Exploring Expo 2025

On April 13, 2025, Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai begins. The latest World Expo, and the first to be held in Japan since the Aichi event in 2005, welcomes 158 countries and regions, along with 7 international organizations, as participants. Their pavilions, displays, and hosted events are arranged in line with the overarching Expo theme, “Designing Future Society for Our Lives,” while focusing on the history, culture, industry, and much more of each participating party.

The seaside venue in Japan’s western city of Osaka, which hosts this year’s Expo, is built around the Grand Ring as its core facility. A number of zones inside and around this central ring are home to pavilions operated by national and multinational participants, alongside signature pavilions crafted to entertain and extend understanding of various issues affecting all of humanity. The mysterious mascot Myaku-Myaku has also become a popular face for the event.

Nippon.com will be adding articles to this section to introduce all the topics below, so check back for updates.

See the map page on the official Expo website for help in finding the locations below.

Main Facilities

The outer wall of the Grand Ring, the defining architectural piece of Expo 2025. (© Nippon.com)

These are the defining features of the Expo 2025 site as a whole: the Grand Ring, a massive wooden structure achieved with both modern and traditional Japanese construction techniques; the “Shining Hat” Expo Hall, with its shining golden roof atop striking rough walls; and the “Ray Garden,” the National Day Hall where events will take place celebrating the participating countries and regions in turn.

• Grand Ring
• Expo Hall
• Expo National Day Hall

Signature Pavilions

The Null² pavilion, one of the eight key thematic installations at the Expo. (© Nippon.com)

These pavilions have been designed by eight leading Japanese creators chosen from a range of fields. The thematic projects embodied in their works illuminate various aspects of our lives on Planet Earth.

• Better Co-Being: Resonance of Lives
• Future of Life: Amplification of Lives
• Playground of Life: Jellyfish Pavilion (Invigorating Lives)
• Null²: Forging Lives
• Dynamic Equilibrium of Life: Quest of Life
• Live Earth Journey: Totality of Life
• Earth Mart: Cycle of Lives
• Dialogue Theater: Sign of Life (Embracing Lives)

Official Participants’ Pavilions

The area inside the Grand Ring is home to the national and regional pavilions of the Expo’s participants. (© Nippon.com)

Participants at Expo 2025 include national and regional representatives, as well as Japanese national and local governments and a range of other groups. Below we introduce some of the main stand-alone pavilions offering entertainment and educational experiences to visitors.

National, Regional, and International Pavilions

• Australia Pavilion
• Austria Pavilion
• Azerbaijan Pavilion
• Bahrain Pavilion
• Baltic Pavilion (Latvia, Lithuania)
• Belgian Pavilion
• Bulgaria Pavilion
• Canada Pavilion
• Chile Pavilion
• China Pavilion
• Colombia Pavilion
• Czechia Pavilion
• France Pavilion
• Germany Pavilion
• Hungary Pavilion
• India Pavilion
• Indonesia Pavilion
• Ireland Pavilion
• Italy Pavilion, also hosting the Holy See
• Jordan Pavilion
• Korea Pavilion
• Kuwait Pavilion
• Luxembourg Pavilion
• Malaysia Pavilion
• Malta Pavilion
• Monaco Pavilion
• Nepal Pavilion
• Netherlands Pavilion
• Nordic Pavilion (Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland)
• Oman Pavilion
• Philippines Pavilion
• Poland Pavilion
• Portugal Pavilion
• Qatar Pavilion
• Romania Pavilion
• Saudi Arabia Pavilion
• Serbian Pavilion
• Singapore Pavilion
• Spain Pavilion
• Switzerland Pavilion
• Thailand Pavilion
• Turkey Pavilion
• Turkmenistan Pavilion
• Uzbekistan Pavilion
• UAE Pavilion
• UK Pavilion
• USA Pavilion
• European Union Pavilion
• International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement Pavilion
• United Nations Pavilion

Domestic Pavilions

The Japan Pavilion at Expo 2025. (© Nippon.com)

• Japan Pavilion
• Women’s Pavilion
• Osaka Healthcare Pavilion
• Kansai Pavilion

Private-Sector Pavilions

• Blue Ocean Dome
• Electric Power Pavilion, “Eggs of Possibilities”
• Gas Pavilion Obake Wonderland
• Gundam Next Future Pavilion
• Iida Group x Osaka Metropolitan University Joint Pavilion
• Mitsubishi Pavilion
• NTT Pavilion
• ORA Gaishoku Pavilion, “Utage”
• Panasonic Group Pavilion, “The Land of Nomo”
• Pasona Natureverse
• Sumitomo Pavilion
• Tech World
• Yoshimoto Pavilion, “Waraii Myraii”

A drone show in the sky over the Grand Ring. (© Nippon.com)

(Originally published in Japanese. Reporting and text by Uchiyama Ken’ichi and Nippon.com. Photographic assistance by Kuroiwa Masakazu of 96-Box. Banner photo: Myaku-Myaku, the official character for Osaka Expo 2025. © Nippon.com.)