In 1970, Osaka presented a dream of the future. In 2025, it’s trying to live one.
Expo 70 gave Japan its coming-out party on the global stage, a kind of kinetic national debut that swept away the ashes of war and declared its high-tech rebirth. With its translucent canopies, moon rocks, giant robots, laser shows and Viking buffets, it was a cultural supernova. Over 64 million visitors filed through the pavilions, many experiencing international art, architecture, cuisine and technology for the first time.
At the time, the tagline was “Progress and Harmony for Mankind.” The ambition was galactic: marry tradition and future, culture and technology, East and West. In Komatsu Sakyo’s words, Expo 70 was meant to be “a glimpse of a future city”, and it was. Though the buildings were temporary, the imprint on Osaka and on Japan’s national imagination was lasting.
In 2025, Osaka returns to the world stage under very different conditions.
Then and Now: Contexts and Contrasts
Expo 70 came during Japan’s miracle growth years. GDP was soaring. Bullet trains were new. The world marvelled at colour TVs and Sony gadgets. Optimism was rife. The country had a clear role: prove it belonged in the club of developed nations. It did so in spectacular fashion.
Expo 2025, however, comes in a more fragmented, anxious age. The country faces demographic decline, economic stagnation and creeping irrelevance in the tech arena. The world isn’t queueing to taste new foods; it’s tapping out on smartphones. Progress has become more digital, less visible. Harmony feels harder to come by.
The physical difference also speaks volumes. Expo 70 covered 330 hectares in Senri Hills. For 2025, the site is a man-made island in Osaka Bay, Yumeshima – literally “Dream Island.” If 1970 carved up pine forests and bamboo to build the future, 2025 floats it on reclaimed land, between cruise terminals and industrial sites. The metaphor writes itself, yet the dreams persist.
Predicting the Future: What Came True
In 1970, the “future city” was filled with bold predictions. Computers, robots, mass transport, mega-structures and space travel dominated the vision. Visitors were shuttled around in tubes, lifted in gondolas and serenaded by fountains-cum-cinema-screens. Data was beginning to hum beneath the surface – some 100 computers kept the whole thing ticking, a marvel at the time.
What came true? Quite a bit, actually. Mass transit is ubiquitous in modern Japan, computers have not only proliferated but colonised every part of life and the multimedia overload of pavilions seems charmingly prescient now, a low-res preview of the modern Internet. Japan did rise, technologically and culturally, into global consciousness. JAL’s dream of booming international travel was more than fulfilled – for a time, at least.
Not everything materialised, however. The dream of eternal growth, of harmony through industrial advance, proved fragile. Environmental crises, economic bubbles and social pressures undermined the certainty of that trajectory. Even the idea of the Expo as an unquestioned good – civic pride in concrete form – is up for debate now.
From Physical Spectacle to Digital Experience
Expo 70 had queues for American moon rocks. Expo 2025 has queues for immersive VR booths and Chinese moon sand. The shift from tangible to digital is stark. While 1970’s ambition was to show machines, devices and architectural marvels, 2025 leans into themes like “Designing Future Society for Our Lives” with sub-themes such as “Saving Lives,” “Empowering Lives,” and “Connecting Lives.” Worthy aims, but vaguer. Less jet coaster, more health data.
The 2025 Expo promises AI-powered interactions, biometric-guided experiences and even avatars to guide you through the event. One pavilion uses a “Zero-Energy Radiative Cooling Material” to cool objects and spaces without the use of electricity or other energy sources. Another is the “Future Food Pavilion,” featuring churros made from waste rice flour, plant-based ice cream made and black soybean tea. A long way from lamb curry and Czech pheasant.
This evolution mirrors broader societal shifts. Expo 70 showed off hardware. Expo 2025 showcases systems, networks and values. In the best-case scenario, it helps us reimagine not just what to build, but why – and for whom?
Impact on Osaka, Then and Now
The impact of Expo 70 on Osaka was explosive. New expressways, train lines and neighbourhoods sprang up. The entire Senri region urbanised rapidly. The city’s image changed: from smoky merchant hub to a beacon of modernity. As Komatsu noted, “Beforehand, nobody knew Osaka at all. Now they do.”
It also left cultural residue. The influx of foreign ideas, foods, fashions and languages planted seeds. People tried spices. They got passports. They looked outward. Expo 70 helped open up Kansai minds.
For Expo 2025, the stakes are similar – but harder to win. Osaka still lags behind Tokyo in international branding. Yumeshima, though linked by road and metro extensions, remains disconnected in feel. The city is hoping for long-term uplift: a casino resort, a green innovation zone and more inbound tourism. Whether Expo 2025 can trigger another cultural leap remains to be seen.
But if Osaka can pull it off – if it can host a globally compelling event that sparks imagination – it might just reclaim that 1970s magic.
Japan’s National Narrative: Shift from Showcase to Soft Power
In 1970, Japan showed the world it had arrived.
In 2025, it’s trying to show it still matters.
The country’s role has shifted. No longer the scrappy innovator, it now plays the elder statesman, the wise steward of global concerns like aging, resilience, sustainability and inclusive design. That’s partly why 2025’s themes lean heavily on human-centric innovation rather than gadgets.
Japan hopes to export ideas of care, harmony and of co-existence, rather than hardware. This is both soft power and self-preservation. As domestic demand falls, cultural influence becomes more valuable. A well-run Expo could burnish Japan’s reputation as a laboratory for the future of social infrastructure.
The risk is that Expo 2025 becomes just another government PR event – well-intentioned but forgettable. Without visceral spectacle, it may not stick in the public memory like the moon rock queues and monorail rides of 1970.
The Ghosts of Expo Past
Interestingly, Expo 70’s ruins remain, albeit faintly. The Tower of the Sun still stands, reopened in 2018 with a new museum inside. A symbol of hope, defiance and audacity. Most other structures are long gone, but the story endures in collective memory.
For those old enough, 1970 was formative. For those too young, it’s been mythologised. There’s something about a world fair that etches itself into a generation’s psyche, even if it disappears physically. Whether 2025 can create such ghosts for future generations remains to be seen.
What Are We Looking At?
Expo 70 gave us physical proof of a national dream. Expo 2025 offers a platform to imagine collective survival.
Both are utopian, face criticism and reflect their eras. Expo 70 rode a rocket of economic optimism; Expo 2025 must float in uncertainty and interdependence. If 1970 asked “What could we make?”, 2025 asks, “How can we live?”
That is a harder question – and arguably more important.
Whether it ends with a snowstorm and samba dancing, or with metrics and downloads, the spirit of the Expo remains the same: a moment when a city and a country asks the world to take a look – and dream together.
What came true? Expo 70 Predictions vs Realisation and 2025 Status
| Theme | Expo 70 Prediction | What Came True | Expo 2025 Status |
| Mass Transport Innovation | Moving walks, monorails, futuristic site transit | Metro and monorail systems now common | AI-guided navigation, digital ticketing |
| Computing & Automation | 100 computers on-site, awe at automation | Ubiquitous computing and automation today | Personal data-driven AI services |
| Space Exploration | Moon rock exhibit, space travel focus | Moon landings ceased; private space tourism emerging | JAXA/NASA involved, but not a centrepiece |
| Global Communication | Satellite TV, global feeds | Internet, streaming, global live content | Hyper-connected, real-time digital experiences |
| Cultural Exchange | Foreign food, fashion, pavilions, language | Japan now a soft-power leader in global culture | Multilingual access, food diversity, inclusive exhibits |
| Environmental Sustainability | Not addressed; lots of concrete | Became essential issue decades later | Green tech a core theme: “Saving Lives” |
| Architectural Innovation | Mega-structures, translucent canopy | Influence visible in later Expo designs | Modular, sustainable buildings on reclaimed Yumeshima |
| Biotechnology | Not featured or imagined | Now crucial in health and agriculture | Central to Expo’s “Future Society” vision |
| Robotics | Giant robots as spectacle | Functional robots in homes, factories, events | Assistant robots on-site guiding and aiding visitors |
| Flying Cars | Hinted at or joked about | Prototypes exist, not yet viable | Speculative showcase, uncertain future |