Nipponica

The Osaka Healthcare Pavilion at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo is getting a lot of criticism over its English name — “Nest for Reborn” — which some native speakers say is grammatically incorrect.

However, many native English speakers have said the name is a little strange. In English, the preposition “for” should be followed by a noun, but “reborn” is an adjective, making it difficult for readers to understand the meaning of the pavilion’s name.

When officials of participating countries met in Nara City in June, “Nest for Reborn” was discussed in private conversations as “confusing English wording.” An official from Europe said the name is grammatically incorrect and not suitable for the event.

The pavilion's exterior adopts a minimalist design inspired by the Japanese traditional aesthetic of "wabi-sabi," featuring two triangular buildings with wooden facades juxtaposed by an illuminated, suspended cube.

Under the cube, visitors will find an open-air courtyard with a performance stage, allowing them to explore music, dance and other entertainment, as well as cuisine. Images to be shown at the pavilion are expected to include U.S. landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Grand Canyon.

Quite lack the design and the understatedness that is absent from many American monuments. Should be a good fit for an expo. Looking forward to seeing more pavilion designs to see if there is going to be a cohesive theme or architectural chaos.

The maximum number of hourly slots at Kansai International Airport will expand from 45 to 60, and the maximum number of daily slots at Kobe Airport will increase from 80 to 120 under the agreement.

Kobe Airport awakens and seeks a purpose for its existence.

Forty-seven nations are currently planning to construct Type A self-built pavilions at the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

Initially, 60 nations planned to build Type A pavilions for the event, but many of them have faced difficulties in securing deals with contractors mainly due to soaring prices of construction materials.

Deadline: April 2025.

According to a Mitsubishi Research Institute survey, 27% of respondents expressed an interest in visiting the Expo as of April this year, almost unchanged from the previous survey conducted in October 2023 and four points lower than in October 2022. The number of pre-ordered tickets sold was approximately 2.8 million as of June 19, or only 20% of the target.

This is unfortunate but not unexpected. As a bit of a World Expo nerd, I am really excited to visit simply because my mid-20th century utopian ideals still haven't been totally purged from my psyche. Events like the 1964 World Expo and places that ape the Expo ethos like 1980s EPCOT Center had an optimistic, global view of the future which is sadly rare nowadays. Expos have always been driven by a commercial drive for pavilion sponsors and business in the host city, but it could be much more than that. Hoping that Osaka can provide a unique experience that will drive people to visit.

SkyDrive sought to develop a flying taxi that can carry up to three people to showcase its technology at the expo as one of the event's main attractions, but it decided last month to withdraw the plan and only perform demo flights without passengers.

The plane is Japan Airlines' second Myaku-Myaku jet designated to fly abroad from Japan. On the aircraft, drinks are served in paper cups with the Myaku-Myaku design on them. The plane will fly until August next year to promote the expo to the world.

It is worth it to look up photos of this nightmare fuel. I can't believe that this character design made it past any kind of committee.

Argentina has decided to withdraw its participation in the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, the third country to do so among those who were set to build their own pavilions, Japan's minister in charge of the global event said Friday.

This is following Estonia and Mexico’s withdrawal to build pavilions previously. As a fan of World Expos, it is disappointing to see countries pull out, but things like this are huge investments with no guarantee of return. Still though, the soft power gains could have been worth it. Osaka EPCOT will still live on.