Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai set to be global business exchange platform for Malaysia

By Christine Lim

Osaka,  March 12 (Bernama)  -- Malaysia can leverage Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan as a platform for business exchanges with Japan and other countries around the world.

Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition secretary-general Hiroyuki Ishige said Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai will take place in Osaka from April 13 to Oct 13, 2025.

The World Expos, organised by the intergovernmental organisation Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), has taken place every five years since 1851, providing an avenue for nations to gather and find solutions to global challenges.

“Malaysia announced its participation in the expo in April 2022,” he told Bernama recently during an interview in conjunction with the Osaka promotion programme organised by Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro).

The Osaka promotion programme aims to raise awareness of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai and Osaka’s food culture and tourism in Malaysia.

He emphasised that the expo, with the theme “Designing Future Society for our Lives”, will provide an innovative venue where countries can come together and work as one to solve the world’s social issues and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations by 2030.

“In recent years, the world has been facing a crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russian-Ukraine war as well as climate change and thus under these circumstances, everyone must have felt the importance of life,” Ishige said.

In this respect, he added that this underscores the importance of the connection between people and countries in finding solutions to sustain and enrich lives through advanced communications, enabled by technology to break the language barrier.

He said the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology under the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, as well as other private companies, will support language translation technology.

“We plan to provide Artificial Intelligence-based advanced translation services to participants and visitors at the expo and this automatic translation system will break through the language barrier and become a language bridge connecting the world as one,” Ishige disclosed.

The big wooden roof on the expo site, he revealed, is a symbol of connecting the pavilions of each country, thereby overcoming the divisions of the world in the shared vision of a future society.

The expo site, with construction works in progress, has an area of 155 hectares on the waterfront of Osaka city, with a ring-shaped canopy roof, and is touted as one of the largest wooden buildings in the world.

At least 150 countries and 25 international organisations are expected to participate in Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai.

“Over fifty years ago, Expo 1970 Osaka, the first international exposition in Asia, provided the Japanese people with an excellent opportunity to connect with the rest of the world to look overseas, to see, learn and study the world,” Ishige noted.

Flying cars

He emphasised that expos have always introduced people to future advanced technologies, as was the case in Expo 1970 Osaka, where the world’s first mobile phone was showcased.

“Flying cars will be introduced at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai. There will also be electric vehicle buses with autonomous driving (no human drivers) during the expo period travelling around the venue site,” he disclosed.  

According to Ishige, Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, will also draw upon the success of Expo 2020 Dubai in hosting a programme called “Theme Weeks” where meetings and events were arranged every other week on different themes such as water, space, natural disasters, or gender.

The Theme Weeks, he said, was arranged not only by the organisers but also by the participating countries and companies.

“We are also planning to hold Theme Weeks at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai. The programme will be an effort to contribute to solving global issues through dialogue and business exchanges,” he said.

Ishige said Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai is considering its own themes and will be able to present them in the next few months and is very much looking forward to active participation from Malaysia.

He pointed out that at Expo 2020 Dubai, the Malaysia Pavilion was a well designed pavilion inspired by Malaysia’s majestic rainforests with an awareness of environmental conservation and a message that addressed climate change, sustainability and environmental issues.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Expo 2020 Dubai was postponed to Oct 2021.

For more details about Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, please refer to the following website: https://www.jetro.go.jp/malaysia/research/expo2025.html

-- BERNAMA