The 2025 Japan International Expo Association – the organization tasked with running the Osaka-Kansai Expo – was launched on Wednesday 30 January, with its first organizational meeting held in the Osaka Prefectural Government Sakishima Building.
The association is made up of the Kansai Economic Federation and Osaka Prefecture/Osaka City, and is led by President Hiroaki Nakanishi of the Japan Business Federation. Preparations for the Osaka-Kansai Expo are moving quickly with the theme of the event to be “Designing Future Society for Our Lives.”
As reported by the Mainichi Shimbun, the name of the organization is prefixed with “Kansai” and there are great expectations that it will boost inbound foreign visitors to neighboring areas such as Wakayama, which along with Osaka is hoping to be chosen as one of three sites for IR development, and Kobe, the self-proclaimed “Medical Industrial City.”
Wakayama intends to partner with Osaka prefecture/city which is planning to open its own IR facility in 2024, the year before the Expo. Wakayama is close to Kansai International Airport and Governor Yoshinobu Nisaka has commented that “the Expo will be a huge factor in boosting tourist numbers and ideally a tour of Wakayama would be ready for those visitors.”
Kobe City is planning to make a sea route between the port of Kobe and Yumeshima, Osaka where the Expo will be held, further boosting visitation. Moreover, a satellite venue away from Yumeshima is under consideration for the Expo with Nara prefecture looking a likely location.
Along with being an economic driver for Kansai, Osaka Expo will also boost IR bids for the surrounding regions. For 185 days from 3 May through to 3 November 2025, around 28 million people are expected to attend the event.
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