Osaka, Japan to host World Expo 2025

The western Japanese city of Osaka was selected to host the 2025 World Expo, local media reported on Friday.

Japanese news agency Kyodo reported that Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) selected Osaka as the host city, beating out Ekaterinburg, Russia and the Azerbaijani capital Baku.

“Under the theme ‘Designing Future Society for Our Lives,’ Osaka aims to spur a global effort to achieve sustainable societies”, the agency reported. 

The expo is expected to be held from May 3 to Nov. 3, 2025. 

Focusing on technology’s contribution to the health and medical sectors, the expo is expected to attract around 28 million visitors. 

“Osaka hopes to bring people and ideas together in the pursuit of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals -- 17 objectives to be achieved by 2030, including no poverty, zero hunger, gender equality, sustainable cities and communities, and climate action,” the report said.

Officially known as International Registered Exhibitions, World Expos are held every five years, according to BIE’s website.

“They can last up to six months, and international participants can build their own pavilions on the Expo site. The themes of World Expos are designed to raise awareness of and find responses to universal challenges of our time,” the BIE said. 

The latest World Expo was held in Milan, Italy in 2015, under the theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”. 

The next expo will be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates from Oct. 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021 under the theme “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future.”