Osaka Expo Faces Dual Task of Drawing Visitors, Managing Crowds
Osaka, April 20 (Jiji Press)--The 2025 World Exposition in the western Japan city of Osaka faces the dual challenge of dealing with large crowds and attracting visitors one week after its April 13 opening.
The Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition is rushing to adopt measures ahead of the Golden Week holiday period from late this month, which the organizer believes to provide a litmus test for event operations.
The Osaka Expo drew some 119,000 visitors on the opening day, when wireless network outages occurred, forcing the association to improve communications facilities. Yumeshima Station, the nearest train station to the venue, was crowded with people heading to the Expo and leaving it amid strong winds and rain.
Long lines formed in front of entrance gates, while the communications failure made many people unable to display their electronic admission tickets on their smartphones. Two-hour queues formed at pavilions that did not require advance reservations.
"We will make constant improvements every day and try to ensure comfortable experiences," Hiroyuki Ishige, secretary-general of the association, told a press conference on the second day of the Expo.
The organizer first worked on improving connectivity, setting up Wi-Fi networks at gates and having large mobile phone carriers deploy mobile base station vehicles. The association also called on visitors to print out or take screenshots of the quick response, or QR, codes on their e-tickets in advance.
It also asked pavilions that did not require reservations to introduce reservation systems or hand out numbered entry tickets. The Irish pavilion switched to a ticketing system from the second day of the Expo after a long line formed on the opening day, while the U.S. pavilion adopted a reservation system Saturday.
To prevent heat stroke, the association set up cooling mist dispensers, equipment to send cool air and water stations, in addition to increasing shade with parasols and tents.
Meanwhile, the number of visitors on weekdays since Monday, the second day of the Expo, was around half of the opening day tally, hovering between 40,000 and over 70,000.
The cumulative number of visitors as of Friday reached around 410,000, or about 510,000 including staff members.
The organizer has said that it expects 28.2 million people to visit the Expo, or 150,000 visitors per day, well above the current figures.
The number of visitors on weekdays is "far from enough," Yoshitaka Ito, minister in charge of the 2025 Osaka Expo, told a press conference Friday. "We want to engage in planning and event promotion more and more."
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