Kumatori, an "Osaka Prefecture town[,] has rejected free admission for its students to the Osaka-Kansai Expo...over concerns about safety"
"...principals of the town's 8 municipal elementary and junior high schools concluded that there was insufficient information to ensure the safe supervision of students"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250131/p2a/00m/0na/009000c
🔸Expo2025 has published a "Disaster Prevention Basic Plan" but no detailed evacuation plan
https://www.expo2025.or.jp/wp/wp-content/uploads/DP_basicplan_EG.pdf
#Osaka #Japan #safety #NoMoreExpos
#WhiteElephant

"Ticket sales for Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai are lagging badly..."
"...of the total 7.44M tickets issued, 6.13M (82%) were sold directly to corporations and other organizations..."
"...Expo would break even if 80% of the expected 28.2M visitors attend [but] it remains unclear who would bear responsibility for any financial shortfall..."

🔸Inevitably taxpayers will be forced to pay for the #WhiteElephant 😡
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241227/p2a/00m/0na/020000c
#NoMoreExpos #Japan

Greece "is the 8th country to drop out after initially planning to participate in the [Osaka] expo...amid concerns about the event's ballooning costs"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241130/p2g/00m/0na/009000c
#Osaka #NoMoreExpos #WhiteElephant #Japan

"SkyDrive sought to develop a flying taxi that can carry up to 3 people [at Osaka Expo2025] as one of the event's main attractions, but it decided...[to] only perform demo flights without passengers [citing] persistent challenges in addressing safety and other technological development issues"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240704/p2g/00m/0bu/040000c
#NoMoreExpos #Osaka #Japan

"Argentina has decided to withdraw its participation in the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka...Japan's minister in charge of the global event [Hanako Jimi] said Friday (21 Jun 2024)"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240621/p2g/00m/0na/049000c
#Argentina #NoMoreExpos #Osaka #Japan

Have been wondering whether Osaka Expo organizers have put together a workable evacuation plan should the Nankai earthquake (or a typhoon) hit during their shindig.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-26455-w

All that Expo2025 risk management chapter says is: "...we will prepare a
system for comprehensively judging what response should be made in the case of [a natural disaster or terrorist attack] and giving instructions on it" which doesn't inspire much confidence.
https://www.expo2025.or.jp/wp/wp-content/themes/expo2025orjp_2022/assets/pdf/masterplan/expo2025_masterplan_en.pdf
#Japan #NoMoreExpos

" “In an era where we can access visions of the future from around the world through the internet, it’s outdated to spend a lot of money and precious time going to a crowded place” "

"A...woman from Tokyo added, “Do they think we’ll go back to the high-growth era if we just keep repeating the cycle of Tokyo Olympics, Osaka Expo and Sapporo Olympics? It’s pathetic that their mindset is stuck in the Showa Era (1926-1989)” "
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15300992
#Japan #NoMoreExpos

"爆発後に「他にはない」と断言したのに…可燃性ガス4カ所で発生　大阪・関西万博会場　「出ないわけないやん」[Osaka-Kansai Expo said ”No other cases” after explosion, but inflammable gas found in 4 places at site. (Site worker comment: ”Of course there'll be gas”) ]"
https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/330840
🔸Didn't know about methane gas explosion (28 Mar 2024) until hearing news of schools refusing Osaka Pref. Govt's free Expo trip offer.
https://www.fnn.jp/articles/-/709729
Expo site built on rotting rubbish dump, hence methane gas generation.
#Japan #NoMoreExpos #safety

"International expositions...have been used...for increasing national prestige"
"As that...came to an impasse, the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE)...redefined the expos in 1994 as venues for resolving global issues"
"But [2025 #Osaka Expo theme] “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”...is so vague that few [have any idea] what that means"
"...authorities have yet to outgrow the 1970 way of thinking"
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15229636
#Japan #NoMoreExpos #WhiteElephant

" ”...If Sapporo could have shown where the barriers are now, and then its determination to become (a barrier-free) city, citizens would have [seen] the significance of the Olympics and Paralympics,” [Paralympic Nordic ski coach Hideki] Arai said"
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/04/15/japan/society/regional-hokkaido-olympics/
🔸It shouldn't need a White elephant event to trigger vital infrastructure improvements, so that's not the reason vested interests want taxpayer-subsidized Olympics or Expos. #Japan #NoMoreOlympics #NoMoreExpos
#WhiteElephant

""No company felt that they had sufficient support from the public for [Expo2025]"
"The total cost will be split equally between the central govt, the #Osaka prefectural and city govts, and the business community"
"...companies are cautious about the possible financial burden they may have to bear if the event incurs losses by failing to attract as many visitors as expected"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240407/p2g/00m/0et/034000c
🔸It's all about the Shibusawas...
https://asia.nikkei.com/Life-Arts/Life/Japan-s-new-bank-note-celebrates-maverick-venture-capital-pioneer
#Japan #NoMoreExpos #WhiteElephant

"Sanae Takaichi, the minister in charge of economic security, has called for the postponement of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo" (28 Jan 2024)
https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/politics-government/20240128-165194/
🔸Takaichi gauging the winds, manouvering for the PM post?🤔
As PM she would shift #Japan further to the right.

"Debate grows over whether expo funding should go to Ishikawa recovery" (19 Jan 2024)
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/01/19/japan/society/expo-ishikawa-earthquake/
#NoMoreExpos #WhiteElephant

"[Jimi Hanako, the Expo2025 minister] said that cancelation and postponement are not the options at this point, but she stressed that recovery and reconstruction efforts in the disaster-stricken [Noto Peninsula] are the top priority"
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20240112_26/
🔸Déjà vu of Fukushima disaster and Tokyo "Recovery" Olympics
" “Why are they wasting all this money on a 2-week sports festival, when all that money can be used here where it’s necessary...?” "
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/07/29/olympics-fukushima-nuclear-tsunami/
#NoMoreExpos #Japan

"Tourism expert Hideki Endo of Kyoto’s Ritsumeikan University [said] that Japan’s management of global events leaves much to be desired"
"[Japan's] economic stagnation has resulted in a leery public that...no longer sees hosting such extravaganzas as a source of national pride, said Prof Endo"
"Osaka Expo secretary-general Hiroyuki Ishige, however, told the Asahi newspaper that the event will take place by hook or by crook"😬
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/woes-pile-up-for-osaka-world-expo-2025
#Osaka #Japan #NoMoreExpos

"In 1964...sci-fi writer Sakyo Komatsu formed an [Osaka] Expo 70 study group"
"Later, some of the group members became directly involved in the project, such as drafting the basic principles of Expo 70"
"[Komatsu declared] that the purpose of Expo 70 “is to seek and find a better future for the entire human race...” "
"[However, for Expo 2025] instead of the ideals of this event, we are hearing excuses from authorities trying to escape responsibility"
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15091507
#Japan #NoMoreExpos

" “We are building a station in a place like this, but who in the world will come here after the expo is over?” [the construction worker] said"
"Assembly of the 34.4-billion-yen Ring is about a third of the way through"
"...not a single country has started construction of the pavilions that the Ring is supposed to enclose"
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15082725
#Japan #NoMoreExpos #WhiteElephant

"大阪・関西万博、インフラ整備費9.7兆円 政府が全体像示す [Govt states overall infrastructure cost for Osaka Expo as 9.7T yen]" (Mainichi article in Japanese)
https://www.msn.com/ja-jp/news/national/%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%AA-%E9%96%A2%E8%A5%BF%E4%B8%87%E5%8D%9A-%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3%E3%83%95%E3%83%A9%E6%95%B4%E5%82%99%E8%B2%BB97%E5%85%86%E5%86%86-%E6%94%BF%E5%BA%9C%E3%81%8C%E5%85%A8%E4%BD%93%E5%83%8F%E7%A4%BA%E3%81%99/ar-AA1lHOW1
🔸839B yen of the 9.7T yen will cover infrastructure directly related to the Expo (758B yen for access roads, 81B yen for railroad extension)
🔸cf. Govt said in June it would earmark 3.5T yen/yr for 3 years for its new child care policy and issue special bonds to cover shortfalls in funds
https://jp.reuters.com/article/japan-economy-childcare-idUSKBN2XN2O7/
#NoMoreExpos #WhiteElephant

@David Tokyo Olympics & Osaka Expo may have drawn public attention in #Japan away from the casino-centred integrated resort controversy, but plans are proceeding for turning the Expo site into an IR by 2030.

"...IR is scheduled to open on Yumeshima island in Osaka Bay around autumn 2030, following the 2025 Osaka Kansai Expo"
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15017160
#NoMoreExpos #WhiteElephant

"PM Fumio Kishida had long distanced himself from the extravaganza [which was viewed] as an unwanted gift left by his 2 predecessors, Shinzo Abe and Yoshihide Suga"
"...[but] aides to Kishida began raising concerns that [international trust in #Japan] could be hurt if the expo did not start as scheduled"
"...in late August, Kishida made clear central govt was fully committed to the project"😂
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15071043
🔸Odds on lettuce outlasting Kishida seem to be shortening😎
#NoMoreExpos

"Japanese govt has revealed that it will bear at least 83.7B yen (about $565M) for the construction of the #Japan pavilion and other expenses for the 2025 [#Osaka Expo]"
"This amount is in addition to up to 235B yen (approx. $1.59B) to build the site, which is 1.9 times the original plan"
#NoMoreExpos #WhiteElephant
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20231128/p2a/00m/0na/004000c