Can we really do it…? No time to wait for a year and a half to host the Expo! Osaka Expo “110 billion more money, but still lots of vacant land” – Astonishing aerial photo

Looking down at the Expo site under the autumn sky with the sound of helicopter wings in the background, only a large ring of trees could be seen floating in the sky 400 meters above the Konohana Ward of Osaka City.

The Expo site is located on Yumeshima, or “Expo Island,” in Osaka Bay, just a stone’s throw from Universal Studios Japan. It will be the site of the Osaka-Kansai Expo to be held from April 2013, but the vast amount of vacant land spread out below makes one uneasy about its future.

Three Problems with the Artificial Island

Yumeshima was originally just a vacant lot with a container terminal. Shohei Okashita, a former member of the House of Representatives, has pointed out the many problems with hosting the Expo on Yumeshima.

Yumeshima was a final waste disposal site built in the 1970s,” said Shohei Okashita, a former member of the House of Representatives. At the time, there was little awareness of environmental issues, and incinerator ash containing toxic chemicals such as dioxin, a carcinogen, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which can cause deformed fingernails, was landfilled.

In the 1980s, there was the “Technoport Osaka” project to develop a new city center, and in the 1990s, there was the “Osaka Olympics Plan” to use Yumeshima as an athletes’ village, but on each occasion, soil contamination and the fragility of the ground were considered problematic. However, there is no incumbent member of the Diet who has been vocal about these issues, and our voices have not reached the Diet on this matter. I wonder how far our appeals have reached ……”

Yumeshima, which was also a waste disposal site, has poor transportation access. Only one bridge and one tunnel pass through the island. In the event of a disaster, there are fears of increased damage.