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Expo 2025 kicked off Sunday in the Japanese city of Osaka but in the age of online information and mass tourism, what is the purpose of a World’s Fair?<\/p>\n
The huge events, which draw millions of visitors to a chosen city every five years or so, hark back to London’s 1851 Great Exhibition held inside the Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As 160 countries and regions show off their technological and cultural achievements at the six-month Osaka Expo, AFP looks at what it’s all about:<\/p>\n
Expanding on national expositions in Paris at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, Imperial Britain built an immense glass Crystal Palace to host 14,000 exhibitors from 40 countries.<\/p>\n
That marked the start of the Expo phenomenon that over the decades introduced the world to ketchup, the telephone and X-ray machines among myriad other technologies.<\/p>\n
The Paris edition of 1889 featured the Eiffel Tower — intended as a temporary attraction — and Pablo Picasso’s anti-war painting “Guernica” was first shown at one in 1937.<\/p>\n
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Historically, World’s Fairs did not just exhibit new technologies but also included racist displays of actual people from the colonies of the time.<\/p>\n
While World Expos still showcase future technologies, some argue that the advent of the internet, mass media and cheaper foreign travel have made them redundant.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Global turmoil in the form of conflicts and trade wars has also led critics to question the idealistic values of unity and development touted at the events.<\/p>\n
But organisers of Expo 2025 in Osaka have stressed that in-person exchanges between nations and the resulting “unexpected encounters” are still important.<\/p>\n
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Middle school teacher Yusuke Nagasawa said attending was a “valuable learning experience, to be able to actually experience the realism and warmth of the people, which cannot be conveyed through a screen”.<\/p>\n
“I’ve seen the excitement, and people from various countries have approached me for chats,” added Nagasawa, who plans to bring about 140 pupils to the Expo next month.<\/p>\n
Among the dizzying number of displays this year are a meteorite from Mars, a beating “heart” grown from stem cells, and the world’s largest wooden architectural structure.<\/p>\n
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Since 1928, the Paris-based International Exhibitions Bureau has run the Expos. More than 180 countries are members and the host city is chosen by a vote of its general assembly.<\/p>\n
This is Osaka’s second World Expo after the 1970 edition — featuring a Moon rock — that was attended by 64 million people, a record until Shanghai in 2010.<\/p>\n
The United States once held frequent World’s Fairs, as they are known there, leaving behind landmarks such as the Space Needle in Seattle and New York City’s Unisphere.<\/p>\n
But the world’s largest economy last hosted one in 1984, with some experts saying their popularity has been overtaken by the Olympic Games and attractions such as Disneyland.<\/p>\n
Buildings often take centre stage at World Expos and this year is no exception, with each country dressed to impress.<\/p>\n
The Chinese pavilion’s design evokes a calligraphy scroll, while the Portuguese one created by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma features ropes that “evoke the movement of the ocean”.<\/p>\n
“Expos have always acted, and continue to act, as places of architectural experimentation,” said Isaac Lopez Cesar from Spain’s University of A Coruna.<\/p>\n
They offer a forum “where new architectural forms, new materials, new designs and structural typologies, and, in general, new technological advances applied to architecture are tested”, he told AFP.<\/p>\n
Themes of sustainability run through the Expo, including at the bauble-like Swiss pavilion, which aims to have the smallest ecological footprint.<\/p>\n
But World Expos have been criticised for their temporary nature, and after October Osaka’s man-made island will be cleared to make way for a casino resort.<\/p>\n
According to Japanese media, only 12.5 percent of the wooden “Grand Ring” — a vast structure that encircles most of the national pavilions — will be reused.<\/p>\n
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n
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