: It must be free of major incidents, it must not lose money and it must attract as many people as possible.
On all three points — and despite a long list of minor incidents — it would be hard to call the expo anything but a success.
During the closing ceremony, Yoshimura thanked all who helped make the event happen, from the volunteers and security staff to the domestic and international participants.
All told, the expo was expected to turn a profit of between ¥23 billion and ¥28 billion, with sales of goods related to Myaku-Myaku helping immensely with the event’s bottom line.
The strange, multieyed mascot only seemed to grow in popularity during the event, and Ishiba presented the jovial character with a special award for all the work it put into ensuring the expo’s success.
Dimitri S. Kerkentzes, the secretary-general of the Bureau International des Expositions, the governing body of world expos, was quick to praise the organizers for the work they put in and hailed the way the event brought people from diverse backgrounds together.
“At a time when the world faces uncertainty, tensions and conflict, (the expo) provided something rare and vital: a space for human interaction, for face-to-face diplomacy, for co-creation and for the exploration of fundamental questions about our shared future,” he said.
Indeed, "unity" was the word of the day as organizers brought down the curtain on an event that took place amid bloody conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and as protectionist trade policies rise at the expense of globalism.
In that respect, and within the highly symbolic Grand Ring that encircled the international pavilions, the expo was an opportunity for the world to come together as one.
“In spite of early skepticism, the ring ultimately became the defining emblem of Expo 2025, connecting people from all over the world,” said Maher Nasser, the assistant secretary-general of the United Nations.
Under the theme of “Designing Future Society for Our Lives,” he added, the organizers demonstrated “a future that respects all forms of life ... a future that is more equitable and just, one where a rules-based world applies to all, no exceptions for the powerful or those protected by the powerful.
“That is how peace is made and that is the only way peace can flourish,” he added.
Ahead of the closing ceremony, organizers presented a final declaration outlining what was learned from the expo and a pledge to make sure these lessons are passed down to future generations.
At the expo, “participants and visitors engaged in dialogue and co-creation and saw their culture resonate with each other, united in diversity in bringing forth their messages towards the future society for our lives,” the statement read.
Yoshimura put it more succinctly.
“The expo is now concluding, but our lessons will stay with us as guideposts for the future.”
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